Post originally appeared on Wellesley Underground on December 10, 2014. — Good nonfiction needs not just the THEN but also the NOW. When a writer tells a story from her past, if the story is really weird or funny or excellent, it
For the full essay, see it on The Rumpus. Originally published on December 2, 2014. -- Nonfiction is hard to pin down. When I tell people I write nonfiction, I assume they imagine 800-page biographies of dead presidents, or misery memoirs about years
The other day I was in a yoga class, and I found myself wondering how the Christopher Columbus play turns out in Junie B., First Grader: Shipwrecked by Barbara Park. Yes, this is what it has come down to: I think
For the full essay, see it on Fiction Advocate. Originally published on October 20, 2014. --- Good news, feminists! Not all hope is lost! Pick up a copy of this slim book and carry it with you to be reminded that yes, really,
Sorry, I can’t write, I’m too busy crying. The Babysitting Charge asked me to read this book out loud to her twice in one afternoon, and both times I barely managed to keep it together. Even Superheroes Get Diabetes by Sue
I have been forced, because the Babysitting Charge demands it, to read the book Harriet the Hamster Fairy out loud, every afternoon, while the Charge eats her snack, for the better part of a week, and let me just say,
For the full essay, see it on The Rumpus. Originally published on August 18, 2014. --- Let me disclose two things up front. This past year I was an editorial intern at the Frances Goldin Literary Agency, working for, among others, Monica Byrne’s
For the full essay, see it on The Rumpus. Originally published on June 2, 2014. --- 1 Janet Malcolm’s latest book, a collection of her essays on artists and writers, is titled Forty-One False Starts after the opening profile on the artist David Salle.
Judith Thurman spoke about writing nonfiction – specifically biography and literary criticism – at Columbia this past Wednesday, and apparently we were very lucky to hear her since, according to sources, she rarely leaves her house. Ms. Thurman said a
For the full essay, see it on Fiction Advocate. Originally published on February 27, 2014. --- I met the other Elizabeth Bartels at a family reunion in New Jersey when I was in middle school. I had long been used to sharing my