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"A writer is lucky because he cures himself everyday." In this recorded talk from November 1970, Kurt Vonnegut shared his thoughts on writing as a guest speaker for a class at New York University. This animated video by Patrick Smith is part of PBS Digital Studios' Blank on Blank series.
"A novel is a historic reenactment and a short story is a diorama." Elizabeth McCracken discusses the different challenges of writing a novel and a short story, and reads from her latest collection of short stories, Thunderstuck (Dial Press, 2014), at the 2014 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. McCracken will deliver the keynote on January 9 at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas.
"Can we reclaim a word? Can we take a word and drop it and crack it open, or are we always a prisoner to it?" Poets Terrance Hayes and Saeed Jones talk about craft, the evolution of language, and why America needs poetry for HEArt, a journal of contemporary literature and art that challenges discrimination and promotes social justice. Jones will join the Why We Write panel on January 9 at Poets & Writers Live in Austin, Texas.
"I read everything aloud as I'm writing, because the ear is a great editor. I think listening is the most important thing in the creative arts, but also in life." Yusef Komunyakaa, whose new poetry collection, The Emperor of Water Clocks (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, talks about the importance of poetry as a celebration of language and as a way to give voice to the psyche.
"A written story can inhabit an individual vision far more intensely and deeply than film is able to do." Mary Gaitskill, whose new novel, The Mare (Pantheon Books, 2015), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, talks about the powerful worlds that can be built by great literature.
“A thick drizzle from the sky, like a curtain’s sudden sweeping,” begins Lauren Groff’s third novel, Fates and Furies (Riverhead Books, 2015), which was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award. In this video, Groff talks about the making of her novel at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington D.C.
Gerry Cambridge, founder of Dark Horse, and contributors Claire Askew, Douglas Dunn, Vicki Feaver, Alasdair Gray talk about the importance of the journal at its twentieth anniversary issue launch in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dark Horse is featured in Literary MagNet in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"Historically there's been a great divide between the different types of writing traditions in the Philippines." Miguel Syjuco explains the challenges with getting his writing translated into Tagalog and published in the Philippines. Syjuco speaks about the importance of Asia Literary Review in Literary MagNet in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Brandon Christopher talks about the experiences that inspired his memoir The Job Pirate: An Entertaining Tale of My Job-Hopping in America which was published by Bleeding Heart Publications in February. Bleeding Heart Publications is featured in Small Press Points in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"Filling the blank page is agony." Daniel Kehlmann, author of Measuring the World (Pantheon, 2006), shares his feellings on first drafts and the joyful satisfaction of writing in longhand.
