The phrase writers writing about writers writing used in derision by that irate reader last November turns out to be an apt description of the kinship between journalists and writers of literature. In newspapers and magazines throughout the world, journalists time and again examine the craft of writing. Profiling authors and interviewing them, we probe their motivations, seeking to uncover what drives them to spend their days doing work that relegates them to the status of unquantifiable anomaly, as Penelope Lively puts it reaping little remuneration and scant status. A shared passion for words forms the consanguine bond between journalists and writers of literature. Our family ties consist of our common pursuit of the story, our fascination with the possibility that through a compelling narrative or an apt image we capture a truth that can inform and animate the individual s understanding of the world.
Writers do indeed write about writers writing.
And we ll continue to do so because, by delving into writers lives and their world, we open portals through which readers can glimpse the creative imagination of the storytellers of our age and thereby make sense of their own experience. Looking inward isn t always navel-gazing. It can sometimes be the most expansive pursuit of all. Back to Top Feedback Links Classifieds Customer Service Jobs at WPR Copyright 2000 by The Stanley Foundation . All rights reserved.