Ten Questions for Emma Cline
“It’s always surprising when the book clicks into being an actual book—which I find happens at the very last minute.” —Emma Cline, author of The Guest
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Read weekly interviews with authors to learn the inside stories of how their books were written, edited, and published; insights into the creative process; the best writing advice they’ve ever heard; and more.
“It’s always surprising when the book clicks into being an actual book—which I find happens at the very last minute.” —Emma Cline, author of The Guest
“You are going to read a book that will inspire you to write a book.” —Jennifer Lunden, author of American Breakdown: Our Ailing Nation, My Body's Revolt, and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Who Brought Me Back to Life
“Listen deeper. Dream bigger.” —Terra Trevor, author of We Who Walk the Seven Ways
“You write one poem precisely so that you can write the next.” —Emily Lee Luan, author of 回 / Return
“I have to fight for every word, then fight to let them go.” —Vievee Francis, author of The Shared World
“Your voice is your voice. Your voice. No one else’s.” —Dean Rader, author of Before the Borderless: Dialogues With the Art of Cy Twombly
“Everything you are afraid of will be surpassed by desires you cannot yet imagine.” —Elizabeth Metzger, Lying In
“My writer’s brain picks up little pieces here and there and puts them together.” —S. L. Wisenberg, author of The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home
“I had to not only transform into different people and places, but to also find myself within both of those.” —Victor LaValle, author of Lone Women
“Read more! Listen more! See more! Feel more! Take better notes!” —Laird Hunt, author of This Wide Terraqueous World
“I need to be authentic to my culture and invite readers to embrace the Vietnamese culture through my work.” —Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, author of Dust Child
“I write when I want to say something to someone in particular—but can’t.” —Aurora Mattia author of The Fifth Wound
“I literally was Damani throughout writing—somehow I became her.” —Priya Guns, author of Your Driver Is Waiting
“You will never get rid of the self-critical voice in your head.” —Colin Winnette, author of Users
This week’s installment of Ten Questions features José Olivarez and David Ruano González, the author and the translator of Promises of Gold / Promesas de oro.
“I think the hardest part was finding an ending, specifically working against my own desire for neat resolution.” —Maggie Millner, author of Couplets
“Sit with your characters and let them talk to you.” —Bisi Adjapon
“I had to feel my way forward, wondering and wanting.” —Gabrielle Bates
“Stay curious, pay attention, and write things down.” —Chaitali Sen, author of A New Race of Men From Heaven
“I need to live life to make art.” —Jamila Minnicks, author of Moonrise Over New Jessup
“I like taking risks.” —Joy Castro, author of One Brilliant Flame
Ten writers, including Roger Reeves and Dana Levin, share the best writing advice they’ve ever received.
“Don’t worry, you’ll finish it one day.” —Bushra Rehman, author of Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion
“I can control what I write and how much of myself I put into the manuscript.” —Evette Dionne, author of Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul
“Isn’t poetry supposed to be a spiritual practice?” —John Lee Clark, author of How to Communicate