Literary Fiction

Why Is That Book Taking You So Long?

Recently, one of my writing students asked for advice on how she should structure her novel. “I already have fifty pages and I don't know

It's easy to give up on your writing. Whether you're working on a novel, a memoir, a short story, or an article, writing is hard. Not

After my beloved dog Leo died, I entered a thick fog of grief. I felt his absence keenly because he was such an integral part of my life,

As necessary as libraries have always been to me for books and quiet spaces, until recently I never understood that libraries provide

I went on a writing retreat recently. Nothing fancy; this wasn't one of those places where you're in a cabin in the mountains and people

I hated history class in high school. All of those boring dates and dead people, blah blah blah. I memorized what I needed to, then took the

I recently had the honor of speaking at the 2016 New England Library Association Conference. As I walked up the steps to the podium, I kept my eyes

It's tempting to believe that novelists who have already published books know “the secret.” But every novel, whether it's your first or

If you eavesdrop on a conversation between writers, it's easy to mistake talk about craft for something else. Marathons, maybe. “I had