The Writer October 2013

YEARS AGO WHEN MY SISTER WAS VISITING, she deposited a lucky charm in my garden. The polished green glass stone remained hidden for a long time, maybe most of the summer – which is more of a testament to my ineffectual weeding habits than her camouflage techniques. When I eventually found the stone and wiped off the mud, one word gleamed at me: WRITE. At that moment, I had no idea about my sister’s mischief. All I knew was that a talisman seemed to have revealed itself to me with a clear directive. Only later did I learn the provenance of the engraved stone. But the message now greets me every day when I sit at my desk where the stone has been added to a small collection of trinkets.…

I lay in bed, my leg in a cast. The sun outside couldn’t penetrate the gloom in my room. It was autumn of my final law school year. My knee had been shredded, unheroically, during an intramural flag football game. Confined to bed for 10 days, I had little to do but stew. On my nightstand was Student Lawyer, the American Bar Association marketing magazine. Despite its title, no self-respecting law student ever read it. Except, now, me. It was 1979. Law schools were packed with Baby Boomers, raised on the civil rights revolution, angry or cynical about the Vietnam War, inspired by the power-toppling spectacle of Watergate. The world needed changing? We would change the world. And arming ourselves with a legal education seemed a smart move. But buried…

WHERE DO YOU READ THE WRITER? Send a photo of yourself and a short description of the location to tweditorial@madavor.com. Freelance writer Susan Sommer reads The Writer at her family’s commercial fish camp on Kalgin Island, Alaska, where she has visited every summer since childhood. And yes, the shed is really tipped at that angle. During down time at the annual Baltimore Urban Book Festival, author Norwood Holland reads The Writer. The beautiful setting of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is where Susan Baker enjoys reading The Writer. In Hamburg, Germany, reader Nancy Jorgensen met up with her daughter Gwen, a 2012 Olympian, after she competed in the ITU World Triathlon Series. Pilot Dan Ernst spends part of every layover writing his first nonfiction book. “My preflight checklist includes having…

Said Sayrafiezadeh Said Sayrafiezadeh’s first book was the Whiting Award-winning memoir When Skateboards Will Be Free, which details his childhood in Pittsburg with an Iranian-born father and a Jewish American mother, both of whom were heavily involved in the Socialist Workers Party and convinced that the U.S. would soon fall to a socialist revolution. Sayrafiezadeh’s writing is characterized by a wry humor grounded in solid political and social realism. In addition to his memoir, he has written plays and has published journalism and fiction in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and Granta. His most recent book is the short story collection Brief Encounters with the Enemy, which met with strong reviews when it was released in August after having previously been excerpted in The New Yorker and named a…

Each year on October 16, we celebrate the birthday of Noah Webster, the innovative lexicographer who wrote the most indispensable guidebook for writers: the dictionary. In honor of National Dictionary Day, we asked five creative writing professors for their must-have writing resources. “My favorites [for teaching] today are Tell It Slant by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola for creative nonfiction and Writing the Memoir by Judith Barrington for memoir specifically. For myself, I have no go-to resource but keep reading as widely (and critically) as I can, learning from the best of writers, past and present.” —Nancy Lord, fiction/nonfiction, University of Alaska Anchorage “I often return to Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft. Rather than marching readers through the usual atomistic descriptions of plot, setting and character, Le Guin focuses…

This is a personal decision, one that can only arise from your own interest in the work. It would be easier, wouldn’t it, if we had assurance that once you hit, say, 432 hours of revision, you’ve done all you can? That’s just not the case, though, so the decision is up to you. If you’re still engaged in the piece and eager to strengthen it, then continue revising. Be aware of how you’re revising. If you’re tinkering with language, even though you know the plot needs a major overhaul, you might consider how you can better focus your efforts. If you’re taking it apart in a more genuine and productive way, forge ahead. However, if you’re not still engaged with the story, perhaps it is time to put it…