We the Animals, by Justin Torres, is a wonderful example of the use of the collective voice in fiction. There are, of course, many other classic works that use this voice, including the novels The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides…
Fiction should connect the writer to the reader. Fiction should not be written with a reader in mind. Fiction can be written as though writing a letter to a friend. Fiction should use language in a way that pleases…
What could be better than summer camp for writers? While each summer conference varies greatly from the next, they all allow writers a chance to escape from their daily routines, work on their fiction, and be with a community of…
In studying the craft of fiction, story and plot seem like simple enough concepts: story is the chronological sequence of events while plot is those same events, reordered by the author. In an attempt to consider how to construct meaning…
Here’s a quick look at some of the great books out this week. Happy pub day to all! Eileen Chang, Little Reunions NYRB Classics From Publishers Weekly: “Originally completed in 1976 and appearing in English for the first time, this…
Tana is dating a person who calls herself The Red Spirit of Joy. She is fussy about details: her clothes are red, never crimson, not scarlet. Don’t get fancy with the descriptors, Tana, she says while putting on lipstick. My…
Linked story collections often seem like that halfway point between a collection of unconnected stories and a novel. Done well, a linked collection can add up to something more than its parts, a reading experience that expands beyond the limits…
Here’s a quick look at some of the great books out this week. Happy pub day to all! Chloe Benjamin, The Immortalists Penguin Random House From Publishers Weekly: “In her second novel, Benjamin (The Anatomy of Dreams) constructs an imaginative…
His daughter’s first horse came from a traveling carnival where children rode him in miserable clockwise circles. He was swaybacked with a patchy coat and split hooves, but Tammy fell for him on the spot and Atlee made a cash…
It’s a new year, and time to refocus on your submission game. The submission process can be daunting. You finally get a story to a place where you think it’s pretty close to being done. But where to send it?…
