Innehållsförteckning för July 2013 från The Writer

WE’RE ENTERING THE TIME of year many of us think of as vacation time. Or as I like to call it: reading season. For readers of this magazine, it’s also a time when we might steal extra time writing – when the kids are at the beach, when the family has gone off for a day trip, when we sequester in a cabin by the lake, when we stop the grind of the academic calendar to let our writing minds be free of official deadlines. When I spoke this spring with Diane Paulus, the Tony Award-winning director at American Repertory Theater and writer of numerous creative theatrical events, I asked her what she does to refresh. “It’s a cliché,” she said, “but whenever you start moving, the ideas unlock. Whenever…

Dina Nayeri Iranian American novelist Dina Nayeri’s debut novel A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea came out this year in more than 20 countries and 13 languages. Set in post-revolutionary Iran, the novel follows the life of a young Christian Persian woman – from girlhood into her early 20s – as she struggles to deal with being separated from her mother and twin sister, grows up in a country under the Ayatollah’s authoritarian rule and is eventually married off to a much older man. Nayeri’s writing has appeared in publications including Granta New Voices, Salon and Glamour, and she holds degrees from Princeton, Harvard and the Iowa Writers Workshop. Her second novel, In Transit, will be published next year by Riverhead. It follows an Iranian family that moves to Oklahoma.…

• I usually write something immediately just to get the energy out of my body, but then as time goes on and the event gets revealed, my ideas change and I keep writing about it. • I have to marinate on things for a while. I usually write most of it in my head, occasionally jotting down a note or two on a scrap of paper, then, when it’s “cooked,” I spill it out onto my laptop. • Same day, but need the next day to complete my thoughts. I usually finish the second day. • By the next day. • It was 10 years before I could put anything about 9/11/01 into my writing. Mainly because I lived in DC at the time and through my job and people…

Certain things are a natural part of every writer’s life: eating, sleeping, writing – and rejection. The last is almost always emotionally painful, but it’s one of the main occupational hazards of being a writer. Everyone, from beginner to seasoned pro, gets those demoralizing little notes. While no advice can take away the sting, the following 10 tips can buoy your spirits and keep you on track. 1. Deal with your feelings. After a rejection, it’s natural to feel down or even despondent, and denying or bottling up feelings can be harmful. You’re free to wallow in misery, but deal with it in a healthy way: Write about it, talk to others, have a pep talk with yourself, have an ice-cream cone, punch a pillow. Indulge the feelings, but only…

Here’s how to be Aaron Sorkin, triple-threat super-scribe for movies, stage and TV: Go for bold. Stretch the boundaries of small-screen storytelling with the adrenalin-amped HBO dramedy The Newsroom, which you created, write and executive-produce. Stack up those statuettes and awards nominations, too. Depict the birth of Facebook with your Academy Award-winning screenplay for The Social Network (2010). Take viewers inside a fictional, fiercely idealistic White House with your Emmy-winning episodes of The West Wing (1999-2006). Adapt your own Broadway play, A Few Good Men, into the Oscar-nominated 1992 film of the same name. Love the insider look. Send up the media with your Humanitas Prize-winning series, Sports Night (1998-2000), about a fictional cable sports network, and your Saturday Night Live-styled Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006-2007). Relive the…

Call it the sweet sound of success. With authors chasing print or electronic book deals, they often miss another viable avenue for publication: audiobooks. The audiobook industry has been around since the 1930s, beginning as “Talking Books” for the blind. The next leap forward for the industry came in the 1970s, with the advent of portable cassette players and of cassette players as standard equipment in imported Japanese cars. Books on tapes became and remain an enjoyable way to pass a long drive. Now the dominant format for audiobooks is digital downloads onto electronic devices such as computers, MP3 players, smartphones and tablets. Although audiobooks have been around for decades, the industry itself is just scratching the surface of its potential. Even the most generous estimate is that only 10…

Chapter 13: Hit your target. Imagine writing a long passage that looks like the flight of an arrow from a strong bow across a distance and into the center of a target. The bow is the subject, the bow string the verb, the arrow crosses the distance of the message, but stops suddenly on some emphatic point. The more humorous or satirical the passage, the sharper the point: “Groundhog Day has been observed only once in Los Angeles because when the groundhog came out of its hole, it was killed by a mud slide.” (Johnny Carson) When I was young, the Dead Sea was still alive.” (George Burns) “When they circumcised Herbert Samuel, they threw away the wrong part.” (David Lloyd George on a rival) Stephen Greenblatt is an author,…

