The Practice of Remaining in the Dark: How to Create Complex Characters
A guide to developing authentic characters in fiction.
Department: The Practical Writer
Putting Your Poetry in Order: The Mix-Tape Strategy
Ordering poems becomes a familiar act if you consider the lyric poem in its original form—the song. And if you were the kind of incessant list-maker Nick Hornby describes in his novel High Fidelity, the kind who also made mix tapes from your album collection. If you were the kind of geek my college boyfriend, Tim, was and—admittedly—the kind I was too.
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First: Melissa J. Delbridge’s Family Bible
In her debut essay collection, fifty-five-year-old Alabama native Melissa J. Delbridge explores conflicts of religion, race, and sexuality that she encountered while growing up in Tuscaloosa.
First: Alan Drew's Gardens of Water
First-time author Alan Drew talks about how teaching in Istanbul led to studying at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he met his agent and began writing his first novel.
Workshop: A Rant Against Creative Writing Classes
“Can you really teach creative writing?” Professor and novelist Dan Barden answers this while offering his own unorthodox approaches to teaching a workshop.
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First: Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age
A profile of Tahmima Anam on the occasion of the publication of her debut novel.
Paperback Writer: Do I Want to Be One?
Fiction writer Steve Almond discusses the advantages and disadvantages of publishing books in paperback format.
And the Winner Is: Tips From a Pushcart Prize Editor
The former essays editor for the Pushcart Prize discusses the process of selecting winning work.
Blurb My Book, Please!: One Author's Humble Request
A first-time novelist seeks a blurb.
Extreme Research: Out of the Library and Into the World
Research takes the form of storm-chasing.
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