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WRITING IN FLOW: Keys to Enhanced Creativity, by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D., Foreword by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D. [Writer’s Digest Books] Buy a signed copy from me. A Los Angeles TimesBestseller now in paperback.
WHAT IS FLOW?It’s when you’re so deeply engaged in whatever it is you’re doing that it becomes self-rewarding. When you write from a flow state, you may forget what time it is, the words seem to arrive almost effortlessly, and it’s possible that you’re producing your best work.
RAVES“Perry is a wonderful guide and interviewer, juggling the voices of many writers to make concise points. I would strongly recommend the book to any aspiring or successful creative writers.... Would I recommend this book to psychologists? A more difficult question, but the answer is yes. And it’s a fun read.”—James C. Kaufman, Ph.D., Journal of Creative Behavior “If it is possible to capture the essence of flow, Perry has done it. This would be a welcome companion on any writer’s bookshelf. It’s the perfect mix of inspiration and perspiration.” —Sandra W. Russ, Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, April 2001 “Writing in Flow would be a welcome companion on any writer’s bookshelf. It’s the perfect mix of inspiration and perspiration.” —Jeff Leiper, Writer’s Block, Spring 2000 “Writing in Flow is a creative and yet practical work. The ideas are nicely tied to the research, and the practical implications clearly explored. In a sense this volume shows how the medium can be the message - it is a joy to read.” “This volume is alive with the distinctive voices of great writers, preserved in the unobtrusive yet scintillating medium of Susan K. Perry’s own writing. Readers who have struggled with verse or prose will recognize the ring of truth in these descriptions. Those who are just curious to know what’s involved will have a chance to get a glimpse into the strange world where as yet untold stories gestate.” —Foreword Magazine “Unlike standard academic studies, Perry maintains a connection with the mysteries of creativity. She avoids quantifying the life out of the writing experience, while presenting an objective study of subjective experience. It’s a fine line, and she walks it with the grace of a high-wire artist. . . . If you find strength in the company of writers sharing experience and insight, Flow is a necessary treasure.” —Jade Walker, Inscriptions (online) “If you are interested in other writers’ takes on writing in flow, or would like to know how to enter this state more often, this is a must-read.” —Mariska Stamenkovic, Keystrokes Magazine (online) “Writers at any level of experience will benefit from Perry’s insight into creativity and the mental process that occurs during the act of writing. This is not another ‘how to’ book that serves up a rehash of common do’s and don’ts of how to be a writer. This book gets right into the heads of 76 regularly published, successful writers. Perry picks their brains, like a scientist with tweezers, extracting gems of wisdom from the gray matter. . . . The style is comfortable, warm, and very readable. . . . the feeling of relaxing over coffee with the author or eavesdropping on her conversation with all the best writers of the day.” —Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Psychology and the Arts (newsletter of Division 10, American Psychological Association) “This book inspires and explains. It is a must read for every writer, no matter whether you write poetry, articles, novels, or ad copy.” —Writers’ Exchange (online) “This is an enjoyable read and valuable learning aide for developing writers. Perry also provides answers to questions from students and friends throughout the text of the book. Writing in Flow is an excellent and unique guide for enhancing your creativity and inspiring yourself to write regularly.” —Rodney L. Merrill, Writer Online “It’s like having a sister’s knowledgeable, earnest math-loving friend lead you through calculus; you’re learning a lot in a friendly manner.... Writing in Flow is a good book, an interesting book, and a useful book.” “A really exciting book. So many people want to be writers, and what you’re looking at is the thing that prevents them.” “Writing in Flow, Susan Perry’s major work on flow, that creative zero-time trance that writers enter when they are working their hardest (and most would say best), is one of those brilliant simplicities that illuminate our lives from time to time. It is simplicity because Perry makes it so with her common sense approach to research, her use of unexpurgated interview, and her relaxed but pointed prose style. It is brilliant because she, for the first time that I am aware of, has collected and examined the state of flow, something mentioned in passing by scores of writers in various contexts, but something never excerpted as focus of serious psychological and aesthetic investigation. She has assembled an extremely interesting and yes, even entertaining book, one that I am sure will become standard reading for any writer or anyone interested in writing. Writing in Flow is simply, brilliantly, a great book.” “It’s about time.”