Ninety minutes. Twentyfour agents. Nine editors. One pitch. With high stakes and the bases loaded, the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Conference connects writers with professionals who can drive their careers to the next level. “The goal of the conference is to help writers position themselves in a great place to achieve their publishing dreams,” says PNWA president Pam Binder. “To either acquire an agent or an editor, to polish their manuscript, or to learn key steps to promote their books. It’s our goal to help them every step of the way.” The PNWA annual conference provides a forum for writers to share their books with the publishing world. Each attendee is assigned a 90-minute block of time for one-on-one “power pitches” with editors and agents of their choosing. Writers have…

»AGENTS F N THE AMY RENNERT AGENCY Seeks general fiction, literary fiction, mysteries, narrative nonfiction, health, lifestyle, biography, business/investing/finance, history and sports. Prefers queries by email. Contact: The Amy Rennert Agency, 1550 Tiburon Blvd. #302, Tiburon, CA 94920. 415-789-8955. queries@amyrennert.com. amyrennert.com F N Y CAROLYN SWAYZE LITERARY AGENCY Represents mostly Canadian authors. Seeks literary fiction; juvenile teen books; limited commercial fiction; narrative nonfiction, especially travel; science; nature; history; politics; pop culture; food; lifestyle; parenting; and memoir. Prefers queries by email, but will accept postal mail. Contact: Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency, P.O. Box 39588, RPO White Rock, Surrey, BC Canada, V4A 0A9. reception@swayzeagency.com. swayzeagency.com N THE COWLES-RYAN LITERARY AGENCY Represents authors of nonfiction books for a general audience, including health, nature, narrative, memoir, food and select photography/illustrated books. Send queries by…

My husband and I have a running list of writing jokes that we pass back and forth when he’s trying to talk me off the Ledge of Despair. The Ledge of Despair is my name for the frightfully high psychic shelf where I totter unsteadily above the mental freeway that will spell my certain death if I leap, which is what I want to do. What drives me out there is my current writing project, languishing next to a letter from a coveted literary agent. In the letter, the agent promises nothing in the way of representation (yet) but alludes to grand possibilities. All I have to do is winnow down two memoirs of 600 pages into one heart-stopping, luminous 200-page pearl of literary genius, and then we’ll talk. The…

Should The Elements of Style by Strunk and White be on every writer’s shelf? WHEN E.B. WHITE was a student at Cornell, he took a course taught by William Strunk, Jr. Strunk had written one of the required texts for that course, a slim book he had printed privately. Decades later, a publisher asked White to revise the book for commercial publication. The name E. B. White may ring a bell. He’s the author of Charlotte’s Web. He has also written fiction for adults, poetry and essays. The Elements of Style is often billed as a must-have for writers, and for good reason. It includes clear, decisive rules, urging writers to “use the active voice” and “omit needless words.” The book focuses on the importance of concise writing. It is…

Joyce Carol Oates @JoyceCarolOates Bad news: everything of (human) significance has already been written. Good news: most of it is out of print & long forgotten. Yuvi Zalkow @yuvizalkow Writing a novel is like learning how to swim in that you’re constantly gasping for air and in a state of terror about drowning. Khaled Talib @Khaled Talib Truth be told: Writers see more than just dead people. They see a whole lot of other beings – dead and alive; on earth and beyond. #write Lils @LiteralLils Starting a new #novel is like starting a whole new journey in life! #TheHouseOnMangoStreet Ksenia Anske @kseniaanske Go crazy. Dig deep into your madness. Dance around like a lunatic. Grab handfuls of stars and eat them like candy. Live. Dream. WRITE. Terri Edda Miller…

With a life story that took him from math major to novelist, David Corbett could be the perfect example of a complex character. “I was one of those middle-class white kids who’d always been great at standardized tests,” Corbett says. “I just thought I needed to get out of the ivory tower and get my heart broken and my nose bloodied. So I did.” After four novels and various careers including actor and private investigator, Corbett had set the groundwork for his craft book The Art of Character. With examples from classic and modern literature as well as film and TV, each chapter provides insight into character development, from the moment of genesis to the creation of scenes and dialogue. A New York Times notable author, Corbett applies the key…

