| |
| |
| Introduction | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Literary Pilgrim Progresses to the Past | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Novelist's Vivid Memory Spins Fiction of Its Own | |
| |
| |
| |
| To Engage the World More Fully, Follow a Dog | |
| |
| |
| |
| Hidden Within Technology's Empire, a Republic of Letters | |
| |
| |
| |
| Pupils Glimpse an Idea, Teacher Gets a Gold Star | |
| |
| |
| |
| Characters' Weaknesses Build Fictions' Strengths | |
| |
| |
| |
| How Can You Create Fiction When Reality Comes to Call? | |
| |
| |
| |
| From Echoes Emerge Original Voices | |
| |
| |
| |
| Quick Cuts: The Novel Follows Film into a World of Fewer Words | |
| |
| |
| |
| Two Languages in Mind, but Just One in the Heart | |
| |
| |
| |
| Instant Novels? In Your Dreams! | |
| |
| |
| |
| Goofing Off While the Muse Recharges | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Novelist Breaches the Border to Nonfiction | |
| |
| |
| |
| Putting Pen to Paper, but Not Just Any Pen or Just Any Paper | |
| |
| |
| |
| To See Your Story Clearly, Start by Pulling the Wool over Your Own Eyes | |
| |
| |
| |
| Real Life, That Bizarre and Brazen Plagiarist | |
| |
| |
| |
| Sustained by Fiction While Facing Life's Facts | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Enduring Commitment of a Faithful Storyteller | |
| |
| |
| |
| Inventing Life Steals Time, Living Life Begs It Back | |
| |
| |
| |
| Themes Will Emerge When You're Not Looking | |
| |
| |
| |
| Sitting Down a Novelist, Getting Up a Playwright | |
| |
| |
| |
| Those Words That Echo . . . Echo . . . Echo Through Life | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Forbidden Territory Familiar to All | |
| |
| |
| |
| Summoning the Mystery and Tragedy, but in a Subterranean Way | |
| |
| |
| |
| Comforting Lessons in Arranging Life's Details | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Humble Genre Novel, Sometimes Full of Genius | |
| |
| |
| |
| She Was Blond. She Was in Trouble. And She Paid 3 Cents a Word | |
| |
| |
| |
| Virtual Reality: The Perils of Seeking a Novelist's Facts in Her Fiction | |
| |
| |
| |
| For Authors, Fragile Ideas Need Loving Every Day | |
| |
| |
| |
| To Invigorate Literary Mind, Start Moving Literary Feet | |
| |
| |
| |
| Oates A Storyteller Stands Where Justice Confronts Basic Human Needs | |
| |
| |
| |
| Life of Prose and Poetry: An Inspiring Combination | |
| |
| |
| |
| Inspiration? Head Down the Back Road, and Stop for the Yard Sales | |
| |
| |
| |
| If You Invent the Story, You're the First to See How It Ends | |
| |
| |
| |
| Once Upon a Time, Literature. Now What? | |
| |
| |
| |
| Starting with a Tree and Finally Getting to the Death of a Brother | |
| |
| |
| |
| Opting for Invention over the Injury of Invasion | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Reluctant Muse Embraces His Task, and Everything Changes | |
| |
| |
| |
| Directions: Write, Read, Rewrite. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as Needed | |
| |
| |
| |
| Sontag 0 An Odyssey That Started with Ulysses | |
| |
| |
| |
| Questions of Character: There's No Ego as Wounded as a Wounded Alter Ego | |
| |
| |
| |
| Updike (as Henry Bech) Despite Tough Guys, Life Is Not the Only School for Real Novelists | |
| |
| |
| |
| Metta to Muriel and Other Marvels: A Poets Experience of Meditation | |
| |
| |
| |
| In the Castle of Indolence You Can Hear the Sound of Your Own Mind | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Sacred Magic Can Elevate the Secular Storyteller | |
| |
| |
| |
| Embarking Together on Solitary Journeys | |
| |