Search results for “so you want to write a book”

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"Why's this so good?" No. 61: John McPhee and the archdruid

"Why’s this so good?" No. 61: John McPhee and the archdruid

The New Journalism of the 1960s and 1970s – by Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson, and others – made the biggest collective splash in recent American nonfiction, and certainly enlarged our…
October 2, 2012

"Why’s this so good?" No. 60: Jeanne Marie Laskas and the empire of ice

For the past few years, GQ correspondent Jeanne Marie Laskas has explored the myriad behind-the-scenes lives that help make our first-world reality what it is today. To borrow a couple…
September 25, 2012
"What's on your syllabus?" Narrative professors on what stories and books they assign

“What’s on your syllabus?” Narrative professors on what stories and books they assign

Every narrative journalist can point to a story or a book, or two, that changed their lives, and that made them want to tell true stories. What story does it for…
September 20, 2012

Writing 9/11: Erin Sullivan on survivors, intros, collaboration, inspiration and the importance of working with what you have

We chose Erin Sullivan’s story about a 9/11 survivor as our latest Notable Narrative for the usual reasons − interesting characters; strong, memorable writing − but also because it contained the watermark of a takeaway…
September 14, 2012

"Why’s this so good?" No. 58: Scott Anderson and the hunger warriors

A tattered, stapled-together copy of Scott Anderson’s “The Hunger Warriors” now qualifies as one of my oldest and most treasured possessions. I distinctly remember snipping it out of the New…
September 11, 2012

“Why’s this so good?” No. 57: Joan Didion on dreamers gone astray

In 1977, Joan Didion told The Paris Review that she always kept in mind one line of poetry, from T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets”: “at the still point of the turning world.” I don’t…
September 4, 2012
The best of Storyboard: What’s that sound?

The best of Storyboard: What’s that sound?

The best stories – even the written ones – have audio. Maybe it’s a sensibility: voice or style, which Ben Yagoda explores in his craft book The Sound on the…
August 30, 2012

“Why’s this so good?” No. 56: Nora Ephron and the thing about breasts

Nora Ephron was a writer of many gifts. She was fearless. She was blunt. She was dazzlingly perceptive. She was writing at the right time. Her connections were fascinating. She could…
August 28, 2012
"I wanted people who were beautifully imperfect" -- Isabel Wilkerson on finding characters (Mayborn 2012, vol. 3)

"I wanted people who were beautifully imperfect" — Isabel Wilkerson on finding characters (Mayborn 2012, vol. 3)

Isabel Wilkerson closed out the Mayborn by describing the 15 years she spent reporting and writing her book, The Warmth of Other Suns. The book chronicles the migration of 6…
August 3, 2012
"You will always have work, and it will be the best kind of work" -- Richard Rhodes on writing (Mayborn 2012, vol. 2)

"You will always have work, and it will be the best kind of work" — Richard Rhodes on writing (Mayborn 2012, vol. 2)

Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, and of 23 other books, delivered one of the keynotes at this year’s Mayborn Conference for Literary Journalism.…
August 2, 2012