Aaron Sorkin is the creator, writer and executive producer of The Newsroom, which makes its second season premiere July 14 on HBO. Born in New York City, Sorkin graduated from Syracuse University in 1983 with a B.F.A. in theater. He lives in Los Angeles. SELECTED CREDITS • Creator/writer/executive producer, The Newsroom (TV series, HBO, 2012-2013) • Screenwriter, Moneyball (feature film), 2011 • Screenwriter, The Social Network (feature film), 2010 • Screenwriter, Charlie Wilson’s War (feature film), 2007 • Writer, The Farnsworth Invention (stage play), 2007 • Creator/writer/executive producer, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (TV series, NBC), 2006-2007 • Creator/writer/executive producer, The West Wing (TV series, NBC), 1999-2006 • Creator/writer/executive producer, Sports Night (TV series, ABC), 1998-2000* • Screenwriter, The American President (feature film), 1995 • Screenwriter, Malice (feature film),…

In America, God sells. In India, not so much. That was the thinking anyway nutil Amish Tripathi, now a literar rock star in the country, often going by only one name-amish-hit the circuit. After the first book in his trilogy on the hindu God Shiva was rejected by nearly two dozen publishers, he self-pubilshed The Immortals of Meluha, which landed on best-seller lists within a week of its launch. The Shiva trilogy became the fastest-selling book series in the history of Indian publishing, with 1.5 million copies sold as of thi spring. Eaalier this year, Tripathi’s name was in the news again for receiving a $1 million advance from an indian publisher for his next-as yet unwritten-trilogy, making him the first Indian in the history os publishing to receive this…

BORN IN LONDON and raised in Massachusetts, Taiye Selasi earned a B.A. in American studies from Yale University and M. Phil in international relations from Oxford University. Her first published story “The Sex Lives of African Girls” was published by Granta and selected for Best American Short Stories 2012. Ghana Must Go is Selasi’s debut novel In the opening scene in Ghana, Kweku Sai dies suddenly of a heart attack. It’s likely he’s dying of a broken heart. Sixteen years earlier in America, he had abandoned his family, leaving his wife and four children penniless. The structure of the novel is a series of flashbacks, dealing with the complex nature of his choice as well as the impact of his abandonment on his family. Kweku may have committed a serious…

Most people working freelance cherish their independence and freedom. But the flip side of working alone all day, as many of us do, is having no one to help when things get really busy and you need back-up, stat! Overloaded with competing projects and short on time, our choices are unappealing: Miss a deadline (not an option); ask your editor or client for an extension, (possible, but not ideal); do the work hastily and hope for the best (not a good choice either). There is another option: Hand off as much as you can to a smart, helpful assistant. I’ve hired and managed more than a dozen for my book projects – which required national reporting – and magazine and newspaper work. My current assistant is a graduate from an…

Adam Johnson is an associate professor of creative writing at Stanford University. His novel The Orphan Master’s Son won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. The Pulitzer committee described Orphan as “an exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart.” The novel was also a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and named one of the best books of 2012 by The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times. Johnson is the author of two previous works of fiction: a short story collection, Emporium (2003), named Debut of the Year; and a first novel, Parasites Like Us, that won a silver medal for fiction at the…

My favorite place to write is on a beach in Martha’s Vineyard sitting hidden behind a dune. Warm sands and absolute isolation, far from the teeming household and generation-laden lawn I love is essential, if only for an hour or two. – Rose Styron, poet and editor of Selected Letters of William Styron The season doesn’t really begin for me until I can sit and write on my porch without a jacket on. When I’m writing on the porch, I can trick myself into putting in four or five hours of work without necessarily feeling like I’m working. – W. Todd Kaneko, poet and short story writer I love to hike alone with a specific question in mind, and the deal I make with myself is that I can’t go…

