Writerly Advice??? I Hope So

Many thanks go out to Jon Winokur for a great interview at “Advice for Writers”. This is a site rich with resources for writers, from the practical to the inspirational. (It’s particularly good for writing teachers too, as it is loaded with interviews, quotations about writing, and technical resources as well.) A writer could spend a great deal of useful time on these pages. In the meanwhile, I offer no sage wisdom, but perhaps some writers can find something of benefit from my own thoughts shared in the interview.

New Per Petterson Novel Out

It's that wonderful time of year for serious readers, time between the cozy holiday titles that publishers wish will show up under our Christmas trees and the blockbuster hits they have selected for our lazy summer reads. There are a number of big, bold voices out with new books this spring--think Toni Morrison and Kazuo Ishiguro. Joining them is a new novel by Per Petterson, the wonderful, brooding Norwegian author of novels like Out Stealing Horses and I Curse the River of Time. The new title is I Refuse; here's a review from the Times.

Atticus Lish Wins P.E.N. Faulkner

Atticus Lish's first novel Preparation for the Next Life has won the P.E.N. Faulkner award for 2015. Lish joins a group of literary heavy-hitters, including past winners Sherman Alexie, John Updike, Phillip Roth, Ann Patchett, Ha Jin, E. Annie Proulx, John Edgar Wideman, and Michael Cunningham. Karen Joy Fowler won in 2014.

Here is an intriguing New York Times piece on Lish.

Anthony Doerr Wins Pulitzer

Anthony Doerr has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his remarkable novel All the Light We Cannot See. The committee got it spot on this year. If you haven't already, you really must read this amazing book.