Is Writing About Writing Really Forbidden?
Over at Electric Literature, Kristopher Jansma wonders why we tell students to avoid writing about writing. Perhaps, he suggests, we tell students not to write about writing because we think…
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the writing life
87 posts
Super Hot Prof-on-Student Word Sex: Along Came Polly
I taught Polly at Tin House one year. Or maybe she taught me.
The Priestly Writer
I write for many of the same reasons that I wanted to become a priest. I want to bear witness to a sacramental vision. I want to admit my life…
But is Poetry a Job?
Over at the Poetry Foundation, Patricia Lockwood considers whether or not poetry is real work: Is it work, though? The question persists. Is a single muscle exerted during the process? Do…
Twelve Years, One Book Later
Another testament to the tribulations of novel-making: over at the New Yorker, Akhil Sharma discusses the particular technical problems he faced while writing Family Life as well as how, exactly, he…
Writing “the very stuff of life”
Today in unusual writing jobs: an inside look at what it’s like to be an obituary news writer for the New York Times. Each day, it is our job to…
Jane Austen Would Be Eating Top Ramen Too
With writers, it’s usually neither rags to riches nor riches to rags. Marx had Engels, Austen had her family. Read this and rest assured: some cool people lived with their…
On Writing and Uncertainty
Is writing a fundamentally speculative act? This is one of the questions Jenny Offill was asked in an interview with the Paris Review. Offill discusses the uncertainty that comes with being…
From Writer to Realtor
Famed slam poet Maggie Estep passed away suddenly in February. Over at The Billfold, Rumpus contributor Sari Botton laments the decline of the publishing industry and the need for writers like…
Money Problems
Reading, writing and thinking are all tasks that are nearly impossible to cultivate while performing manual labor. As Plato first noted, when discussing education, “sleep and exercise are unpropitious to…
Pitching from A to Z
The second installment of Nicole Dieker’s series on life as a full-time freelance writer is up at The Billfold, and this time she’s talking about pitching essays (and getting paid for…
Dispatches from a Real-Life, Full-Time Freelance Writer
Over at The Billfold, writer Nicole Dieker kicks off a new series on all aspects of life as a full-time freelancer. In her first installment, she covers the four different…