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In this Writers on Writing event at the Newberry Library in Chicago, authors Carmen Maria Machado and Megan Stielstra engage in a conversation about their creative processes, the evolution of their works, and their insights into the art of storytelling.
In this Creative Writing Series event at the University of Notre Dame, Kristen Arnett reads from her novel Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One (Riverhead Books, 2025) and talks about how she played with form by using different typefaces for “funny” and “not funny,” and her process to ensure that each joke lands.
In this 2021 virtual craft talk hosted by the Stokes Center for Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama, author and professor Victoria Redel speaks about narrative structure and the use of collage in fiction and how fragmented, nonlinear storytelling can deepen emotional impact and thematic complexity.
In this interactive Narrative 4 writing workshop, Deborah Taffa, author of Whiskey Tender (Harper, 2024), leads participants through practical exercises on self-discovery, shares exemplary work, and discusses how a memoir can answer the question: “Who am I?” Taffa says: “We’re telling people what we’ve learned in the time that has transpired between when we were that character on the page and who we are now.”
In this virtual event, Sofia Samatar reads from and discusses her book Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life (Soft Skull Press, 2024), and the chaos and strangeness of writing with Zach Powers, novelist and artistic director at the Writer’s Center.
In this Storytellers’ Studio video filmed at St. Louis University, Neil Gaiman speaks about ending his DC Comics series The Sandman and why he feels stories deserve a satisfying close. Gaiman received the prestigious 2023 St. Louis Literary Award for his prolific career and discussed his passion for world-building and storytelling at the award ceremony.
“My whole task in writing a book is to get closer; to hear what I’m hearing more clearly and to see what I’m seeing more clearly.” In this conversation for the Reading the Room podcast, Amina Cain speaks about her book A Horse at Night: On Writing (Dorothy, a Publishing Project, 2022) and her creative process with host Jaylen Lopez.
“You don’t have to have an MFA to be a writer, you’re a writer by writing.” In this 2017 Talks at Google event, Grant Faulkner, author of Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo (Chronicle Books, 2017) and The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story (University of New Mexico Press, 2023), discusses tips to boost creativity and endurance when writing fiction with author Anthony Francis. For more from Faulkner, read his essays on writing from our Craft Capsule series.
In this 2020 Academy for Teachers craft talk, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins discusses his theories on how poems find their way to an ending and discusses the works of David Berman, Wisława Szymborska, Tom Wayman, and others.
“I think I always accepted revision as what you have to do as a writer,” says Erika T. Wurth on the revision process for her stories and novels in this Lighthouse Writers Workshop interview with Rachel Weaver. Wurth’s third novel, White Horse (Flatiron Books, 2022), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
