The Writing Life

From Library Journal

In this collection of 19 essays and interviews, National Book Award winners explore the role of the writer and share the rituals they use to get started writing. Among the contributors are such well-known authors as Gloria Naylor, Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, Paul Monette, E. Annie Proulx, and Norman Rush. Naylor, winner of the National Book Award for The Women of Brewster Place (LJ 6/15/82), tells of entering the African Studies Department at Brooklyn College and learning about all the black writers she did not know existed. Monette, whose Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story (LJ 5/1/92) won the award for nonfiction in 1992, warns against censorship; while Rush, 1992 fiction award winner for Mating (LJ 9/1/91), reminds us of the importance of literature. This collection will inspire all interested in writers, writing, and the creative process. At a time when interest in quality literature seems to be dwindling, this volume, which celebrates the act of writing, the forging of a creative product out of everyday existence, is particularly valuable.

Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.