WHY THIS BOOK IS DIFFERENT!How is WRITING IN FLOW different from all the other books for writers? 1. It is based on actual research with 76 present-day successful writers, rather than on historical anecdote, theory, or one person’s opinion alone. In addition, the insights of countless other writers whose comments appeared recently in newspaper and magazine interviews and profiles were also distilled for this book. 2. Practical and inspiring Question & Answer boxes are scattered throughout the text, based on actual questions that have been asked about writing in flow. 3. WRITING IN FLOW is unusually candid, both on the part of the author and on the part of her many generous interviewees. Secrets are shared and vulnerabilities are revealed. The chapter on “The Sexiness of Flow” is certainly one of a kind. 4. This is the first time anyone has focused the laser beam of inquiry on the moments leading up to the crossover into FLOW, that altered state of consciousness in which so much of the best writing is done. 5. WRITING IN FLOW, while a down-to-earth guide to enhancing creativity, is also psychologically credible due to the inclusion of a chapter on how the research was done (including some thoughts on why those who didn’t contribute chose not to), as well as a rich Notes section. See for yourself—Read the Excerpts
There is much written about writing—;the process of creating a poem or a novel is a source of endless fascination, especially to those who have tried their hands at it. There are poems whose theme is the ars poetica, there are uncounted fictional and biographical accounts of how hard and how wonderful it is to bring a story out of thin air. Many of these descriptions give vivid insights into the subjective experience of writing. Yet to my knowledge nobody has asked a large number of distinguished authors to describe how they think and what they feel during the creative process, so as to provide a comprehensive and systematic description of the art of writing. At least not up to this point; for Susan Perry has done the job for us. And what a fascinating job it is. This volume is alive with the distinctive voices of great writers, preserved in the unobtrusive yet scintillating medium of her own writing. Readers who have struggled with verse or prose will recognize the ring of truth in these descriptions. Those who are just curious to know what’s involved will have a chance to get a glimpse into the strange world where as yet untold stories gestate. Creative individuals—; painters, sculptors, physicists, musicians ...—have left many accounts of what goes on in consciousness during the creative process. But writers have the advantage of being able to describe this process in their own medium, in words. This brings their accounts to reflect much closer the actual mental process, so that in reading some of the excerpts Perry quotes one can almost imagine oneself being in the place of the person writing. The dance of images and emotions in the poet’s head comes alive so vividly that readers may be excused for believing that it takes place in their own mind. But Perry’s volume is not just a series of exciting glimpses into the creative process. For those who appreciate a more systematic understanding, she has organized her material in terms of a conceptual model—;based on the theory of flow—;which brings order and meaning to the interview material. The model and Perry’s application of it takes the concrete descriptions to a level of generalization that gives them added power. Yet she has been wise to conceal the conceptual apparatus enough so that it never becomes obtrusive. The reader who likes reality straight, without the framing of theory, will barely notice its existence. To end on a personal note, I must say that in the past twenty-five years I have often thought of the quip attributed to Leonardo da Vinci: “Unfortunate the master who has no apprentices to surpass him.” Indeed one feels like a failure if one’s work does not stimulate the next generation to do better. Therefore a book like this one, which builds on my own writing but takes it into a whole new dimension, is extremely satisfying. But I am sure it will be almost as satisfying to everyone who reads it.
