-
The Drip Drip Drip of Another Consciousness
Jane SmileyLast night, I dreamed about my novel Ten Days In the Hills, not one of my best received, but certainly one that I enjoyed writing.
-
Great Fiction is a Force for Peace
Roxana RobinsonAn archaeologist friend told me recently about the discovery of an oral tradition stretching back for 10,000 years. They were stories told by...
-
First Fiction
Alexander CheeThere is an exercise I have my students do, one I invented. Think of a story your family tells about you to any newcomer, usually from your early childhood.
-
The Story of My Life (and Yours)
Tiphanie YaniqueAt the New School, where I am a professor, I teach a literature seminar called Girls: Narratives of the Girl Child. Every text we read features a girl.
-
The Invention of the Self Is Another Kind of Fiction
Krys LeeOnce there was a child who hid from her father. She imagined him with blades for hands, she saw herself as strung on a leash that he owned.
-
Why We Read: Mary Gaitskill
Mary Gaitskill is the author of the story collections Bad Behavior, Because They Wanted To (nominated for...
-
Why We Read: E. L. Doctorow
E. L. Doctorow’s works of fiction include Homer & Langley, The March, Billy Bathgate, Ragtime, the Book of...
-
Why We Read: Francine Prose
Francine Prose is the author of twenty-one works of fiction, including Mister Monkey; the New York Times bestseller Lovers...
-
Escaping the Prison of Realism
Darryl PinckneyI was surprised in Elizabeth Hardwick’s writing class at Barnard when she told us that the mystery of Jay Gatsby was that he was Jewish.
-
What Was It You Wanted?
Tom PiazzaI like spending time with the writers I like. I don’t like reading authors I don’t like.
-
On Mind & Meaning
Dexter PalmerThe pattern of my conversation with strangers at parties changed in two ways after I published a novel. The first, and the less common of the...
-
That's My Story and I'm (Probabilistically) Sticking to It
Liam DurcanThe man kept on talking and talking, telling me about the cat that was brushing up against his right thigh at that very moment
-
The Science of Magical Thinking
Kristopher JansmaSaleem Sinai, the narrator of Salman Rushdie’s 1981 novel, Midnight’s Children, is born at exactly midnight on the 15th of August...