Caroline Leavitt's Blog, page 136

Read This Book: Beth Kephart's Dangerous Neighbors

Beth Kephart 's A Slant of Sun was a finalist for the National Book Award. She's written countless books for young adults, and poetry, and her latest, Dangerous Neighbors, about loss and love, was mesmerizing. (Plus, I have to add, she's hilarious and warm.) Thank you, Beth, for answering my questions.
What were the challenges of setting your book against the 1876 Centennial? Do you enjoy research or did it make you feel as if your head were about to explode?
I smile at the question, for it is ...

Read this Book: Please Come Back to Me by Jessica Treadway

One of the things I love best about being a critic is the chance to discover someone astonishing. Jessica Treadway (Absent Without Leave, And Give You Peace) knockout collection of stories, Please Come Back To Me, snagged the 2009 Flannery O'Connor Prize for Short Fiction, and I was immediately enthralled by the voice, the subject matter, and the stories themselves. Her fiction has been published in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, The Hudson Review, Glimmer Train, AGNI, Five Points, and other...

Gayle Brandeis remembers her mother

Gayle Brandeis--a loving friend and colleague--grew up in the Chicago area and has been writing poems and stories since she was four years old. She is the author of Fruitflesh : Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperOne), Dictionary Poems (Pudding House Publications), the novels The Book of Dead Birds (HarperCollins), which won Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change, Self Storage (Ballantine) and Delta Girls (Ballantine), and her...

Maddie Dawson talks about the back story for The Stuff That Never Happened

While I am still navigating the wilds of my new novel (without a compass and the water is running low), the wonderful Maddie Dawson agreed to write a guest blog on the back story of her spectacularly good new novel, The Stuff That Never Happened. Thank you Maddie!

By Maddie Dawson

Nobody knows for sure where novels come from. I happen to believe they assemble themselves all on their own, haphazardly picking up little observations here and there and then smooshing them all together, like a big, ...

Lisa Unger ask, "What Kind of Writer AM I?"

I'm thrilled to have Lisa Unger here again, ruminating on reader expectations and writer identity (and talking a bit more about her wonderful new novel, Fragile.) Thanks so, so much, Lisa!

I was speaking to a book group, which I often do. And a woman in the room said, "This is my first book of yours and I really … liked it." She sounded surprised. "That's wonderful," I said. "I mean," she went on. "I didn't expect to. I don't usually like thrillers. But this wasn't, you know, fluff

Karen Degroot Carter Talks about Entering the Writing Zone

I'm deep in Writerland, braving the wilds, hoping my shots work and watching out for wild prose-destroying beasts-- we won't even talk about the ego-mashing ones. I'm very grateful to the fantastic writers who offered to write guest posts for me, starting with Karen DeGroot Carter (Thank you, Karen!)

The Writing Process: Entering the Zone and Staying There…

This means in Spite of It All. Even if it means telling it all to go to hell. The laundry that should be done before a loved one is...

Book envy

Sigh. I wish I didn't do this, but every once in a while I read a book and it makes me wish that I had written it. I recently finished Emma Donoghue's Room, which is truly extraordinary, but there's this ridiculous part of me that is shouting in my head, "You idiot. Why didn't you write this remarkable book?"
I know this isn't really about subject matter. To write something that's true and meaningful, you really have to write about what obsesses you, what matters to you, what you're trying ...

My Top Ten Book List on J. Peder Zane's terrific blog

I'm thrilled and honored to have my top ten book list up all this week at J. Peder Zane's terrific blog, The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books.

Leah Stewart talks about literary sexism

Leah Stewart, author of Husband and Wife, previously posted on my blog about literary sexism, and she got so many replies, and so much interest, that I asked her if she'd write more about the topic. Like Leah, I get really annoyed at the way women writing about family or home are somehow diminished for it when men writing about the same thing are acclaimed. Thanks, so much, Leah.

Recently a male writer I very much admire asked me what I thought of a question posed him by a female...

How to Be a Professional Writer by Deb Amlen

Deb Amlen author of the humor book, It's Not PMS, It's You , is a humor writer and crossword puzzle constructor whose work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and more. Because I'm obsessed with process, I asked Deb if she'd do a guest post on writing. Thank you, thank you, Deb!

How to Be a Professional Writer

Many people have written recently to congratulate me on the publication of my first book, "It's Not PMS, It's You". Those who know me also ask a series of...