Looking for Trump in Classic Literature
With the election putting us all on edge, and the news cycles on both political ends spouting the rhetoric of potentially unprecedented catastrophe depending on the results, let’s step back and…
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Victor Luo
130 posts
Victor Luo is a graduate of UC Davis's MA in Creative Writing program specializing in fiction. He lives in Los Angeles where he loves never having to be cold.
Feminism and Silence’s Uneasy Relationship
Silence sometimes can protect you. It’s easy to think of the one who “saves herself,” who hides in the closet while the rest of the family is raped and killed…
The Working Titles of Classic Lit
While the great classics studied in classrooms everywhere tend to have very memorable titles, those classics could have received slightly different treatment had their working titles been used instead. Over at Electric Literature,…
Flipping the Gender Script
Tired of the incessant number of novels describing women in terms of their slender bodies, simple minds, or sexual status? Over at McSweeney’s, read this hilarious satire from Meg Ellison…
How Will Our Current-Day Literature Be Studied in the Future?
With so many books winning so many prizes over the years (Nobel this, Pulitzer that), one can’t help but wonder how our generation’s sense of literature might be described in the…
Keeping Family and Writing Separate
Here’s a question many writers loathe: what does your family think about your writing? Nosy readers gobble up the chance to connect a story’s characters and their real-life counterparts, and…
How One Man Pioneered the Bookstore Business
You might know about the invention of the printing press revolutionizing the business of publishing, but what about the revolution in actually selling those published books? At Lit Hub, John…
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is Painfully Relevant Today
With so many Americans tuning in and cringing at the deluge of election controversies, we can take a little comfort that there are incredibly apt pieces of fiction to turn to for…
John Cheever Could Never Be a Single Mother
John Cheever, known as the “Chekov of the suburbs” for his fiction’s signature focus on the domestic, suburban family life in the 40s and 50s, probably couldn’t hack being a single…
The Up and Downs of Literary Fame
While we may envy writers with books that have just reached critical acclaim or won a prestigious prize, a writer’s fame often doesn’t last for very long. What happens when a writer finds…
Even Famous Novels Weren’t Written in a Day
Feeling like the progress on your novel has stalled? That draft feel like it’s collecting dust as it sits on your hard drive, unopened for months? Worry not! Many novels that have…
Describing Characters Better
Having trouble getting your character just right? Not sure how to illustrate their inner lives, their conflicted feelings, and complicated psychologies? Read John Thornton Williams’s extremely helpful essay on writing…