TABLE OF CONTENTSINTRODUCTION PART ONE: AN ODE TO FLOW CHAPTER 1. OH, TO BE IN FLOW NOW THAT APRIL’S THERE
CHAPTER 2. WHAT FLOW IN WRITING FEELS LIKE
PART TWO: THE MASTER KEYS TO WRITING IN FLOW CHAPTER 3. KEY ONE: HAVE A REASON TO WRITE
CHAPTER 4. KEY TWO: THINK LIKE A WRITER
CHAPTER 5. KEY THREE: LOOSEN UP
CHAPTER 6. KEY FOUR: FOCUS IN
CHAPTER 7. KEY FIVE: BALANCE AMONG OPPOSITES
PART THREE: MAKING FLOW HAPPEN CHAPTER 8. EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT WRITING IN FLOW
CHAPTER 9. SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES FOR LURING FLOW
CHAPTER 10. LEARNING TO FLOW PAST BLOCKS
APPENDIX. The Art of Studying the Writer’s Art
NOTES REFERENCES
INTERVIEWEESHere are brief biographies of some of the novelists and poets I interviewed for WRITING IN FLOW: RALPH ANGEL’s first poetry collection was Anxious Latitudes. His second, Neither World, received the James Laughlin Award of The Academy of American Poets.
MADISON SMARTT BELL’s include The Washington Square Ensemble, Waiting for the End of the World, Straight Cut, The Year of Silence, Soldier’s Joy, Doctor Sleep, Save Me, Joe Louis, All Souls’ Rising, and Ten Indians. He has also published the short story collections Zero db and Barking Man and Other Stories, and a textbook, Narrative Design. MARVIN BELL ’s books include Things We Dreamt We Died For; A Probable Volume of Dreams; The Escape into You; Residue of Song; Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See; These Green-Going-to-Yellow; Old Snow Just Melting: Essays and Interviews; Segues: A Correspondence in Poetry (with William Stafford); Drawn by Stones, by Earth, by Things that Have Been in the Fire; New and Selected Poems; Iris of Creation; A Marvin Bell Reader: Selected Poetry and Prose; The Book of the Dead Man; Ardor: Vol. 2 of The Book of the Dead Man; Poetry for a Midsummers Night; and Wednesday, an Irish selected poems.T. CORAGHESSAN BOYLE ’s novels include The Road to Wellville, East is East, World’s End, Budding Prospects, Water Music, The Tortilla Curtain, and Riven Rock, a Los Angeles Times- bestseller. He has also authored several collections of short stories, including Without a Hero, If the River Was Whiskey, Greasy Lake, Descent of Man, and T. C. Boyle Stories.ANDREA HOLLANDER BUDY is the author of the poetry collection, House Without a Dreamer, which won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize and was named one of the Best Poetry Books of the Year by Writer’s Digest magazine. Her chapbooks are Living on the Cusp, Happily Ever After, and What the Other Eye Sees.OCTAVIA E. BUTLER ’s novels include Patternmaster, Mind of My Mind, Survivor, Kindred, Wild Seed, Clay’s Ark, Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago, Parable of the Sower, and Parable of the Talents. Bloodchild is her collection of short stories. Butler has won both Nebula and Hugo Awards, as well as a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (“genius award”).ROBERT OLEN BUTLER is the author of eight novels: The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, and The Deep Green Sea. His two volumes of short stories include A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and Tabloid Dreams.
ETHAN CANIN’s first short story collection, Emperor of the Air, was a New York Times bestseller. His second volume of short stories was The Palace Thief. He also wrote the novels Blue River and For Kings and Planets. SUSAN TAYLOR CHEHAK is the author of several novels, including The Story of Annie D., which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and an Edgar Award Nominee, Harmony; Dancing on Glass; Smithereens (a Hammett Award Nominee), and Rampage. She also authored a play, Last Chance Café, and three dramatic series pilots for television. PETER CLOTHIER has authored two novels, Chiaroscuro and Dirty-Down. He also wrote two books of poems, Aspley Guise and Parapoems; a critical biography, David Hockney; and a memoir, While I Am Not Afraid: Secrets of a Man’s Heart.BILLY COLLINS is the author of six books of poetry: Pokerface; Video Poems; The Apple That Astonished Paris; Questions About Angels, which was selected for the National Poetry Series; The Art of Drowning; and Picnic, Lightning.MICHAEL CONNELLY ’s first Harry Bosch police procedural novel, The Black Echo, won an Edgar Award. Among his other novels are The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, The Last Coyote, Trunk Music, The Poet, Blood Work, and Angels Flight, several of which have been national bestsellers.BERNARD COOPER is the author of two collection of memoirs, Maps to Anywhere and Truth Serum, and the novel A Year of Rhymes. He received a PEN/Ernest Hemingway Award and an O. Henry Prize.ALFRED CORN ’s collections of poetry include All Roads at Once, A Call in the Midst of the Crowd, The Various Light, Notes from a Child of Paradise, The West Door, Autobiographies, and Present. He has also written a novel, Part of His Story, a collection of critical essays, The Metamorphoses of Metaphor, and a textbook, The Poem’s Heartbeat: A Manual of Prosody. He edited Incarnation: Contemporary Writers on the New Testament.
