Craft Capsule: The Arc of Epiphany
The author of Thin Places considers how to write an essay (or essay collection) that follows the arc of epiphany.
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Craft Capsules
In our weekly series of craft essays, some of the best and brightest minds in contemporary literature explore their craft in compact form, articulating their thoughts about creative obsessions and curiosities in a working notebook of lessons about the art of writing.
Craft Capsule: Writing Hot
The author of Thin Places celebrates hot-blooded writing.
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Craft Capsule: Against Universality, in Praise of Anger
The author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities embraces and develops a queer Asian American poetics.
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Craft Capsule: On Nightmares
The author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities explores personal and collective nightmares.
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Craft Capsule: On Becoming a Pop Star, I Mean, a Poet
The author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities traces his origins as a poet.
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Craft Capsule: The Writer’s Mind on Music
The author of Each of Us Killers reflects on how music has informed her fiction.
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Craft Capsule: Revising Folktales and Myths
The author of Each of Us Killers shares strategies for reinventing folktales and myths for contemporary times.
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Craft Capsule: The Art of Literary Criticism
The author of Each of Us Killers shares a manifesto for literary criticism.
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Craft Capsule: We Are All Translators
The author of Each of Us Killers explains why reading and writing are forms of translation.
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Craft Capsule: Racial Markers and Being Marked
The author of RENDANG consults poems by Monica Youn, Meiling Jin, and Mei-mei Berssenbrugge to analyze how racial markers function in poetry.
Craft Capsule: Possible and Impossible
The author of RENDANG reflects on the value of uncertainty in his reading and writing lives.
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Craft Capsule: Witness vs. Withness
The author of RENDANG considers the complex relationships embedded in the act of looking.
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Craft Capsule: Lyric vs. Narrative
The author of RENDANG blurs the boundary between narrative and lyric.
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Craft Capsule: Doors vs. Corridors
The author of RENDANG imagines poetry as a house with many corridors.
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Craft Capsule: The Cinema Factory
The author of Horsepower recalls the tricks that helped her revise and assemble her collection.
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Craft Capsule: The Black Bildungsroman
The author of Horsepower reimagines the bildungsroman to honor the narrative arc of Black childhood.
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Craft Capsule: Craft Is Not Objective
The author of Horsepower examines and resists the racism and subconscious anxieties that infect the U.S. literary imagination.
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Craft Capsule: The Authority of Black Childhood
The author of Horsepower suggests putting aside knowledge and focusing on unlearning.
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Craft Capsule: Breaking Genre
The author of This Is One Way to Dance resists genre limitations and seeks her own unique form.
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Craft Capsule: Break It Down or Shorter Forms
The author of This Is One Way to Dance reflects on using fragments to build a larger structure.
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Craft Capsule: Feel Your Way
The author of This Is One Way to Dance considers the consonances and dissonances between dance and writing.
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Craft Capsule: Notes From the Cutting Room Floor
The author of This Is One Way to Dance shares how notes—footnotes, codas, prologues, corrections—figure into her writing process.
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Craft Capsule: Obsessions, Hobbies, Dreams
The author of The Prettiest Star shares strategies and questions that help him get to know his characters.
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Craft Capsule: Minor Characters
The author of The Prettiest Star celebrates the magic of minor characters.
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Craft Capsule: Catalogues, Cetaceans, and Casey Kasem
The author of The Prettiest Star explores a variety of archives to help him capture the specific spirit and look of the eighties.
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