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Read weekly interviews with authors to learn the inside stories of how their books were written, edited, and published; insights into the creative process; the best writing advice they’ve ever heard; and more.
“Writing—the writing it down—has increasingly become the least important part of the process. Living in the world of the novel, existing as the characters, viewing the day-to-day from their perspective, is the most important thing.” —Jeff VanderMeer, author of Dead Astronauts
“Sometimes at the end of an eight-hour day I’d have a single paragraph to show for it.” —Dexter Palmer, author of Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen
“Much of the book I had no recollection of writing, and it was strange to be confronted with what I’d done, as though I was getting access to parts of my mind I hadn’t known existed.” —Nina MacLaughlin, author of Wake, Siren
“Don’t be afraid to cut it if it’s not working.” —Elaine Equi, author of The Intangibles
“My preferred notebook is a sharp-cornered, hardcover Roaring Spring black marble composition book with 20# paper, item number 77461, college ruled—I’m a Pisces and need a line to keep me grounded.” —Malcolm Tariq, author of Heed the Hollow
“I don’t trust any readers! And readers shouldn’t trust any writers. We’re all scoundrels, down to the last.” —Kai Cheng Thom, author of I Hope We Choose Love
“In college I had a fiction teacher tell me to make every sentence so good that the reader would have to read the next one. So basic and obvious but I needed to hear it.” —Jami Attenberg, author of All This Could Be Yours
“I sometimes wish the writing process for me was faster, but things need to percolate in their own time.” —Mimi Lok, author of Last of Her Name
“Read like your work depends on it. It does.” —Adrienne Brodeur, author of Wild Game
“The process of writing a memoir can swallow you whole if you aren’t careful.” —Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight For Our Lives.
“Maybe we are all just a bit frazzled with the state of the world today, but it’s not always easy to sit and focus. When I do find time to write, it’s like I’m back to myself. I’m back home.” —Kimberly Reyes, author of Running to Stand Still
“I didn’t always feel like writing but I still made myself sit down and do it. I practiced discipline and worked towards inspiration.” —Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King
“I had made a bargain with myself that if I lived, I would give a book of what I learned back to the world in return—an act of gratitude and sometimes vengeance—and I made it.” —Anne Boyer, author of The Undying
“Nearly everything about writing a book is hard. The hope is that it’s harder, in some way, not to.” —Oliver Baez Bendorf, author of Advantages of Being Evergreen
“Sometimes the discourse on disability infringes on my imagination.” —Jillian Weise, author of Cyborg Detective
“I’ve learned that writing is not for the impatient.” —Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me
“I ride a commuter train forty minutes each way to work. That’s when I write. Having to come to the page twice a day for short bursts gets me writing very fast; there’s very little wasted time. I’ve never been so productive in my life.” — Jonathan Vatner, author of Carnegie Hill
“Throw pencils, get mad, take a walk. Swear off poetry, read a chapter of a post-apocalyptic novel, wash the dishes. Feel better? Back to writing.” —Karen Skolfield, author of Battle Dress
“Writers are artists, which means that...we have to work hard to protect our creative time, our imaginations, in the midst of all the other parts of our lives.” —Jess Row, author of White Flights
“Debt is the last thing writers need, and the least helpful aid to actual real-life writing.” —Sarah Elaine Smith, author of Marilou Is Everywhere
“Crucial to writing the book was the panic I started feeling about halfway through.” —Jana Prikryl, author of No Matter
“Listen, it can’t feel magical every day, of course, but writing does have the potential to be an act of joy.” —Courtney Maum, author of Costalegre
“I have never before written something where the primary challenge was not one of craft or character or structure but rather of emotion.” —Helen Phillips, author of The Need
“Though this is my sixth book, I take nothing for granted.” —Peter Orner, author of Maggie & Other Stories
“Let people read your work, and listen to what they say about it.” —Caite Dolan-Leach, author of We Went to the Woods