PETER DAVISON’s first collection of poetry, The Breaking of the Day, won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. His other volumes include The City and the Island, Pretending to be Asleep, Dark Houses, Walking the Boundaries: Poems 1957-1974, Praying Wrong: New and Selected Poems 1957-1984, The Great Ledge, and The Poems of Peter Davison: 1957-1995. He has also written two books of prose: One of the Dangerous Trades: Essays on the Work and Workings of Poetry and The Fading Smile: Poets in Boston, 1955-1960, as well as a memoir, Half Remembered: A Personal History. Davison is the poetry editor of The Atlantic Monthly. GERALD DiPEGO has written five novels, including With a Vengeance, Forest Things, Shadow of the Beast, Keeper of the City, and Cheevey. He has also written the screenplays for twenty films, including Born Innocent, The Four Feathers, Sharky’s Machine, Keeper of the City, One More Mountain, Nothing Lasts Forever, Phenomenon, Message in a Bottle, and Instinct.CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI ’s short story collection, Arranged Marriage, won an American Book Award. She is the author of the novels The Mistress of Spices (chosen by Los Angeles Times as one of their Best Books of 1997) and Sister of My Heart, as well as several poetry volumes, including Leaving Yuba City: New and Selected Poems.HARRIET DOERR ’s first novel, Stones for Ibarra, won an American Book Award. She also authored the novel Consider This, Senora, and a compilation of essays, The Tiger in the Grass.STEPHEN DUNN’s many volumes of poetry include Looking for Holes in the Ceiling, Full of Lust and Good Usage, A Circus of Needs, Work & Love, Not Dancing, Local Time, Between Angels, Landscape at the End of the Century, New and Selected Poems 1974-1994, and Loosestrife, a National Book Critics Circle finalist.. He has also written two prose collections, Walking Light: Essays & Memoirs and Riffs & Reciprocities.
FRANK X. GASPAR ’s first poetry collection, The Holyoke, won the Samuel French Morse Prize, his second, Mass for the Grace of a Happy Death, won the Anhinga Prize for Poetry, and his third, A Field Guide to the Heavens, won the Brittingham Prize for Poetry. His forthcoming novel is titled Leaving Pico.MERRILL JOAN GERBER ’s novels include An Antique Man, Now Molly Knows, The Lady with the Moving Parts, King of the World, which won the Pushcart Editors’ Book Award, and The Kingdom of Brooklyn. Her books of short stories are Stop Here, My Friend; Honeymoon; Chattering Man: Stories and a Novella; This Old Heart of Mine: The Best of Merrill Joan Gerber’s Redbook Stories; and Anna in Chains. She has also published a personal memoir, Old Mother, Little Cat: A Writer’s Reflections on Her Kitten, Her Aged Mother... and Life, as well as nine novels for young adults.DAVID GERROLD novels include When Harlie Was One, Yesterday’s Children, The Man Who Folded Himself, Moonstar Odyssey, Deathbeast, The Voyage of the Star Wolf, Under the Eye of God, A Covenant of Justice, four volumes in the series War Against the Chtorr (A Matter for Men, A Day for Damnation, A Rage for Revenge, and A Season for Slaughter), and The Middle of Nowhere. His short stories have appeared in Galaxy, If, Amazing, Twilight Zone, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, among others, as well as in several collected volumes. Gerrold has also written for television, including episodes for the Star Trek series. He published a nonfiction account of writing for television, The Trouble with Tribbles. Gerrold is a nine-time Hugo and Nebula award nominee, and he won both awards in 1995 for his semi-autobiographical novelette, “The Martian Child.”SUE GRAFTON is the author of the best-selling and award-winning mystery novel series that includes “A” is for Alibi, “B” is for Burglar, “C” is for Corpse, “D” is for Deadbeat, “E” is for Evidence, and so on through the alphabet, with her most recent being “N” is for Noose.
