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"Writing can be so lonely," says Emma Straub, who is profiled in the current issue of the magazine, "that it's nice to have another warm body nearby, snuggling up next to you." Listen to the author of Laura Lamont's Life In Pictures reflect on the bond between artists and animals in this video from the Morgan Library & Museum and read Eryn Loeb's new profile, "Emma Straub's Life in Letters (So Far)."
Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan (Knopf, 1993) offers what might be the perfect voice-over for Peter Heller's The Dog Stars, the story of a pilot living in a world filled with loss, published this month by Knopf.
Write a short story in which a museum is the setting for the central conflict. Consider the following questions: What kind of museum is it? Why are the characters there? Do any of the museum's objects trigger a turn in the story? Visit a local museum or peruse one's holdings online to find inspiration.
In this video for Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, Erin Smith animates and scores a sentence from "Recovery" by Helen DeWitt, set to music by Spookfish. Here's the sentence: "Um, okay, no, not purring like, obviously, producing a sound that is more reminiscent of steam engine FX than your typical purr."
In the first episode of UCB Comedy's web series about two best friends trying to coauthor a novel, Noah and Dru agree upon some ground rules to make their weekly casual writer meetings more effective.
The author of the new story collection Sorry Please Thank You (Pantheon), who is profiled in the current issue of the magazine by contributing editor Kevin Nance, talks about "not writing" as a means to being more productive, counterfeit writing, and writing that "slips out like a burp."
Write a story in which one of the following objects triggers a flashback: a child’s keyboard, a bag of Werther’s Original Caramels, a taxidermied animal, a bar of lavender soap, or an old travel brochure.
For anyone who's received a rejection letter recently, Open Road Media presents this short video, featuring Nile Southern and Kaylie Jones, reminding us how even the best novelists experience the indignity of the literary rebuff, either at the hands of an editor or a fellow writer.
Write a story in which you present no detailed descriptions of the characters, major or minor. The information the reader gleans about the characters in the story—their motivations, their gender, their personalities, even their looks—must be conveyed entirely through what they say. Observe how this reliance on dialogue changes the way you go about structuring the story.
See what all the buzz is about with this extended trailer of Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski's adaptation of David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas (Sceptre, 2004). Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and Hugh Grant, the movie will open in theaters on October 26.
