Elizabeth Strout Interview Following the publication of Olive Kittredge, I sat down with Elizabeth Strout at the JCC in San Francisco to interview her. I found Strout to be kind and very funny, generous with her stories, and a bit shy. She spoke of growing up in the end of a dirt road, and of…Continue reading My Interview with Elizabeth Strout, & her new book My Name Is Lucy Barton
Author: Michelle Richmond
Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels and two award-winning story collections, including The Marriage Pact, Golden State, and The Year of Fog. She is the founder and publisher of Fiction Attic Press and the creator of Novel in Nine.
Coffee instead of tea, please!
Fika: The Art of The Swedish Coffee Break, with Recipes for Pastries, Breads, and Other Treats, by Anna Brones, Johanna Kindvall (Ten Speed Press) A sweet, inspiring guide not just to baking, but to the concept of the Swedish Coffee Break. This is tea-time for coffee lovers, a compendium of recipes combined with meditations on the…Continue reading Coffee instead of tea, please!
Famous Writers Who Failed First (Why Curiosity Matters More Than Grades)
If you were the kind of kid who made less than stellar grades in some subjects because you became obsessed with exploring something off the syllabus, you may have been destined to be a writer. There is a noble tradition, in fact, of writers and academic failure. The list of celebrated novelists is filled with people…Continue reading Famous Writers Who Failed First (Why Curiosity Matters More Than Grades)
Why You Should Embrace Failure as Part of the Creative Process
If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want” – Richard Yates I’ve been reading The Achievement Habit by Bernard Roth. One of the key principles that spoke to me in this book was the idea of the action bias. The action bias basically means…Continue reading Why You Should Embrace Failure as Part of the Creative Process
Readings for Writers
In this week’s Readings for Writers, we’re looking at All Stories Are the Same, by John Yorke, via The Atlantic. In this essay about how stories are shaped and what drives narrative, Yorke argues that the architecture of story, from Beowulf to Jaws, is astonishingly similar. He says that even those writers and directors who claim to…Continue reading Readings for Writers