Irish writer Edna O’Brien’s short story “Madame Cassandra” from her book Saints and Sinners (Bookshop|Amazon) opens with a character observing, “I always love the way bees snuggle into the foxglove … for the coolth and the nectar.” This is part of a...
In a conversation with novelist Ann Patchett, writer Elizabeth McCracken makes a pithy observation about the difference between a novel and a short story. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The Difference Between a Novel and a Short...
Reading A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life (Bookshop|Amazon) feels like auditing a class with creative writing professor writer George Saunders, author of the acclaimed Lincoln in...
Great news! You have a 50 percent chance of getting all of the answers to Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s “Band or Short Story?” puzzle. For example, is “My Life with The Thrill Kill Kult” an electronic industrial rock band or the title of a short story...
Eudora Welty dropped the phrase man in the moon a couple times in her short story “Why I Live at the P.O.” The phrase doesn’t really reference the moon itself; it simply adds emphasis. Incidentally, seeing the image of a face or human figure in the...
Someone should write a love letter to a new book called Letters of Note. It’s a splendid collection of all kinds of correspondence through the ages: Elvis Presley fans writing to the president, children making suggestions to famous cartoonists, a...
