Lisa Zeidner joined Washington Post book critic Ron Charles in conversation on her newest book Who Says?: Mastering Point of View in Fiction. Zeidner is a prolific novelist (Customs, Love Bomb), poet, and English professor at Rutgers University. Who Says? is a deep dive into points of view, familiar and unfamiliar, in fiction writing. Using examples from literary greats, Zeidner provides readers with a new system for experimenting with point of view.
This event is part of the Craft of Fiction series highlighting new books on craft by veteran writers and educators.
Featured Book
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Who Says?: Mastering Point of View in Fiction
By Lisa Zeidner
Published by WW Norton
Who is telling the story to whom is the single most important question about any work of fiction; the answer is central to everything from style and tone to plot and pacing. Using hundreds of examples from Jane Austen to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Leo Tolstoy to Stephen King, novelist and longtime MFA professor Lisa Zeidner dives deep into the points of view we are most familiar with—first and third person—and moves beyond to second-person narration, frame tales, and even animal points of view. Engaging and accessible, Who Says? presents any practicing writer with a new system for choosing a point of view, experimenting with how it determines the narrative, and applying these ideas to revision.
