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Peter Selgin

Goodreads Author

Born

Bethesda, Maryland, The United States

Website

http://peterselgin.com/

Genre

Fiction, Memoir, Children's

Member Since

January 2009

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/peterselgin

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Peter Selgin is the author of Drowning Lessons, winner of the 2007 Flannery O’Connor Award for Fiction, Life Goes to the Movies, a novel, two books on the craft of fiction, and two children’s books. His stories and essays have appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including Glimmer Train Stories, Poets & Writers, The Sun, Slate, Colorado Review, Writers and Their Notebooks, Writing Fiction, and Best American Essays 2009. Confessions of a Left-Handed Man: An Artist’s Memoir, was recently published by the University of Iowa Press and was short-listed for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. His latest novel, The Water Master, won this years’ Pirate’s Alley / Faulkner Society Prize, and his essay, The Kuhreihen Melod ...more

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Peter Selgin’s books

Average rating: 4.1 · 512 ratings · 106 reviews · 26 distinct works • Similar authors

	By Cunning & Craft: Sound Advice and Practical Wisdom for Fiction Writers 4.16 avg rating — 152 ratings — published 2007 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	179 Ways to Save a Novel: Matters of Vital Concern to Fiction Writers 3.80 avg rating — 89 ratings — published 2010 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Drowning Lessons: Stories 3.97 avg rating — 61 ratings — published 2008 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Inventors: A Memoir by Peter Selgin (Goodreads Author), Lidia Yuknavitch (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 4.16 avg rating — 49 ratings — published 2016 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Duplicity 4.41 avg rating — 29 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Your First Page: First Pages and What They Tell Us about the Pages that Follow Them 4.35 avg rating — 23 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Confessions of a Left-Handed Man: An Artist's Memoir (Sightline Books) 3.73 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Boy's Guide to Outer Space 4.05 avg rating — 22 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Life Goes to the Movies 4.42 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2009 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	"S.S." GIGANTIC ACROSS THE ATLANTIC: The Story of the World's Biggest Ocean Liner Ever 3.93 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 1999 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Peter Selgin's Blog

COVER STORY #9: THE SUN ALSO RISES

Published by Scribner’s in 1926, the first edition featured a Hellenistic jacket design illustrated by Cleonike Damianekes. The illustration, printed in a medley of beiges and browns, depicts a loosely-robed, exhausted-looking woman inclined against an even more tired-looking tree, her head resting on her shoulder, her eyes closed, both shoulders and one thigh exposed, cupping a golde

Peter is Currently Reading

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Cross Creek: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' Reflections on Nature and Community

by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

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Jul 12, 2026 06:36PM

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Mentor: A Memoir

by Tom Grimes

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The Idea of Perfection: The Poetry and Prose of Paul Valéy

by Paul Valéry

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Peter Selgin shared a quote “reading” Theodore Roethke
May 07, 2026 06:58PM · like · more quotes by Theodore Roethke · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of On Poetry and Craft by Theodore Roethke. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — On Poetry and Craft by Theodore Roethke <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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Peter Selgin is currently reading Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Quotes by Peter Selgin (?)

“Never try to keep it professional, keep it smutty, write with bodily fluids on sandpaper, and damn the men with clipboards in white suits, the literary bean-counters, the prose police.”
― Peter Selgin, 179 Ways to Save a Novel: Matters of Vital Concern to Fiction Writers

tags: writers-on-writing, writing, writing-advice, writing-books, writing-process, writing-style

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“Think of all the stories that would end before they begin if their characters gave careful consideration to the consequences of their actions.”
― Peter Selgin, 179 Ways to Save a Novel: Matters of Vital Concern to Fiction Writers

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“reading”
― Theodore Roethke, On Poetry and Craft: Selected Prose

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