Whatever subjects we choose, as women writers we are cataloging historical and cultural events in ways that go far deeper than the two-dimensional stories told by photographs. We get into the heads of our audience in ways that movies still can't.

As a psychoanalyst, I'm always struck by the fact that truth is much more fascinating than fiction. The real story of Dorothy and George Putnam and Amelia Earhart is a poignant, heartbreaking, and absorbing tale about real people living amazing lives.

Plot? Before reading a biography, we often don't know all the specifics of how the subject's life proceeded (except, perhaps, that she or he eventually died). So a biography can be as revelatory as a plot-driven novel.

Though there have been grumblings about new technologies' detrimental effect on more traditional forms of literature, we believe that these media are not mutually exclusive. We can hold on to, and elevate, the things we love about books and still embrace the worlds opened up by more recent developments.

No matter how long you've been writing, you've probably experienced that panic-induced paralysis known as writer's block. If you want to tame the symptoms of this debilitating condition, here are some home remedies to try.

There are various reasons why some authors have sparsely populated canons. Some die young or relatively young. Some deal with ill health. Some feel they've said all they want to say in their minimal output.

The appropriation of a piece of literature to a certain genre is a process descriptive of the political moment in which the text finds itself; it's indicative of what's permitted to be described as fact in a particular cultural atmosphere, whether it's intended to be or not.

Author Dave Eggers and physician/human rights scholar Lola Vollen have founded a nonprofit division of McSweeney's Books called Voice of Witness, meant to empower those most closely affected by contemporary social injustice.

Books like Rye Barcott's It Happened on the Way to War come with a price that can't be easily discounted. You can't finish it and remain prone on the sofa.

Memoir, as its Latin root indicates, is a selection of subjective, often partially forgotten, memories. Readers do not expect memoirists to be journalists. What matters is trust.

Here's an idea: let's make memoirs true and put the made-up stuff in fiction. Ain't gonna happen. Too much money in lying. And literary bigwigs think it's sorta okay.

The twenty-five programs listed here fully fund a sizable percentage of incoming students, yet still receive less attention from applicants than they deserve.

Ever since novelist Tom Kealey advised MFA applicants to consider a program's online promotional materials, young writers have been comparing notes about which program websites measure up.

In an earlier article, six myths about the creative writing Master of Fine Arts were busted. Here, six more go under the ax.

How much (or any) of their research should writers of fiction for children provide? That interesting question, posed by blogger Betsy Bird yesterday,...

These programs fully fund 70% or more of students, yet receive less attention from applicants than they deserve.

New York City MFAs are subject to a vicious circle from which some may not escape.

I'm glad that self-publishing has evolved from stigma to respectability. But I'm also concerned about the future of books and the larger issue of assuring the flow of reliable information.

Elizabeth Gilbert got her book contract to write about a year in her life after leaving her husband, and it turned into megahit 'Eat Pray Love.' Gil...

LONDON — A book that gives a rare glimpse of everyday life inside one of the world's most secretive states won Britain's leading nonfiction book...