Marlene Zuk on Tackling Writer’s Block (as a Scientist): This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. In 1954, Florence Moog, a biology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, published a paper in the prestigious journal… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
How Andrei Tarkovsky Taught Me to Write About the American West: In 1983, Telluride Film Festival co-founder Tom Luddy took Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky on a road trip. Tarkovsky’s film Nostalghia was going to screen at the event. They drove from Luddy’s… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Mieko Kawakami on Sisterhood, Survival, and Finding Hope in the Darkness: One of Japan’s most acclaimed contemporary writers, Mieko Kawakami was launched into literary stardom in 2007, when she won the Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s prestigious award for emerging… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Andrea Mara on Building Suspense: First Draft: A Dialogue of Writing is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with fiction, nonfiction, essay writers, and poets, highlighting the voices of writers as they discuss their work, their craft, and the literary… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Rachel Eliza Griffiths on Finding the Poetry in Grief: Memoir Nation: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is an extension of the Memoir Nation community hosted by Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner, two friends and colleagues who bring a community-minded sensibility to… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Valeria Luiselli on Sounding the Borderlands: This is Thresholds, a series of conversations with writers about experiences that completely turned them upside down, disoriented them in their lives, changed them, and changed how and why they wanted to write. Hosted… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
A Singular Pursuit: Why All Writing (and All Writers) Matter More Than Ever Today: In February of 2015, the novelist and short-story writer Ryan Boudinot wrote an essay for Seattle news website The Stranger titled, “Things I Can Say About MFA Writing Programs Now… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Janine Kovac on Getting Into Writing Residencies and Book Festivals: Memoir Nation: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is an extension of the Memoir Nation community hosted by Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner, two friends and colleagues who bring a community-minded… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
DIY Creativity: What Conserving Art and Writing Fiction Have in Common: I’m at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), standing beside the workstation of the art conservator who answered my research inquiry a couple months earlier. We’re chatting through the steps… #ArtandPhotography #CraftandAdvice
When the Fountain Runs Dry: On Aging, Immortality and the Illusion of Everlasting Youth: I am 11 years old in Brooklyn, sitting in my classroom—the dark one on the first floor—with a group of classmates who have clashed all year long. Friendships fraying, puberty… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Love Stories, Feminism, and Why Cemeteries Are Sexy: The first time I visited Green River Cemetery in East Hampton, New York, I had already read Ann Rower’s wonderful book Lee and Elaine. I was prepared to see the resting places of Elaine de Kooning, Frank… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
What Wayne Koestenbaum Learned From Gilligan’s Island (And Why He Will Never Finish Reading Marx’s Capital): Wayne Koestenbaum’s new novel, My Lover, the Rabbi, is out now from FSG, so we asked him a few questions about writing, reading, and whatever else was on… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
On the Genius of Frances Burney, Jane Austen’s Most Important Literary Predecessor: Cecilia—that is, Frances Burney’s magnificent second novel—is breaking my heart. I picked it up after being floored by her first, Evelina, for its cutting wit, epistolary laundering of… #Biography #CraftandAdvice
Beyond “Women’s Fiction…” On the Quiet Brilliance of Barbara Pym: I was first drawn to Barbara Pym for her idiosyncrasies, fancying the idea of reading about jumble sales, pale curates, and squabbles over floral arrangements on church altars. The incongruity of her… #Biography #CraftandAdvice
Crying in the Multiverse: On the Potential of Possibility as a Literary Device: When my mother died of cancer in 2023, the grief turned my mind into a speculative machine. For some time, I kept wondering about what choices we could have made differently for her… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Philip Schultz on Unavoidable Mortality: First Draft: A Dialogue of Writing is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with fiction, nonfiction, essay writers, and poets, highlighting the voices of writers as they discuss their work, their craft, and the… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Andrew Martin on How to Manage Exposition: This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. At some point in the last few years, my students became convinced that the worst sin a fiction writer can commit is an “info dump.” Admittedly,… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Am I the Asshole For Trying to Pitch Editors and Agents at Crowded AWP Parties?: Well, hello there! Great to see you. Welcome back to another terrific (terrifying?) installment of America’s favorite drunken advice column, Am I the Literary Asshole? It’s the place where we… #BookNews #CraftandAdvice
Five Books About Breaking Up… With Your Friend: Breakup culture is well trodden and established. When you announce to your friends that you are going through a romantic separation, people know what to do. Pints of ice cream and drinks and condolences are offered.… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
How Being a Former Gossip Reporter Made Me a Better Writer: When I was twenty-two, and strangers used to ask what I did for work, I lied. “I work for a weekly news magazine,” I’d say. Now, strictly speaking, this wasn’t a total lie, more one of omission. Because… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Chronicling Millenial Malaise With Andrew Martin: Andrew Martin’s new novel, Down Time, follows five thirtysomethings over a couple of crucial years. Five people who care about sex and art and the world and each other, but who also know that everything’s going to… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Lit Hub Asks: 5 Authors, 7 Questions, No Wrong Answers: The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors with new books. This month we talk to: Maria Adelmann (The Adjunct) Lily Brooks-Dalton (Ruins) Benjamin Hale… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
The Stories Our Mothers (Never) Told Us: Alice Martin Writing About Family Archives: No one knows it, but I come from a long line of women writers. Scratched on diner napkins and the backs of envelopes, tucked away in un-seamed notebook paper and date books, the… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Karan Mahajan on Literary Tradition, Trump, and Writing Multiple Points of View: In March 2016, Karan Mahajan made a splash with his second novel, The Association of Small Bombs. By telling the story of a Delhi car bombing, Mahajan earned high praise—including a… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Why Jane Austen Adaptations Just Keep Coming—And We Keep Watching: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that every generation must be in want of a fresh Jane Austen adaptation (or several). However differently the youth of each generation may be characterized, this… #Biography #CraftandAdvice
What Being a Professional Athlete Taught Me About Writing—and What It Didn’t: It is not coincidental that in 21st-century America, athletic success has become synonymous with virtue. Ostensibly instilling values like hard work, diligence, and perseverance,… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Six Essential Books About Birds: A few years ago, more or less on a whim, I started following a group of scientists who were studying a small seabird on an island off the coast of Washington State. The bird, called the rhinoceros auklet, was gray #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Tayari Jones on Speaking in Metaphor: First Draft: A Dialogue of Writing is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with fiction, nonfiction, essay writers, and poets, highlighting the voices of writers as they discuss their work, their craft, and the… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Suffering Under the Speaker: On Louise Glück, Garth Greenwell, and Vocal Duality: Two or three times a month, I receive a voicemail from some unfamiliar number in Kentucky. Beneath the number, my phone screen lists the county of origin. McCracken County.… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
Eight Books About the Ups and Downs of Friendship: Almost everyone has at least one friendship breakup they still think about. I know I do, and maybe you do too. When I realized there weren’t many books out there that looked closely at friendship—in all its highs… #CraftandAdvice #CraftandCriticism
