A reader sent me a blog written by a librarian who, after having a daughter, admits she fell into a “cultural wasteland” where neither books nor movies existed. Eventually, her librarian instincts kicked in, and in 2015 she read 164 books, some with pleasure, some because she thou

J. C.  Halliman cocks a doubtful eyebrow at novelist Philip Roth’s announcement he has retired from writing. (“The Monk Retires,” The Baffler, Vol. 27, pgs. 184-189.) If so, the essayist wonders, why do we keep seeing him on television or as a speaker at literary events. From t

A writer, sitting alone with a computer, lives a courageous life.  It begins with an internal struggle to manage thoughts, to edit fearlessly and then expose the work to the public where it will be praised, ridiculed or ignored.  I think Harper Lee at 82 is remarkably brave to come

I admit it. Writers can’t be trusted. In their desire to share insights, they can forget someone’s feeling might be hurt. In an earlier blog on Truman Capote (Blog Dec. 12, 2012) I wrote about the author’s roman à clef, a fictionalized profile of some of his friends in New York

An acquaintance of mine recently congratulated me on my new book, Trompe l’Oeil, my third in five years and sighed that she wished her current biography, which she’s been working on for five years, didn’t require so much research. Her implication was that a fiction writer can kn