Writers

Why I'm Not Planning a 'Hunger Games' Knockoff

Lev Raphael | Posted 05.31.2012

Read More: Advice for Writers, Authors, Book Publishing, Thrillers, Books, Writers, Writing a Novel, Writing, Writing Tips, HUnger Games, Books News

I enjoy reading well-written books where there are earth-shattering secrets, a race against the clock, harrowing twists and turns, lives constantly under threat. But I don't have an itch to create one.

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Stage Door: February House

Fern Siegel | Posted 05.23.2012

Read More: Arts, Poets, Writers, W.H. Auden, Literature, Carson McCullers, February House, The Public Theater, NY Around Town, Public Theater, Arts News

The trials and tribulations, both artistic and personal, of this singular crew would make a compelling story. However, the characters of February House are drawn in brushstrokes; there isn't enough at stake.

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Fiction in Flux

Warren Adler | Posted 05.23.2012

Read More: The Serpent's Bite, Publishing, Writers, Books, Writing, Fiction, Ebooks, Books News

For fiction writers in search of a publishing outlet, these are the best of times. For fiction writers in search of readers, this is the worst of times. For fiction writers in search of monetary rewards it is, for most, a disaster.

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At a Military Hospital, Warriors Are Not the Only Wounded

Michael Winship | Posted 05.16.2012

Read More: Wounded Veterans, Writers, Veterans PTSD, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, War, War in Iraq, Afghanistan War, Iraq War, Writers Guild of America, Military, Wounded Warriors, Wounded Warrior Project, Arts, Ptsd, Compassion Fatigue, Impact News

Wounded Warrior had asked some of us to come to Landstuhl to meet with the medical staff there. Some 3,000 strong, military and civilian, they work ceaselessly in what has become one of the busiest trauma centers in the world.

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S**t People Say to Writers

Lev Raphael | Posted 05.07.2012

Read More: Authors, Book Publishing, Writers, Aspiring Authors, Fans, Books, Shit People Say, Shit People Say Meme, Comedy News

Have you been published?

What do you write? Oh.

Do you have, like, a real job?

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The Coming Battle of E-Readers

Warren Adler | Posted 05.04.2012

Read More: Kindle, Writers, Writing, Self-Publishing, E-Books, E-Readers, Kobo, Nook, Books News

Okay, so now we know where the e-book is going. Ever upward. To have predicted that twelve years ago, when I had all my novels reversed from major pu...

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Bake Biscotti or Finish the Book?

Debra Weiner | Posted 04.30.2012

Read More: Blogs, Writers, Writer's Block, Cooking, Books, Self-Help, Food, Books News

I really, really want to make parmesan black pepper biscotti. But I also want to write more. My blog is seriously envying the amount of attention I am paying to my kitchen.

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Funniest Lady Writers In Entertainment

Refinery29.com | Posted 04.24.2012

Read More: Funniest Lady Writers in Entertainment, Women, Video, refinery29, Writers, Entertainment, Funny Women, Women Writers, Comedy News

In 2012, there is no relevant conversation about whether or not women are funny. From our vantage point, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hold down the two mo...

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Lena Dunham Shares Her Favorite Books

The New York Times | Posted 04.19.2012

Read More: Good Books, Writers, Good Reads, Reading, Books, Good Reading, Writing, Lena Dunham, Women News

What book is on your night stand now? Right now I'm looking right at Mary Gaitskill's "Bad Behavior"; the new Diane Keaton autobiography; "Having I...

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The E-Book Dilemma

Warren Adler | Posted 04.17.2012

Read More: Authors, Book Publishing, Writers, Books, E-Books, E-Readers, Publishers, Readers, Technology, Books News

For fiction authors who are published by traditional publishers and rely on advances and royalties for their living, the future is dim.

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Taking Words From My Mouth: A Mother/Daughter Story

Rachel Sherman | Posted 04.12.2012

Read More: Writers, Mother, Writing, Motherhood, Storytelling, Childhood, Mothers, Mothers and Daughters, Home News

When I was a baby, my mother told me that my father fantasized that once I could talk, I would tell them all of the things I had been thinking from the time I could not.

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Androgynous Pen Names

A.J. Walkley | Posted 04.10.2012

Read More: Women, Female Authors, Writers, Women Writers, Pen Names, Writing, Books, Novels, Novelists, Nom De Plume, Pseudonyms, Books News

Women writers have used initials and male pen names for centuries to cover up their gender, knowing that for some readers (namely male), simply seeing a female's name on the cover of a book would dissuade them.

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Let's Hear it for the Self-Published Author

Warren Adler | Posted 04.06.2012

Read More: Book News, Warren Adler, Publishing, Writers, Writing, Fiction, Self-Publishing, Novelists, Author, Books News

"Self-publishing" is now a reasonably respectable process that allows anyone who writes a book to be digitally "shelved" alongside authors published by traditional routes.

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What Is a Literary Novel?

