Writing Small Moments: A Conversation with Suzanne Farrell Smith
Suzanne Farrell Smith discusses her debut memoir, THE MEMORY SESSIONS.
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Posts Tagged: sentimentality
Doing This Wild Thing: A Conversation with Leesa Cross-Smith
Leesa Cross-Smith discusses her new story collection, SO WE CAN GLOW.
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My Blockbuster
Time has put those lovely nostalgia lenses in front of our eyes, and I am not immune.
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Katie Ford
Katie Ford discusses her new collection, IF YOU HAVE TO GO.
...moreExtremely Sentimental and Incredibly Useful
At Electric Literature, Manuel Betancourt argues that there is value to the “cheap sentimentality” in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and its film adaptation: What cheap sentimentality can do is to short-circuit our connection to the depths of our emotions, precisely by making us feel that they are closer to the surface than we’re perhaps […]
...moreMeasuring Emotion
At Lit Hub, a former student talks with Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams, about expressions of emotion in personal essays and why “confession and sentimentality [are] taboo.” For Jamison, the investigation of writing emotion began in her MFA program: “I hated this sort of smug assumption that we all knew what was bad.” […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Kristopher Jansma
Kristopher Jansma discusses his second novel, Why We Came to the City, facing adulthood in his thirties, and working through grief and loss in writing.
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Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #21: John Irving
And that is how I feel about John Irving novels. That they gave me everything.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #69: Meaning Yes
When in need of comfort, it’s always worth trying close reading.
...moreThe Science of Sentimentality
Based on the available evidence, if you want to write one of the fifty most important novels in the next half-century, then by all means avoid sentimental language. But if you want to get published, sell books, be reviewed, win a prize or simply make someone happy, then emote away and just write a good […]
...moreEvery Word Counts
Great writers, along with everything else they are doing, stage a readerly experience and lead their readers through it from first word on first page to last. Mapping out what those paths might look like is as worthy a critical approach as any. At the Paris Review blog, Damion Searls takes a new approach to […]
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