SAM HAMILL is the author of more than thirty books including Destination Zero: Poems 1970-1995; essays collected in A Poet’s Work; recent poems, Gratitude; and among many volumes of translations, The Essential Basho and The Essential Chuang Tzu. He edited The Erotic Spirit, a poetry anthology, and The Gift of Tongues, and is founding editor at Copper Canyon Press.LOLA HASKINS’ books include Planting the Children, Castings , Across Her Broad Lap Something Wonderful, Forty-Four Ambitions for the Piano, Hunger (which won the Edwin Ford Piper Award, formerly the Iowa Poetry Prize), Visions of Florida (Introductory essay—;prose poem—;to photographs by Woody Walters), and Extranjera.ANTHONY HECHT’s second poetry collection, The Hard Hours, won the Pulitzer Prize. His other volumes of poetry include A Summoning of Stones, Millions of Strange Shadows, The Venetian Vespers, Collected Earlier Poems, The Transparent Man, and Flight Among the Tombs. He has also published critical essays (Obbligati; On the Laws of the Poetic Arts), a study of Auden (The Hidden Law), light verse, and translation.BRENDA HILLMAN , recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award for Poetry, and the Poetry Society of America Norma Farber First Book Prize, has authored collections of poetry including Coffee, 3 A.M.; White Dress; Fortress; Death Tractates; Bright Existence; and Loose Sugar.JANE HIRSHFIELD ’s books of poems include The October Palace, Alaya, Of Gravity and Angels, and The Lives of the Heart. She also authored a book of essays, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, and edited and co-translated Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women and The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Komachi & Shikibu Women of the Ancient Court of Japan.
DIANE JOHNSON is the author of the Los Angeles Times-best-selling novel, Le Divorce, as well as Fair Game, Burning, Loving Hands at Home, The Shadow Knows, Lying Low, Persian Nights, and Health and Happiness. She has also written biographies, essays, short stories, and screenplay adaptations. RICHARD JONES is the author of several books of poetry, including Country of Air, At Last We Enter Paradise, and A Perfect Time. His selected poems, Rough Grace, is forthcoming. His work has been collected in anthologies such as New American Poets of the 90s and The Gift of Tongues. He edited the critical anthologies Poetry and Politics and Of Solitude and Silence: Writings on Robert Bly. Jones is the founder and editor of the literary journal Poetry East, which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary with three retrospective anthologies.
NORA OKJA KELLER’s first novel, Comfort Woman, about the Korean sex slaves of the Japanese, won an American Book Award. FAYE KELLERMAN’s first novel, The Ritual Bath, won the Macavity Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Readers of America. There are more than three million copies of her novels in print, including Sacred and Profane, Milk and Honey, Day of Atonement, False Prophet, Grievous Sin, Sanctuary, Justice, Prayers for the Dead, Serpent’s Tooth, and Moon Music. She is also the author of the historical novel of intrigue, The Quality of Mercy. Her short stories and reviews have been anthologized in several collections, including two volumes of the Sisters in Crime series, Sara Paretsky’s A Woman’s Eye, The First Annual Year’s Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, and others. JONATHAN KELLERMAN’s first mystery novel, When the Bough Breaks, became a national bestseller, and was adapted as a television movie. His other best-selling mysteries include Blood Test, Over the Edge, The Butcher’s Theater, Silent Partner, Time Bomb, Private Eyes, Devil’s Waltz, Bad Love, Self-Defense, The Clinic, The Web, and Survival of the Fittest. His first non-Alex Delaware novel in a decade is Billy Straight. There are currently over 20 million copies of his books in print. He is the author of two volumes for children, Daddy, Daddy, Can You Touch the Sky? and Jonathan Kellerman’s ABC of Weird Creatures, and three psychology books, including the latest, Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children. NANCY KRESS is the author of three fantasy novels: The Prince of Morning Bells, The Golden Grove, and The White Pipes, as well as six science fiction novels: An Alien Light, Brain Rose, Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers, Beggars Ride, and Maximum Light. Her recent thrillers are Oaths and Miracles and Stinger. Beggars in Spain was based on her novella of the same name which won both Nebula and Hugo awards. She has also written three collections of short stories, Trinity and Other Stories, The Aliens of Earth, and Beaker’s Dozen, plus two books on writing fiction, Beginnings, Middles, and Ends, and Dynamic Characters. Kress is the monthly “Fiction” columnist for Writer’s Digest.
