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February 19, 2010"A movie Began to Play Out in My Mind’s Eye": Kathleen Grissom on Her Novel, The Kitchen House
Kathleen Grissom talks about reading, writing, the inspiration for her first novel, The Kitchen House (Simon & Schuster), and the research she did while writing her book.Q:How did you come to write ...
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March 08, 2018
Write well, write better, write often.
In my introductory Q&A I gave an abbreviated account of how I write, and in particular how I wrote my first novel. I always find other writers’ processes interesting, so I thought I’d talk about ...
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June 02, 2022Janet Calcaterra on Crafting a Powerfully Intimate Novel Exploring the Legacy of War and Secrets
The myths and silences that grow up around family secrets can be like knots – tightening, fraying, and tangling over time until they seem impossible to unravel. In Janet Calcaterra's riveting family ...
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January 21, 2021"I Can’t Help but Care, and So I Write and I Speak Up" Elizabeth Allua Vaah on the Power of Titles & Motherhood
In a small village in Ghana, an 18-year old widow makes a vow to change not only her fate but the fates of her children and many women around her. Young Ahu has no choice to remarry, but in every other ...
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March 18, 2018
A picture prompts a thousand words.
Readers of The Bone Mother will know that a significant part of the book’s effectiveness lies in the beautiful, unsettling archival photographs that illustrate the sections that are sent in and around ...
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January 30, 2018Behind Every Story, A Less Interesting Story
Lillian is trying to write a good play. When progress alludes her, she tears the false starts out of her typewriter, scrunches them up into balls, and kicks over the wastebasket that brims with bad drafts. ...
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August 04, 2020My Attraction to Gritty Stories
Not all stories are romantic or are tied up neatly at the end. Sometimes characters do not have a redeeming quality, and sometimes their experiences have made them hard and difficult to “save.” Gritty ...
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November 27, 2017Mariam Pirbhai on Bringing Invisible Characters into the Spotlight
An earthquake survivor, a resort hotel maid, a migrant worker on a chicken farm. These are just a few of the fascinating and diverse characters in Mariam Pirbhai's short story collection Outside People ...
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October 15, 2019"We Wanted to See Just How Nuts People Could Get" Sandra Kasturi on ChiZine's Hilarious "War on Christmas" Story Anthology
Maybe you're the person who can hardly wait until Halloween has passed before pulling out the winter holiday decorations — the person who is first in line for the first tree that's been chopped down, ...
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September 03, 2020Read an Excerpt from Farzana Doctor's New Novel, Seven
Sharifa, the main character in author Farzana Doctor's new novel, Seven (Dundurn), is getting more than she bargained for when she decides to dig into her family's history.After landing in India alongside ...
