books

Your next book club list: National Book Award winners and finalists

Your next book club list: National Book Award winners and finalists

The 2022 National Book Awards were announced this week. I expect I am not alone in adding the winners in fiction and nonfiction to my wish list and handing it,…
November 17, 2022
Jacqui Banaszynski
WriterL, the book: A "greatest hits" collection of narrative discussions

WriterL, the book: A “greatest hits” collection of narrative discussions

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two essays about the new book “A Place Called Writer L,” a collection of listserv discussions from the 1990s and 2000s. Tomorrow, co-editor Stuart…
November 3, 2022
John Clayton
So you want to write book? A long journey from newspaper reporter to book author

So you want to write book? A long journey from newspaper reporter to book author

In "The Diary of a Misfit," Casey Parks' had to let go of some journalistic boundaries to write about being queer in the religious, rural South
September 6, 2022
Lisa Grace Lednicer
So you want to write a book? Brace yourself for some serious self-promotion and, yes, TikTok

So you want to write a book? Brace yourself for some serious self-promotion and, yes, TikTok

First published in the wine-and-dine era, Lauren Kessler now manages a blog, Instagram account, YouTube videos and more to help market her books
July 13, 2022
Lauren Kessler
So you want to write a book? The risks and rewards of memoir

So you want to write a book? The risks and rewards of memoir

A learning-teaching journalist shares lessons learned as she revisited the realities of her mother's death and her own eating disorder
July 6, 2022
Mallary Tenore Tarpley
So you want to write a book? Part 2: Agents, queries and timelines

So you want to write a book? Part 2: Agents, queries and timelines

Newspaperman-turned-author Bryan Denson shares how he organizes his notes and timelines for books
February 23, 2022
Bryan Denson
So you want to write a book? Part 1: Have a strong story and resilient ego

So you want to write a book? Part 1: Have a strong story and resilient ego

Newspaper reporter Bryan Denson outlines how he went from rejection to multiple book contracts
February 22, 2022
Bryan Denson
Tempted to self-publish that book? Here are some things to know

Tempted to self-publish that book? Here are some things to know

Many — maybe most — journalists aspire to write a book. Back in the day, more than a few of them had a work-in-progress hidden in the bottom drawer of…
December 15, 2021
Jacqui Banaszynski
A panoramic approach to a book about the Sept. 11 boat lift

A panoramic approach to a book about the Sept. 11 boat lift

In “The Art of Description: World into Word,” Mark Doty writes that Proust endeavored to “dilate the sentence toward its outer limit, so that one would feel the blur of…
September 7, 2021
Jessica DuLong
“I spent my career writing hard news. That's me.”

“I spent my career writing hard news. That’s me.”

—John N. Maclean in an interview about his memoiristic new book "Home Waters"
June 8, 2021
Jacqui Banaszynski