Where We Write: Iowa
Iowa isn’t just the Writers’ Workshop. A native Iowan talks about how she learned to capture the true nature of her home state, and the stoic people who live there, in her writing.
From the Magazine
Why We Write: Going Back to Where It Was
After finding him paging through her diary, a mother confronts the ethical and emotional struggles of writing about her son’s traumatic brain injury.
Why We Write: My Father’s Voice
A daily phone call from India spurs an emerging writer to complete her first novel.
World Poetry Day, Banned Books in Saudi Arabia, and More
Books & Brews brings booze to a new venue in Indiana; Adam Zagajewski on balancing joy with sadness; Vladimir Putin’s fictional presence; and other news.
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What It Takes: The Messy, Beautiful Business of Being a Writer Parent.
In a deeply personal chronicle that spans nearly twenty years, one writer grapples with the struggles, strangleholds, and immeasurable inspirations of being a writer parent.
Survey Suggests Writers Fear NSA Surveillance, Seamus Heaney Tribute, and More
Amazon has launched a Kindle Store in Australia; Anthony Burgess’s estate has contracted with David Higham Associates to represent the late author’s work; a recent PEN America survey suggests writers are wary of government surveillance; and other news.
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Zadie Smith’s European Travels With Her Father, Baby Born in Barnes & Noble, and More
A new book reports that Amazon’s stance toward small publishers “was called the Gazelle Project after Mr. Bezos said Amazon ‘should approach these small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle’”; Hector Tobar looks at how Amazon and other online booksellers are reacting to compaints over pornographic content; Open Culture found an image of Mark Twain with Nikola Tesla; and other news.
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Where We Write: Hannibal, Missouri
In the second installment of Where We Write, a fiction writer takes a trip back home to Hannibal, Missouri, the boyhood home of Mark Twain and the town that still inspires her work, long after she's moved away.
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Radical Politics in Contemporary Fiction, Favorite Literary Punching Bags, and More
Random House will release eight Norman Mailer e-books for the first time; GalleyCat details a nonfiction query that was rejected seventy-five times before it landed an agent; Pankaj Mishra and Jennifer Szalai discuss radical politics in contemporary fiction; and other news.
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Roxane Gay on a Better Literary Conversation, Cheryl Strayed’s Long-Lost Half-Sister, and More
Roxane Gay highlights the slight amount of book review coverage for writers of color; Cheryl Strayed revealed how her bestselling memoir Wild introduced her to a half-sister; Harper Lee settled with her former agent over the rights to To Kill a Mockingbird; and other news.
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