As the “touchscreen generation” learns to read, TV and technology developers have created a slew of interactive programs and apps that encourage literacy. The PBS television series Super WHY! features a cast of “super readers” who use fairy tales to solve problems and encourage literary skills in their preschool-aged audience. The Emmy-nominated program, written by Angela Santomero, recently toured the U.S. with a live show featuring music by Jack Antonoff of the band Fun. The show invites audience participation as the cast “travels” within the pages of a story. Interactive phone and tablet apps are also bringing literacy to tech-savvy youngsters. Tikatok Story Spark for Nook allows kids to write and illustrate their own eBooks. When their masterpiece is ready, users can “publish” books in both digital and hardcover form…

NOISE CANCELING HEADPHONES Boise’s QuietComfort headphones received the 2012 Travelers’ Choice award from Tripadvisor. The sleek design and noise reduction technology make these the perfect companions for noisy airplanes or busy coffee shops. Pop on some music and get whisked away to your writing. Start at $300. bose.com LAP DESK Toss this lightweight desk in the car, and you’ll have a portable office with you 24/7. Designed with comfort in mind, this lap desk has a built-in wrist rest and mouse pad, along with a micro fleece lap pad for stability. Starts at $25. officedepot.com PEN VOICE RECORDER Carry all your writing essentials in one device. Built for high quality recording, the Ultimate Lecture Pen is the perfect dictation tool for thoughts on the run or interviews on the road.…

Have you ever asked yourself while writing, “How many drafts is this going to take?” It may seem like such a question couldn’t have an answer, but it does. The answer is three. Three drafts, not one. Whether it is a blog or a book, some writers claim they can write the way newspaper articles used to be written: Feed the paper into the back of the typewriter. When it comes out the front, you’re done. It may be possible to write a sentence that way, exactly as you want it to be for all time. But any responsible approach to excellence will yield the observation that analysis needs to be paired with inspiration to produce the best balance of the two. Three drafts, not 49. You may have heard…

Hollywood, film and TV, oh my! Andrea Portes wrote the novel Hick and sold it to Unbridled Press in 2007. She also wrote the 2011 Hick screenplay starring Alec Baldwin, Juliette Louis and Chloë Grace Moretz. Portes says Hollywood wants books, and she’s proving it by shopping around her subsequent works. “Producers need intellectual property – a novel, a book,” she says. “The thing that’s missing in L.A. is good ideas. The most important thing to realize is that producers want content. They want intellectual property. The fact of the matter is: If you have a good book, a good children’s book – whatever it is – it’s like gold.” Portes’ literary manager Todd Moyer is CEO of Dark Matter, an L.A.-based transmedia company that specializes in turning comic books,…

During the years of research leading up to my book How to Write Short, I have read countless short works, texts that span the history of writing itself. It turns out that Steve Jobs did not invent the tablet, folks, unless he led a previous life as a Sumerian. So, yes, I have looked at the content of those cuneiform messages written with a stylus onto clay. And I have read a googol blog posts, text messages and tweets. The arc of my research spans the earliest written messages to the most recent: the once and future language. That perspective — across epochs of communication and information — has led me to this: While technologies and forms of delivery change, the content and rhetorical strategies designed to express that content…

Kweku leaves his family in financial straits. His wife, Fola, is forced to make difficult choices. To pay for her son Olu’s tuition to Yale, she decides to send her twins to stay with her half brother, Uncle Femi, in her native Nigeria – a decision that proves disastrous. Her surrogate father, Sena, in transit from expulsion in Nigeria, rescues them after 40 weeks with results Fola could not have predicted. And from the dark knowledge of child molestation she gains later, she doesn’t know the half. From what she can gather, her twisted half-brother had hosted some bacchanal that Sena attended (the details, to do with drugs, prostitutes, orgy, have always been unclear). Sena had his own tragic tale to unburden: of expulsion from Lagos under “Ghana Must Go,”…

Spencer Adrian, a senior at the University of Oregon, wrote an essay for a travel writing class exploring how his grandparents taught him to forage on the Oregon coast. He sent it to Culinate, a Portland-based online magazine that explores – through literary essays and articles – the intersection between what editors term “real food and real life.” The piece appeared this spring, representing Adrian’s first professional publication. “My grandparents grew up knowing how to forage and hunt for food, not because it was necessary, but because that’s just what you did,” Adrian explains. “I’ve watched as people slowly forget how to find food for themselves.” In 2006, Michael Pollan’s best-selling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma sparked an international discussion surrounding the politics of food production and consumption. That year, a…