What is fiction for? Why on earth do we read fiction? One of my husband’s favorite “writer” stories concerns an author with a very Southern mother whom he called to…Continue readingLying for a living
I’m going to a writers’ retreat in a rustic and charming place on the shores of Lake Quinault in Washington. It’s March. The light is that earnest bright shade of…Continue readingThe writer and the storyteller
Lovereading.co.uk once wrote that they love epic books with swathes of characters creating a wonderfully complex plot, but asked rather plaintively: “Sometimes is it all too much?” They produced a…Continue readingToo many characters?
I wrote this piece nearly 20 years ago for the online journal Swans, talking about a different war, different refugees — my war, my refugees. So little has changed, nothing…Continue readingTHEY CHANGE THEIR SKY
An Ode to Summer Delights I have frissons of existential fear every time I wander past the news headlines these days. There is only one explanation for what is going…Continue readingWhen the world goes mad
Wars, refugees and the twilight of the spirit Wars seem to come naturally to our species. Too naturally. I once read that we and a handful of species of ants…Continue readingRefugees of war
We have a guest today. My friend Joshua Palmatier has a new book out – more than that, it’s the culminating book of a series, and one which completes a…Continue readingThe Big Idea