URSULA K. LE GUIN’s many science fiction novels include The Earthsea tetralogy; The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, The Lathe of Heaven, and Always Coming Home. Her short story collections include Unlocking the Air and Other Stories, Four Ways to Forgiveness, and Searoad: The Chronicles of Klatsand. There are three million copies of her books in print. She has won five Nebula Awards, five Hugo Awards, the National Book Award, the World Fantasy Award, and many others. She has also written eleven books for children, collections of essays, poetry, and criticism, as well as Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way, Le Guin’s rendering into English of the words of Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism. PHILIP LEVINE’s many books of poetry include The Simple Truth, which won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, as well as On the Edge, Not This Pig, Red Dust, Pili’s Wall, They Feed They Lion , 1933, The Names of the Lost, 7 Years from Somewhere, Ashes, One for the Rose, Selected Poems, Sweet Will, A Walk with Tom Jefferson, New Selected Poems, What Work Is, and Mercy. He also published two books of translations from the Spanish; a collection of interviews, Don’t Ask; essays on poetry, So Ask; and The Bread of Time: Toward an Autobiography. Ashes and What Work Is both won the National Book Award in poetry, and What Work Is won the Los Angeles Times Book Award in poetry. AIMEE LIU is the author of two novels, Cloud Mountain and Face, as well as Solitaire, an autobiographical narrative. She also coauthored several nonfiction books, including The Codependency Conspiracy, Success Trap, and False Love and Other Romantic Illusions, all with Dr. Stan J. Katz. MARGOT LIVESEY is the author of two novels, Homework and Criminals, as well as a collection of stories, Learning by Heart. Her thus-far untitled new novel is forthcoming in1999. SUZANNE LUMMIS has authored two books of poetry, Idiosyncrasies and Falling Short of Heaven. She also edited, with Charles Harper Webb, Grand Passion: The Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond. Her two plays, October 22, 4004 B.C., Saturday, and Night Owls, produced in Los Angeles and elsewhere, earned Drama-Logue awards for playwriting.
ELIZABETH MACKLIN is the author of a book of poetry, A Woman Kneeling in the Big City, and has had poems in The New Yorker, Paris Review, The Threepenny Review, Southwest Review, Yale Review, The Nation, The New York Times, and The New Republic, among others. BILL MOHR’s poems have appeared in Sonora Review, Santa Monica Review, Antioch Review, ZYZZYVA, Wormwood Review, Pearl, Blue Mesa Review Asylum Annual, ONTHEBUS, Caffeine, Rain CityRe view, Blue Satellite and Hummingbird, as well as such anthologies as Grand Passion and Stand-Up Poetry. FAYE MOSKOWITZ authored two collections of essays, A Leak in the Heart and And the Bridge is Love, as well as a collection of short stories, Whoever Finds This: I Love You. She also edited Her Face in the Mirror: Jewish Women on Mothers and Daughters. More than 60 of her essays have appeared in publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times. Her work has been anthologized in Mixed Voices: Contemporary Poems About Music, The Sound of Writing II, and Hot Flashes: Women Writers on the Change of Life. CAROL MUSKE (a.k.a. Carol Muske Dukes) writes both poetry and novels, as well as books of criticism. Her poetry books include Camouflage, Skylight, Wyndmere, Applause, Red Trousseau, and An Octave Above Thunder: New and Selected Poems. Her novels are Dear Digby, Saving St. Germ, and Two Secrets. She also wrote Women and Poetry: Truth, Autobiography and the Shape of the Self.
