Writers on Writing, Volume Ii by Jane Smiley

Writers on Writing, Volume Ii by Jane Smiley

"Glimpses into writers and the circumstances that shape them . . . Valuable gleanings."-Kirkus Reviews

In a second volume of original essays drawn from the long-running New York Times column, Writers on Writing brings together another group of contemporary literature's finest voices to muse on the challenges and gifts of language and creativity.
The pieces range from taciturn, hilarious advice for aspiring writers to thoughtful, soul-wrenching reflections on writing in the midst of national tragedy. William Kennedy talks about the intersecting lives of real and imagined Albany politics; Susan Isaacs reveals her nostalgia for a long-retired protagonist; and Elmore Leonard offers pithy rules for letting the writing, and not the writer, take charge. With contributions from Diane Ackerman, Margaret Atwood, Frank Conroy, Mary Karr, Patrick McGrath, Arthur Miller, Amy Tan, and Edmund White, Writers on Writing, Volume II offers an uncommon and revealing view of the writer's world.

Jane Smiley is the author of A Thousand Acres, as well as more than 10 other works of fiction, including Horse Heaven, Moo, and The Greenlanders, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001. She resides in the state of California's northwestern region.