The writer's reader
Subtitle: vocation, preparation, creation
By: edited by Robert Cohen and Jay Parini
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 375
ISBN-13: 9781628925388; 9781628925371
Subjects: Authorship; Vocational guidance
Description: "The Writer's Reader is an anthology of essays on the art and life of writing by major writers of the past and present. It draws on the experiences and advice of many of the world's best writers, mainly from Britain and America, but also from Latin America, Asia, and Europe.These essays offer a wealth of insights into the varied ways in which writers approach writing and represent a practical resource as well as a source of inspiration for those who are hoping to become writers or who are, perhaps, just at the beginnings of their career. They range from classic to less well-known, historical to contemporary, and include, for example, essays on the vocation of writing by Natalia Ginzburg, Robert Louis Stevenson, Flannery O'Connor, Chinua Achebe, and Julia Alvarez; thoughts on preparing for writing by, among others, Roberto Bolano, Joan Didion, Jorge Luis Borges, Raymond Carver, Montaigne, and Cynthia Ozick; and essays on the craft of writing by writers such as Italo Calvino, Colm Tóibin, Virginia Woolf, Philip Roth, Lydia Davis, David Foster Wallace, and Zadie Smith.Taken together, this collection is a must-read for any student or devotee of writing"--

"Brings together classic as well as less well-known essays by major writers, past and present, on the vocation and craft of writing"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Part One: Vocation; title: My Vocation / Natalia Ginzburg; title: Silences / Tillie Olsen; title: Letter to a young gentleman who proposes to embrace the career of art / Robert Louis Stevenson; title: The nature and aim of fiction / Flannery O'Connor; title: The storyteller / John Berger; title: Advice to a young writer / Danilo Kiš; title: Mentors / Jay Parini; title: Create dangerously / Edwidge Danticat; title: Full of it / Charles Baxter; title: Writing in the cold: the first ten years / Ted Solotaroff; title: The older writer and the underworld / Julia Alvarez; title: Part Two: Preparation; title: Who would dare? / Roberto Bolaño; title: Unpacking my library / Walter Benjamin; title: Reading in the toilet / Henry Miller; title: My first speech / Katherine Anne Porter; title: Literary pleasure / Jorge Luis Borges; title: Of books / Michel de Montaigne; title: Deciding to write in English / Ha Jin; title: Approaches to what? / Georges Perec; title: The Lesson of the master / Cynthia Ozick; title: Part Three: Creation; title: Not knowing / Donald Barthelme; title: Levels of reality in literature / Italo Calvino; title: , The Novel Deméublé / Willa Cather; title: The personal and the individual / Leonard Michaels; title: Grief / Colm Tóibin; title: Character in fiction / Virginia Woolf; title: The frt of fiction / Henry James; title: Writing American fiction / Philip Roth; title: Form as a response to doubt / Lydia Davis; title: How to write about Africa / Binavanga Wainaina; title: Refer madness / Robert Cohen; title: The nature of the fun / David Foster Wallace; title: Fail better / Zadie Smith.