I was in a small group of women recently where all (but me) said they were not readers. This is not something a writer likes to hear. A writer likes to think that the world is heavily populated with readers, that in any group...
Writers Looking for Readers
I am posting below the letter that came today from the Authors Guild regarding Amazon’s acquisition of Goodreads. It is hard, as an author, not to get really riled about this issue. The publication and distribution and even the *reviewing* of...
The Best Death?
When my mother died a little over a year ago I was 3,000 miles away. She died unexpectedly one night in her sleep, we believe, at her home in Massachusetts. I was in Oregon, scheduled to visit her the following week. It sounds lovely to die in...
Handling a Writer’s Affliction: Excessive Self-consciousness
Last week I attended a talk given by the Swedish novelist Anne Sward, author most recently of Breathless(yes, just like the Goddard film). During the Q&A period Sward briefly addressed what happens to a writer when she is afflicted with...
What kind of books do you write?
When I am out and about in the world (on planes and trains; at conferences and social gatherings; when talking to students, strangers, or casual acquaintances) this is a very common question. And it is one I have come to dread. I dread it because...
The Fragile Scaffolding of a Writer’s Life
For many years now I have been in the habit of writing daily. It is the first thing I do each morning after waking and getting coffee from the bedroom coffee maker. I do not leave the room. I do not get dressed. I prop myself up with pillows...
The Loop of Language
A few years ago I began noticing that clerks, receptionists, gas station attendants—generally all the strangers I encountered in the course of a day—were attaching possessive pronouns to their parting salutations. “Enjoy your day!” “Enjoy your...
Things
In the wake of my mother’s death I’ve been thinking a lot about objects. This is in part because boxes of her things have been shipped to me—dishes, jewelry, stacks of old photos and albums—and it has been a challenge to figure out how to quickly...
Let the Summer Begin
August 15thhas come and gone. It is always around now that I begin to mourn the vanishing summer. Leaves of our apple tree have begun falling onto the patio, and back-to-school ads lurk behind every flicked page of the paper. All too soon, it...
New York Streets
I am writing from New York City now, my home for over a decade and the place I always thought would be my permanent home. Life offers up unexpected twists and turns, and I was dragged reluctantly away from the city, so I make it my business to...