We always wind up asking about favorite books. Authors on book tour are relieved to get out of the spotlight and talk about somebody else’s writing for a change. They often sound more confident. They don’t lack opinions. And they’ve read a whole lot.
Not asking would be a little like going to the dentist and not asking about your teeth.
So we decided to make it a series: What Writers Read.
Brady Udall calls out Plainsong, Kent Haruf’s 1999 novel, a National Book Award finalist. [click to comment]
The author of The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint discusses the physical and emotional pain that his characters often endure—Edgar, in particular—and how such experiences help to shape characters in a reader’s (and a writer’s) mind. [click to comment]
“I started doing the research. And the more research I did, the more appalled I became. I’d read Terry Tempest Williams. I’d read some of the accounts. But I didn’t have any idea of what had happened. Only fifty years ago, fifty-five years ago….” [click to comment]
Every so often, if you’re lucky, you stumble into a long novel whose characters take hold of you from the very beginning; without a trace of anything resembling effort, you’re propelled through hundreds and hundreds of captivating pages. A Prayer for Owen Meany was one of those books for me. Also East of Eden. By the time you near the end, consumed as you’ve become by the fate of the characters, you simply can’t slow down; and all the while, you want to make those final chapters last as long as possible because they’ll never be new to you again.
In the case of The Lonely Polygamist, we’re talking 599 pages. And I relished every one. (Maybe 2010 will be remembered as a banner year for long fiction. Only weeks after finishing Udall’s novel, Jonathan Franzen’s 562-page Freedom, which publishes in September, took over my life, as well.) [click to comment]
Live Wire! is a one-hour radio variety show recorded in front of a live audience. It’s music, it’s conversation, it’s sketch comedy...
Listen to Live Wire!, subscribe to the newsletter, and if you're near Portland attend a live show.
Wordstock is a year-round Oregon nonprofit that works to promote writing in the classroom. And once a year, the Wordstock Festival takes over Portland.
Wordstock is a year-round Oregon nonprofit that works to promote writing in the classroom. And once a year, the 