Category Archives: MFA
There’s something about memoir
. . . and what writers rarely admit about rejection & revision I have a lot of friends who are fiction writers, and they all told me that writing a memoir is different—and hard.—Darin Strauss, in The Washington Post Darin … Continue reading
Filed under evolutionary psychology, fiction, memoir, MFA, point of view, revision
Review/Q&A: Lee Martin’s ‘Such a Life’
Stay in love with the journey.—Lee Martin Such a Life by Lee Martin. University of Nebraska Press, 214 pp. Lee Martin, an accomplished novelist, is also a master of life stories. His memoir From Our House focuses on his fraught … Continue reading
Filed under author interview, creative nonfiction, essay-narrative, memoir, MFA, REVIEW, teaching
Review/Q&A: Alethea Black on ‘Lovely,’ faith & fiction, essays & cutting to bone
I can only speak for myself, but there’s something about writing at night that feels . . . sneaky. There’s an outlaw quality to it, combined, oddly enough, with a sense of being safe. It has an anaerobic, subterranean feel; … Continue reading
Filed under author interview, Dillard—Saint Annie, fiction, MFA, poetry, REVIEW, revision, spirituality, teaching
Shirley Showalter, ubuntu & memoir
Become an observer of your own creative process. It will help you uncover where you “sing” and where your voice falls flat. When you lose track of time and are not thinking about yourself at all but rather about your … Continue reading
Filed under electronic publishing, memoir, MFA, NOTED, spirituality, teaching, working method
One writing teacher’s plight
A short story writer, essayist, novelist, memoirist, editor, and writing workshop leader, Paulette Bates Alden has an impressive blog and web site. Her wise essays on writing technique and aspects of memoir are stimulating and useful. Lately I’ve been enjoying … Continue reading
Filed under fiction, memoir, MFA, point of view, subjectivity, teaching
Q&A: Lisa Davis on a Mormon tragedy
The Sins of Brother Curtis: A Story of Betrayal, Conviction, and the Mormon Church by Lisa Davis. Scribner, 368 pages. I met Lisa Davis six years ago, in a creative nonfiction workshop at Goucher College, and I read her recently … Continue reading
Filed under author interview, immersion, journalism, MFA, NOTED, research, REVIEW, scene, technique, working method
Q&A: Ira Sukrungruang
Following my review of Talk Thai: Adventures of Buddhist Boy, I emailed some questions to its author. Ira Sukrungruang responded with uncommonly helpful answers. He’s only thirty-four, but maybe that’s why: he’s been writing seriously since he was a senior … Continue reading
Filed under author interview, essay-personal, memoir, MFA, narrative, revision, working method
Can journalism schools teach narrative?
Narrative nonfiction is risky; it has to be grabby, telling, and true. To bear analytical weight, it has to be almost frighteningly shrewd.—Jill Lepore, The New Yorker (September 6, 2010) What is journalism? How does one teach this thing you … Continue reading
Filed under creative nonfiction, immersion, journalism, MFA, narrative, teaching
Revise, then polish
“The writer who writes for revision does not wait for a final draft but works through a series of discovery, development, and clarification drafts until a significant meaning is found and made clear to the reader.”—Donald M. Murray, The Craft … Continue reading
