writers and family
Patience and Memoir: The Time it Takes to Tell Your Story
It took Joyce Maynard twenty-five years of reflection, distance, and understanding before she was able to write her first memoir. But when tragedy struck later in life, her second memoir came much more quickly.
The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story
After the death of her mother, a writer considers the ways we increasingly write our own obituaries in this excerpt from The Art of Death, forthcoming from Graywolf Press.
Where We Write: Fountain City, Wisconsin
After decades away, a decorated poet returns to his hometown in rural Wisconsin to read from a recent collection inspired by the very people he now finds himself addressing.
Why We Write: A Life Imagined
In a testament to the power of poetry in giving shape to complex emotions, a poet reflects on how writing his poetry collection, Dear Almost, helped him find shelter amidst the grief of a miscarriage.
An Open Door: A Profile of Richard Russo

For the past thirty years, from the publication of his first novel, Mohawk, to his latest, Everybody’s Fool, a sequel to his beloved 1993 novel, Nobody’s Fool, Richard Russo, the Pulitzer Prize–winning “patron saint of small-town fiction,” has remained the same generous, optimistic, hardworking writer he’s always been, welcoming readers into his books and his heart.
A Residency of One’s Own: Navigating the Complicated Path to a Writers Retreat

With some help from Virginia Woolf, an author and Bread Loaf Camargo fellow discusses the complicated decision to leave her family for a month in order to attend a retreat in Cassis, France, and the necessity of finding one’s own space to create.
The Aha! Moment: Poet Kay Ryan
Poet Kay Ryan discusses her poem “Tree Heart/True Heart,” which she wrote following the death of her partner, Carol Adair, in early 2009—and how a scientific discovery led her to withdraw the poem from her latest collection, Erratic Facts (Grove Press, 2015).
Selected Poems: Looking Back on a Lifetime of Writing
A former United States poet laureate reflects on his career, and how his experiences of love, partnership, and aging helped shape the curatorial process for his newest collection.
Growing a Literary Garden, the Art of the Sex Scene, and More
What to read in the dog days of summer; libraries on bikes; a children's book that induces hypnosis; and other news.
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