In A Velocity of Being, a collection of letters to young readers, writer Alexander Chee offers reasons as to why he became a reader himself. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of βWhy He Became a Readerβ Alexander Chee has written about...
Sarah Smarsh, author of Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, advises that although would-be writers should read extensively, itβs even more important to listen intensely. This is part of a complete...
Essayist Rebecca Solnit has excellent advice for aspiring writers. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of βSolnitβs Writing Adviceβ Youβre listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. Iβm Grant Barrett. And...
Writer Isabel Allende offers this writing advice: βShow up, show up, show up, and after a while, the Muse shows up, too.β This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of βIsabel Allendeβs Adviceβ One of my favorite quotations about writing comes...
The verb to kibitz has more than one meaning. It can mean βto chitchatβ or βto look on giving unsolicited advice.β The word comes to English through Yiddish, and may derive from German Kiebitz, a reference to a folk belief that the bird is a...
An Upper Michigan listener with a form of dyslexia told us he wrote to Kurt Vonnegut years ago about his frustration with trying to become a published writer. Vonnegut wrote back, assuring that when you care enough about your subject, the right...

