The Glimmer Train Guide to Writing Fiction
Volume1: Building Blocks
Edited by Susan Burmeister-Brown and Linda B. Swanson-Davies
Writer's Digest Books, 2006
ISBN 978-1-58297-446-0
$19.99 hardcover, 448 pages
Read an Excerpt
Get expert insight in "Beginnings," chapter 9 of The Glimmer Train Guide to Writing Fiction, Volume 1: Building Blocks featuring Ron Carlson, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Siri Hustvedt, Andrea Barrett, Doris Lessing, and Pam Durban.
Or, download all of chapter 9as a PDF.
About the Book
Many writing books offer instruction and inspiration, but never before has one pulled back the curtains and laid bare before you the joys, frustrations, struggles, and achievements of the literary life—as experienced by more than one hundred accomplished writers. In excerpts from interviews conducted over a sixteen-year period, and preserved by the ediotrs of the highly respected literary quarterly Glimmer Train Stories and its newsletter Writers Ask, contemporary writers who rarely discuss their craft present you with eye-opening techniques, diverse perspectives, and genuine encouragement—the kind of wisdom earned only from years at the writing desk.
- Julia Alvarez
- Edwidge Danicat
- Robert Olen Butler
- Sandra Cisneros
- Andre Dubus
- Ernest Gaines
- Jamaica Kincaid
- Antonya Nelson
- Tim O'Brien
- Ann Patchett
- Annie Proulx
- Tobias Wolff
The voices of these authors and many others resonate from the pages—sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking, but always illuminating. A thorough treatment of craft and accessibility to engaging authors make Building Blocks—the first volume in this exquisite new series—the perfect guidebook for your writing life.
