James Magnuson Retires From Michener, Mick Jagger’s Memoir, and More
A study shows fiction readers hear voices; beauty tips from heroines of twentieth-century literature; a profile of janitor and Argentinian novelist Enrique Ferrari; and other news.
Genre: Creative Nonfiction
Proust Footage Discovered, Audre Lorde on Arts Funding, and More
The place of apathy in the work of J. M. Coetzee; the intersection of poetry and research; bookstore sales on the rise; and other news.
Hidden Talent
Poet, jazz musician, woodcarver, multimedia artist, painter. A variety of hidden talents may in fact lie behind the familiar faces of an apartment building porter, doorman, handyman, or other neighborhood figure. Write an essay about a time when you learned about someone’s secret skill or hidden talent. What are the assumptions that accumulate when you only encounter someone in a professional or public capacity? What might be inspiring or exciting about the idea that anyone—perhaps even everyone—may have a hidden talent?
Telling Your Secrets Can Set You Free
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“I tell my students that if you want to be a writer you need to learn how to look.” In this TEDxNavesink video, Melissa Febos shares her lifetime habit of secrecy and explains how telling your secrets can set you free. Her debut essay collection, Abandon Me (Bloomsbury, 2017), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Genre:
London Book Heist, George Saunders’s Debut Novel, and More
Phillip Pullman to publish new book trilogy; bookstores encourage political protest; Morgan Parker on Beyoncé and her new collection; and other news.
Reviewers & Critics: Laura Miller of Slate
Laura Miller discusses how she chooses books, the effect of the Internet on literary criticism, and her belief that reading is as profoundly creative as writing.
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Colum McCann on Writing Advice
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“There are no rules to writing...and if there are rules, really they’re there to be broken.” Colum McCann, author of Letters to a Young Writer: Some Practical and Philosophical Advice (Random House, 2017), speaks to Jeffrey Brown about the challenges and excitement of writing today at the 2017 AWP conference and book fair.
Genre:
Viet Thanh Nguyen on War, Poets Read at Fashion Show, and More
Love poems and anti-love poems for Valentine’s Day; a case against English academia; Amazon to open brick-and-mortar store in California Bay Area; and other news.
Writers Hold Vigil in D.C., Sensitivity Readers, and More
Arundhati Roy’s impact on Indian literature; the state of journalism in the digital age; a history of the Paris Review; and other news.
Azar Nafisi’s AWP Keynote, Anticipated Poetry of 2017, and More
Javier Marias on fiction and politics; the social-media team behind the Merriam-Webster dictionary; the resurgence of aphorisms; and other news.
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