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Writers and wannabes will glean abundant advice, encouragement and inspiration from this volume's contributors--25 seasoned fictionists and poets who offer spin-offs of literary workshops. Standout essays include Lynne Sharon Schwartz's lament on the epidemic use of the present tense in fashionable fiction; John Irving's guidelines on beginning a novel ("Know the story--the whole story, if possible--before you fall in love with your first sentence , not to mention your first chapter."); Francine Prose's mining of storytelling lessons from Chekhov's oeuvre; Erica Jong's rumination on women writers' enemies ("It was my grandmother who taught me to be the second sex. It was my grandmother I had to kill before I could become a writer."); Gail Godwin's linking of fiction-writing with diary-making; and Rosellen Brown's prescriptions for versatility: writers should cannibalize their own work and make a set of poems out of a stalled novel. Hilma Wolitzer's tips on agents, word processors and what a writer wears to bed will strike more sophisticated scribblers as elementary but true-blue novices may appreciate the information. Pack and Parini are the authors, respectively, of Before It Vanishes and The Last Station. BOMC and QPB selections.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Once again Pack and Parini have recorded the eloquent voices of contemporary writers in this fourth volume of the "Bread Loaf Anthology" series ( The Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry , Univ. Pr. of New England, 1985; The Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Short Stories , LJ 5/15/87; The Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Essays , LJ 4/15/89). More than two dozen poets, short story writers, and novelists, many of them writing teachers as well, share their own unique advice and expertise on the craft of writing. There's Gail Godwin on keeping diaries, John Irving on opening paragraphs, Erica Jong on "killing" her grandmother, and, in the closing piece, Hilma Wolitzer answering the 20 questions most frequently asked of writers. The essays are witty, sage, instructive, and utterly enjoyable. A good choice for college or public library writing collections, appropriate for all levels of writers.
- Cathy Sabol, Northern Virginia Community Coll., Manassa
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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