The spirit of writing : classic and contemporary essays celebrating the writing life

The spirit of writing Classic and contemporary essays celebrating the writing life

Mark Robert Waldman

Book - 2001

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2nd Floor 808.02/Waldman Checked In
Subjects
Authorship.
Published
New York : Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam 2001.
Language
English
Main Author
Mark Robert Waldman (-)
Physical Description
309 pages
ISBN
9781585421275
  • Introduction
  • Part 1. Living the Writing Life
  • Introduction
  • 1. Clawing at Stones
  • 2. Writing for Revenge
  • 3. Ruining the Page
  • 4. Watcher at the Gate
  • 5. Mistress
  • 6. And a Cold Voice Says, "What Have You Done?"
  • 7. Sylvia's Honey
  • 8. Alas, Madness!
  • 9. How to Write Like Tom Robbins
  • 10. Streckfuss
  • 11. "Littery" Men
  • 12. Congratulations! It's a Six Pound Eight Ounce Novel
  • 13. Confessions of a Humorist
  • 14. I Am a Writer
  • 15. Writing as Practice
  • 16. Writing as a Healing Art--Two Stories
  • 17. Of Goods and Goodwill
  • 18. At Its Best
  • 19. Of Starships and Dragons' Claws
  • 20. True Sentences
  • Part 2. Memories and Inspirations from the Past
  • Introduction
  • 21. My Grandmother on My Shoulder
  • 22. Extracts from a Journal
  • 23. The Capes of Anays Nin
  • 24. My Life as a Fly
  • 25. Without Wings
  • 26. The Leaf Shape Remains
  • 27. Discovering the Habit of Poetry
  • 28. Kill the Buddha-What I Learned from Chinese Poetry
  • 29. Getting It
  • 30. Horsefeathers!
  • 31. Chemistry, History, and a Passion to Write
  • 32. Writing for Children
  • 33. To Fly Without Wings
  • 34. A Storyteller's Soul
  • Part 3. Advice to Writers Young and Old
  • Introduction
  • 35. Letter to a Young Poet
  • 36. A Sure-Fire Cure for Writer's Block
  • 37. Poetic Medicine
  • 38. It's Not the Money
  • 39. The Great Writer
  • 40. The "Right" Way to Write
  • 41. The Courage to Write
  • 42. When? Why? What? Where? Answers to Questions Inevitably Asked
  • 43. Be Careless, Be Reckless, Be a Lion or a Pirate When You Write
  • 44. Man Eats Car
  • 45. Shitty First Drafts
  • 46. A Writer's Best Friend
  • 47. The Fortune Cookie That Saved My Life
  • 48. Coming In Second
  • 49. If You Could Write One Great Poem, What Would You Want It To Be About?
  • Part 4. Bending the Muse and Breaking the Rules
  • Introduction
  • 50. That Voice!
  • 51. The Story of My Printing Press
  • 52. Write!
  • 53. Membrane Porous
  • 54. This Could Be the First Day of the Rest of My Life
  • 55. How Do I Number the Pages?
  • 56. Proem
  • 57. [W][O][R][D] [P][L][A][Y]
  • 58. L'Langualuxe
  • 59. Dreaming a Story
  • 60. The Case of the Missing "M"
  • 61. Not a Case of Writing
  • Last Words: Faulkner and Steinbeck on Writing
  • Permissions
  • About the Editor
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Therapist, writer and creativity expert Mark Waldman (Love Games) offers The Spirit of Writing: Classic and Contemporary Essays Celebrating the Writing Life, including five dozen pieces by luminaries like Joseph Conrad, Erica Jong, Sylvia Plath, Henry Miller and Octavio Paz. In "Man Eats Car," Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) declares, "Writing is everything, unconditional.... If you think big enough to let people eat cars, you will be able to see that ants are elephants and men are women." Pierre Joris (Poasis) poeticizes the "interface between language and the world": "it becomes clear that this letter fell off on its own accord somehow & that it is in the gap between mother-tongue/other-tongue that I am written. This gap, this emptiness, is liable to take my breath away." This anthology will provide writers of all stripes with guidance and inspiration for their psyche and their craft. (Aug. 27) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

This collection of essays explores the inner lives of writers, giving a glimpse into the creative mind. A therapist specializing in the creative process, Waldman has chosen essays from such well-known authors as Mark Twain, Sylvia Plath, Annie Dillard, Erica Jong, and Joseph Conrad, along with others published here for the first time. These essayists discuss their challenges and triumphs, recall cherished memories, and offer advice to beginners. Author and artist Laura Cerwinske talks about how writing helped her out of depression, Anne Lamott explains how she moves beyond her terrible first drafts, and Gail Godwin learns to overcome her inner critic, the Watcher, who appears every time she sits down to compose. While books about writers and the creative process abound, this collection stands out because of the large and varied number of artists represented and the secrets they reveal about how and why they write. The book will be invaluable for those who aspire to write as well as for all who love language and reading. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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