As Carolyn See says, writing guides are like preachers on Sunday—there may be a lot of them, but you can’t have too many, and there’s always an audience of the faithful. And while Making a Literary Life is ostensibly a book that teaches you how to write, it really teaches you how to make your interior life into your exterior life, how to find and join that community of like-minded souls you’re sure is out there somewhere. Carolyn See distills a lifetime of experience as novelist, memoirist, critic, and creative-writing professor into this marvelously engaging how-to book. Partly the nuts and bolts of writing (plot, point of view, character, voice) and partly an inspirational guide to living the life you dream of, Making a Literary Life takes you from the decision to “become” a writer to three months after the publication of your first book. A combination of writing and life strategies (do not tell everyone around you how you yearn to be a writer; send a “charming note” to someone you admire in the industry five days a week, every week, for the rest of your life; find the perfect characters right in front of you), Making a Literary Life is for people not usually considered part of the literary loop: the non–East Coasters, the secret scribblers. With sagacity, a magical sense of humor, and an abiding belief in the possibilities offered to “ordinary” people living “ordinary” lives, Carolyn See has summed up her life’s work in a book so beguiling, irreverent, and giddily inspiring that you won’t even realize it’s changing your life until it already has.

Sixty-five of the world's leading writers open up about the books and authors that have meant the most to them Every Sunday, readers of The New York Times Book Review turn with anticipation to see which novelist, historian, short story writer, or artist will be the subject of the popular By the Book feature. These wide-ranging interviews are conducted by Pamela Paul, the editor of the Book Review, and here she brings together sixty-five of the most intriguing and fascinating exchanges, featuring personalities as varied as David Sedaris, Hilary Mantel, Michael Chabon, Khaled Hosseini, Anne Lamott, and James Patterson. The questions and answers admit us into the private worlds of these authors, as they reflect on their work habits, reading preferences, inspirations, pet peeves, and recommendations. By the Book contains the full uncut interviews, offering a range of experiences and observations that deepens readers' understanding of the literary sensibility and the writing process. It also features dozens of sidebars that reveal the commonalities and conflicts among the participants, underscoring those influences that are truly universal and those that remain matters of individual taste. For the devoted reader, By the Book is a way to invite sixty-five of the most interesting guests into your world. It's a book party not to be missed.

Presents a collection of unusual and entertaining facts and myths about writers, books, word origins, publishers, critics, grammar, and other aspects of the world of literature

This is a study of the forces and influences that shaped Kipling's work, including his unusual family background, his role as the laureate of empire and the deaths of two of his children, and of his complex relations with a literary world that first embraced and then rejected him.

The most sustained criticism and ambitious theory that had ever been attempted in English, the Biographia was Coleridge's major statement to a literary culture in which he sought to define and defend all imaginative life. This book offers a reading of Coleridge in the context of that culture and the institutions that comprised it.

This book consists of approximately fifty 'Literary Life' cartoons which were serialised weekly every Saturday in the Guardian's Review section from November 2002 until December 2004, and two short stories, 'Murder at Matabele Mansions' and 'Cinderella'. Posy Simmonds examines the pretensions of the literary world with her customary flair for light, witty satire and social observation. Women writers suffer 'Rustic Block' after moving to the countryside, type their sexual fantasies into their laptop, and (in 'Enemies of Promise') juggle the dilemmas of feminism and motherhood. Male authors are shown suffering the ego-perils of coming into contact with the public at book signings, and complain about reviewers and 'media hoops'. Jealousies and rivalries emerge out of reading groups; struggling small booksellers have to deal with recalcitrant customers or sales reps pushing the latest celebrity book. Simmonds' penchant for literary pastiche and parody is given full rein, as in 'Murder at Matebele Mansions'. And she wickedly suggests a family's fixed smiles as a young girl explains the plot of her Harry Potter book ... Funny, insightful and beautifully drawn, Literary Life will delight fans of Gemma Bovery.

The Literary Life Commonplace Book (Ivory) features the Literary Life Podcast commonplace book with an ivory fabric look on the cover and a beautiful coordinating interior design. In the book, podcast hosts and authors Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks guide readers in creating a commonplace habit of their own. Also included: the podcast's annual reading challenges, archive episodes reading selections, commonplace quotations shared by the hosts, plus space for readers to track their own reading, make their own commonplace pages, keep track of books they would like to read, and to write book reviews. As an extra bonus, the podcast hosts offer their own suggestions for possible books to read for the annual Reading Challenge. The Literary Life Commonplace Books are available in a variety of designs: The Literary Life Commonplace Book (Mocha) ISBN: 978-1-944435-09-7 The Literary Life Commonplace Book (Fairy) ISBN: 978-1-944435-11-0 The Literary Life Commonplace Book (Succulent) ISBN: 978-1-944435-12-7 The Literary Life Commonplace Book (Ivory) ISBN: 978-1-944435-10-3 The Literary Life KIDS Commonplace Book (Dragon Fire) ISBN: 978-1-944435-13-4 The Literary Life KIDS Commonplace Book (Colored Pencils) ISBN: 978-1-944435-14-1