CEES NOOTEBOOM has published novels, short stories, ten books of poetry, and travel books. Among his novels that have been translated into English are Rituals, winner of the Pegasus Prize for Literature and the Bordewijk Prize; A Song of Truth and Semblance, Philip and the Others, The Knight Has Died, Mokusei, The Following Story, which won the European Literary Prize for Best Novel and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and In the Dutch Mountains. The Roads to Santiago is his collection of essays about his passion for Spain.
ED OCHESTER has published nine volumes of poetry, including Allegheny, Miracle Mile, and Changing the Name to Ochester. He has completed a new poetry manuscript, The Land of Cockaigne. He was, for the past twenty years, director of the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh, where he continues to head the Pitt Poetry Series.
STEPHEN PERRY has poems published or forthcoming in The New Yorker, Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review, Yale Review, North American Review, Antioch Review, Denver Quarterly, Wisconsin Review, Midwest Quarterly, Nimrod, Cimarron Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Poetry East, The Journal, Night Sun, Jacaranda Review (U.C.L.A.), Sycamore Review, 5AM, Colorado North Review, Tar River Poetry and many others. His poems have been included in Milkweed Editions’ Mixed Voices: Contemporary Poems About Music; The Bedford Introduction to Literature; and Poetry: An Introduction. His poetry manuscript, Homecoming, was a finalist for the Pitt Poetry Prize. ROBERT PINSKY , the current Poet Laureate of the United States, has written five books of poetry: Sadness and Happiness, An Explanation of America, History of My Heart, The Want Bone, and The Figured Wheel: New & Collected Poems 1966-1996. He has also published three books of prose, Landor’s Poetry, The Situation of Poetry, and Poetry and the World. Pinskys translation of The Inferno of Dante won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is Poetry Editor of Slate. WYATT PRUNTY’s five books of poetry include Domestic of the Outer Banks; The Times Between; What Women Know, What Men Believe; Balance as Belief; and The Run of the House. He also wrote a critical work on contemporary poetry, Fallen from the Symboled World. He founded and directs the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.
JAMES RAGAN’s poetry collections include In the Talking Hours, Womb-Weary, The Hunger Wall, Lusions, and The World Shouldering I. He also co-edited Yevgeny Yevtushenko: Collected Poems 1952-1990, and he wrote the plays “Saints” and “Commedia.” Ragan is a Fulbright Professor and the director of the Graduate Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. DONALD REVELL has written six books of poetry: From the Abandoned Cities (National Poetry Series Winner), The Gaza of Winter, New Dark Ages (PEN Center USA West Award), Erasures, Beautiful Shirt, and There are Three. STEVE REYNOLDS has humorous short stories published or forthcoming in Pinehurst Journal, Checking It Out, and The MacGuffin, as well as essays in a variety of publications.
MARK SALZMAN’s first book was Iron and Silk, an account of two years he spent in China, and it was a Pulitzer Prize nonfiction finalist. He also wrote the screenplay and starred in the film of the same name. His novels include The Laughing Sutra and The Soloist, and his memoir is Lost in Place. LYNNE SHARON SCHWARTZ has published five novels, including Rough Strife, Balancing Acts, Disturbances in the Field, Leaving Brooklyn, and The Fatigue Artist. She also wrote two collections of short stories, Acquainted with the Night and Other Stories, and The Melting Pot & Other Subversive Stories, as well as a book for children, The Four Questions; a nonfiction book, We Are Talking about Homes: A Great University Against Its Neighbors; and a memoir, Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books. Her work has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Pushcart Prize, and other volumes. CAROLYN SEE has published six novels: The Rest is Done with Mirrors; Mothers, Daughters; Rhine Maidens; Golden Days; Making History; and The Handyman. She also authored three novels as 1/3 of “Monica Highland” (with Lisa See and John Espey). Her nonfiction includes Blue Money and the family memoir, Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America. MAURYA SIMON’s collections of poetry include The Enchanted Room, Days of Awe, Speaking in Tongues, The Golden Labyrinth, and Weavers. Her poems have been included in such anthologies as The Erotic Spirit, Dog Music, What Will