Category: On Writing
Boekenweek in The UK: Interview with Esther Gerritsen
In the countdown to the forthcoming Boekenweek – a week-long celebration of books and literary culture held in the Netherlands each March – the independent publisher World Editions is celebrating the best of Dutch literature in translation by way of a blog tour profiling three of their authors. Today, on the very first day of the tour, Books By Women is […]
Possessed By The Word
If anyone tells you it’s easy to sit down and write a novel feel free to start laughing and call him or her a big fat liar. Inspiration might be easy, finding great story lines might be easy, thinking up fifteen ways to end each chapter might be easy, but writing the whole damn thing […]
An American Marriage: Interview with Tayari Jones
Real. Real is the best word to describe Tayari Jones’ novel, An American Marriage, which was just named Oprah’s latest book club pick. Roy and Celestial know love, and they struggled to be love amidst the swirling chaos that unfolded on fateful even in their new marriage. This novel captivates readers with the depths Jones explores […]
Writing Next Year in Havana
When I first came up with the idea for Next Year in Havana, a dual timeline novel set against the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution and the modern country that emerged in its wake, inspiration came from a family story of a night before my father and grandparents left Cuba in 1967. That evening, family […]
Penguin Women Writers
Penguin Women Writers is a new series of forgotten classics by women writers to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women getting the vote in Britain. In honour of the anniversary, Kamila Shamsie and Penelope Lively have selected and introduced four books by female authors which they felt deserve to be better known. Kamila Shamie, a […]
Are Writing Contests Worth It?
Writing contests are everywhere these days. A quick browse pulls up dozens of reference lists, blogs of encouragement and articles offering cautions. The rewards of contests range from cash to publication to feedback, and we all know that a few kind words from an impartial stranger can send the heart soaring. On the other hand, […]
Writing In The Dark
It is rare that an author decides to remain anonymous. This probably attracts speculation as to why an author would hide behind a pen name and not reveal biographical details about herself. In two famous cases of anonymous women writers, Belle de Jour and Elena Ferrante, their identities were finally revealed. So far, the people […]
Between the Lines By Nancy G. Shapiro
The persevering spirit that compelled me to write The Book of Calm flows from a daily awareness of awakening to both beauty and turmoil. When the contradictions clashed, I kept hearing the question, “How do I embrace these two realities?” Amazingly, my connection to this paradox has been strong, resilient enough that the book stayed […]
Writing Crime Close to Home
A disturbing true crime inspired pieces of my first novel, The Weight of Blood: in the small town where I attended high school, a teenage girl was held captive by a man and his wife for six years—a victim of human trafficking—and none of the handful of people who knew about it did anything to […]
You’ve Got To Have Friends: My Haphazard and Incredibly Lucky Innovations in Book Marketing
With so many books on the market, not to mention TV, films, the Internet and dozens of many other distractions clamoring for our collective attention, how does an author get her book to stand out? I don’t claim to be an expert, but as the release of my second book approaches, I think I have […]
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