Ever promise yourself to read a certain author’s work, but never got around to it? I haven’t yet kept my promise to read the work of Paul Auster, among America’s most prolific writers. Auster died on ...

When a reader opens the pages of a fantasy novel, they might relish in anticipation of entering a new, imaginative world and a thrilling and delightful reading experience. But, what does writing ...

Of course not. Writing is hard work. All those words. All those punctuation marks. All those rules. I’ve hung around writers for decades now, and they all complain about writing. Indeed, most writers ...

As a psychotherapist who specializes in working with creative people, I'm often asked to speak at writing conferences. At one such recent event, an audience member stood up and asked a question. "When ...

Livingstone is a writer, educator, and editor. She holds a doctorate in Hispanic literature, was a Fulbright scholar in Brazil, and is currently the managing editor of MLN, a peer-reviewed journal of ...

There are a lot of great quotes about the writing process (which is not surprising when you think about it). Here’s one of my favorites: “Writing is easy. You just sit at your typewriter until little ...

Two new books by fiction writers Elizabeth McCracken and Sue Monk Kidd offer different approaches to the craft of writing. McCracken's "A Long Game" is skeptical of cosmic inspiration, focusing ...

This fall is the first in nearly 20 years that I am not returning to the classroom. For most of my career, I taught writing, literature, and language, primarily to university students. I quit, in ...