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In this video from Adam Savage’s Tested, the host visits the American Bookbinders Museum in San Francisco and speaks with executive director Anita Engles about the history of book cover designs and proves that maybe you can judge a book by its cover.
“The things I discovered about writing were so important to me; it was the notion that you could write and find out what you really believed in.” Amy Tan speaks about her creative process in this video from PBS and American Masters previewing her documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir directed by James Redford.
Calling all emerging poets: Don’t forget to send your poetry manuscripts to Milkweed Editions’ Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, which offers an award of $10,000 and publication for a debut poetry collection.
Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of at least 48 pages with a $25 entry fee by May 31. Nobel Prize–winning poet Louise Glück will judge. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
The Max Ritvo Poetry Prize celebrates the life of the acclaimed author of the poetry collections Four Reincarnations (2016) and The Final Voicemails (2018), both published by Milkweed Editions, an independent publisher based in Minneapolis. Ritvo, who died in 2016, “came into the Milkweed family like a ball of fire,” Daniel Slager, the press’s publisher, said when the prize was established in 2017. “I can think of no better way to honor Max and his legacy than a first-book poetry prize, which will honor outstanding accomplishment in the art form he excelled in, enriching American letters for years to come.”
“Tell the law nothin of substance / tell the people everything you can.” In this Button Poetry video, Darius Simpson reads his poem “The Role of the Artist,” which appears in his collection Never Catch Me (Button Poetry, 2022).
In a recent installment of our Ten Questions series, Jennifer Lunden, author of American Breakdown: Our Ailing Nation, My Body’s Revolt, and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Who Brought Me Back to Life (Harper Wave, 2023), mentions a quote by Jean Cocteau she considers the best writing advice: “Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don’t like—then cultivate it. That’s the only part of your work that’s individual and worth keeping.” Write a list of criticisms you have encountered as a writer—including ones you have of yourself. Then, write an essay that looks to the value in those parts of your voice.
“All the books I’ve written in the past were books that I decided to write suddenly while I was writing something else.” In this London Review Bookshop conversation, French writer Édouard Louis speaks about his writing process and discovering the parts of his mother’s life he did not know for his new memoir, A Woman’s Battles and Transformations (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022), with translator and novelist Tash Aw.
In a scene from Mary Gaitskill’s novel Veronica, the protagonist reflects on an innocent moment from her childhood: “When I was a young child, my mother told me that love is what makes the flowers grow. I pictured love inside the flowers, opening their petals and guiding their roots down to suck the earth.” This week write a story based on a myth told to you as a child, whether it be storks delivering babies, the tooth fairy trading money for teeth, or that chewing gum would stay in your stomach for seven years if you swallowed it. Were there good intentions behind these stories or did they cause more harm than good?
“Part of my purpose as a writer is to help make compassion the standard.” In this Penguin Random House video, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah talks about his research process, speculative fiction, and writing his debut novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars (Pantheon, 2023).
“This where all the roadside memorials are, / pink wreaths and dirty teddy bears. // This where a man walked when he wanted to fly,” writes Tyree Daye in his poem “Ode to Small Towns,” which appears in his collection Cardinal (Copper Canyon Press, 2020). Daye uses the repetition of “this where” to fold in various threads of distinct stories, making it feel as if the poem was written while driving through a series of towns and telling the tales as they surfaced. Inspired by Daye’s poem, write an ode to the small towns you’ve encountered while on the road. What kinds of stories do you picture when you pass through?
“I don’t really think you can teach people to write, you can just teach them to read. Read everything you can about your setting or your characters or whatever it is you don’t know.” In this Granta video, Sarah Moss, author of the novels Ghost Wall (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019) and Summerwater (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021), offers advice on first drafts, research, and the importance of reading to a writer.