Suffice, Articulations, Atomic Ghost: Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age, Marriage: An Anthology, In My Mother’s Garden, Changing Light, Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, and Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry. JANE SMILEY’s fiction includes Barn Blind, At Paradise Gate, Duplicate Keys, The Age of Grief, The Greenlanders, Ordinary Love & Good Will, A Thousand Acres (which won the Pulitzer Prize and other major awards), Moo, and The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton. DAVID ST. JOHN poetry collections include Hush; The Short; No Heaven; Terrace of Rain: An Italian Sketchbook; Study for the World’s Body: New and Selected Poems; In the Pines: Lost Poems 1972-1997; and The Red Leaves of Night. He also authored Where the Angels Come Toward Us: Selected Essays, Reviews, and Interviews. St. John is Editor-at-Large of The Antioch Review, as well as Director of Creative Writing at The University of Southern California. MARK STRAND, a former Poet Laureate of the United States and MacArthur Fellowship winner, has published poetry collections that include Sleeping with One Eye Open, Reasons for Moving, Darker, The Story of Our Lives, The Late Hour, Selected Poems, The Continuous Life, Dark Harbor, and Blizzard of One. He has also written a book of short stories, Mr. and Mrs. Baby, and a comic meditation on literary immortality, The Monument. In addition to several poetry translations, three poetry anthologies, and a number of books and articles on art, Strand has authored three children’s books: The Planet of Lost Things, The Night Book, and Rembrandt Takes a Walk.
HENRY TAYLOR is the author of several poetry collections, including The Flying Change, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Others are The Horse Show at Midnight, An Afternoon of Pocket Billiards, and Understanding Fiction: Poems 1986-1996. He has also written a textbook, Poetry: Points of Departure, and a book of essays, Compulsory Figures: Essays on Recent American Poets. He is co-director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at the American University, in Washington, D.C.
DAVID L. ULIN is the author of a book of poems, Cape Cod Blues. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Vignette, Exquisite Corpse, Bakunin, The Brooklyn Review, Sensitive Skin, B City, Caffeine, New Observations, Rampike, and the anthology Unbearables. He has had essays and criticism published in The Nation, Village Voice, Mirabella, Newsday, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and L.A. Weekly. He is a contributing editor to The Bloomsbury Review.
ELLERY WASHINGTON. has had short fiction published or forthcoming in Puerto del Sol and The Berkeley Fiction Review. An excerpt from his first novel, Scenes of Substance and Other Still Lifes Wasted, is forthcoming in Griots Beneath the Baobab: Tales from Los Angeles, an anthology of African American writers. CHARLES HARPER WEBB was awarded the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for his collection, Reading the Water. His other poetry collections include Zinjanthropus Disease, Everyday Outrages, A Weeb for All Seasons, and Dr. Invisible & Mr. Hide. He edited Stand Up Poetry: The Anthology, and co-edited Grand Passion: The Poets of Los Angeles. He is also the author of a novel, The Wilderness Effect, and a book of poetry and psychology, Poetry That Heals. RICHARD WILBUR , a former Poet Laureate of the United States, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for both Things of This World and for New and Collected Poems. His other poetry collections are The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems, Ceremony and Other Poems, Advice to a Prophet and Other Poems, Walking to Sleep: New Poems and Translations, and The Mind-Reader. He has also written several books for children, including Opposites, More Opposites, A Game of Catch, and The Disappearing Alphabet, as well as two collections of literary essays, Responses: Prose Pieces 1953-1976 and The Catbird’s Song. HILMA WOLITZER’s novels include Ending, In the Flesh, Hearts, In the Palomar Arms, Silver, and Tunnel of Love. She has also written several novels for young readers.
STEPHEN YENSER has published a volume of poetry, The Fire in All Things, as well as books of criticism: The Consuming Myth: The Work of James Merrill; Circle to Circle: The Poetry of Robert Lowell; and the forthcoming A Boundless Field: American Poetry at the Century’s Turning. Yenser directs the Creative Writing Program in the English Major at U.C.L.A.
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