Warren Adler | Posted 05.29.2012

Read More: Huckleberry Finn, Authors, Literary, Writers, Books, Writing, Classics, Reading, To Kill a Mockingbird, Writing a Book, Literary Novel, Novels, Writing a Novel, Books News

Does durability, for example, constitute an important definition of what is or becomes a literary novel? How does a novel become a classic? Who determines what becomes a classic?

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Adrienne Rich: Writing as Social Practice

Michael Roth | Posted 05.29.2012

Read More: Scripps College, San Francisco Chronicle, Poetry, Adrienne Rich, Adrienne Rich Dies, Adrienne Rich Death, Writers, Writing, Books News

The great American poet, Adrienne Rich, died this week at her home in Santa Cruz. She was a brave and ardent writer, a gifted teacher and a powerful voice of conscience. There is no one quite like her in American letters.

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LiePad: Why Nonfiction Writers Must Never Change the Facts

Brandt Goldstein | Posted 05.21.2012

Can a writer working in the realm of nonfiction ever change the facts because he's Making Art or Delivering an Important Message? The view of basically every respected journalist is Hell No. But a new book takes the opposite view.

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Is William Faulkner Sexy? Hell Yes!

Scott Alexander Hess | Posted 05.02.2012

Read More: Literature, Helen Schucman, William Faulkner, Sexy Writing, Writers, Sex Addict, Sensual Language, Matt Bondurant, Books News

All of Faulkner's books are ripe with both overt and subtle sexuality. His novel Sanctuary, about a debutante who is taken hostage in a farm house (sometimes referred to as his potboiler), is wild, beautiful, brilliant and very sensual.

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Lost & Found in Translation

Joe Woodward | Posted 05.01.2012

Read More: Writers, Literary Biography, Book Awards, Cervantes, Alive Inside the Wreck, Nathanael West, Translation, Pen, Literary-Translators, Biography, Books News

Let us enjoy the surprises, the challenges of literature in all languages, in translation and otherwise. Let us contemplate the writer, too, writing in all her forms. Let us see how we are.

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Sherry Jones: Start Writing, or Shut Up

Red Room | Posted 04.18.2012

Read More: Joy of Writing, Making Time to Write, Writing a Novel, Writers, Writing Tips, Writing, How to Start Writing a Novel, Books News

Can't find the time to write? Life is short. Stop with the angst, already. If you're not writing, you don't really want to. Go find something that yanks your chain. Do that, and leave us writers alone.

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Writers' Valentines to Their Mentors

Elizabeth Benedict | Posted 04.14.2012

Read More: Mentors, Joyce Carol Oates, Writers, Michael Cunningham, Inspiration, Fiction, Valentines Day, Cheryl Strayed, Influence, Jonathan Safran Foer, Books News

Several years ago, I unleashed a whole lot of gratitude and love in a group of wonderful writers

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On Rejection and Renewal: A Note to Aspiring Novelists

Warren Adler | Posted 04.09.2012

Read More: Publishing, Rejection, Writers, How-To, Agents, Advice, Books, Writing, Books News

The true novelist must continue to soldier on, keep writing, keep trying, taking the increasingly painful hits of rejection after rejection until ... well, until someone out there catches on ... or doesn't.

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How to Get Your Book Published When Everyone Keeps Rejecting It

David Henry Sterry | Posted 04.09.2012

Read More: Authorship, Publishing, Muslim American, Muslim, Writers, Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published, Author, David Henry Sterry, Writing, Books, Sex, E-Books, How to Get Published, The Book Doctors, Love, Books News

When Nura pitched her anthology revolving around the love lives of Muslim-American women, we were blown away.

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Ostracism: Why It Produces Unique Voices That Can't Be Copied

Lisa Blackwell | Posted 04.03.2012

Read More: Virginia Woolf, Writers, David Foster Wallace, The Great Gatsby, Depression, Female Writers, F. Scott Fizgerald Alcoholism, Writers and Depression, Virgina Woolf Depression, Writers With Depression, David Foster Wallace Suicide, Books News

Great writers depict their unique quest for dignity with a freshness and accuracy that reverberates with their readers, especially those with similar experiences.

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Writing Prompts From Famous Authors

Posted 04.03.2012

Read More: What to Write, Video, Figment, Writers, Writing, Writing Prompts, Ideas for Writing, Writing Inspiration, Creative Writing, Writing Advice, Books News

Our friends at the online literary community Figment, have launched Figment Daily Themes, a free email service designed to help subscribers get into t...

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The Earthquake Machine: Girl, Not Interrupted

James Moore | Posted 03.26.2012

Read More: Novel Earthquake Machine, Mary Lowry, Mexico, The Earthquake Machine Review, Mary Pauline Lowry, Writers, Mary Lowry the Earthquake Machine, Mary Pauline Lowry the Earthquake Machine, Books News

The Earthquake Machine moves Lowry into an elite group of young female writers who know that the feminist movement is about more than equal pay for equal work and that a girl has a right to be a grrrlllll, if she chooses.

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