Category: Reading

Visions of Summer

There’s something about summer that stirs a longing within me. Not a longing to sunbathe on a hot, sandy beach or embark on a long trek in the mountains, or take an exotic vacation, though I enjoy those activities, too….

Craft on Draft: Writing Fiction from Real Life

At last month’s Craft on Draft event Michelle Hoover, Emily Ross, and Dawn Tripp shared how truth inspired their fiction. In addition to reading excerpts from their novels and revealing what was influenced by fact, the authors selected the event’s…

Looking the Sphinx in the Eyes

The first page of Jenny Erpenbeck’s amazing 2014 novel The End of Days (Aller Tage Abend in German, available in English from New Directions) has to rank among the most agonizingly beautiful—and thematically apt—novel openings ever written: “The Lord gave,…