10 ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR NONFICTION WRITERS

GS FO
TIN
L IS

100+
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AGENTS

WRITE A
BOOK
IN
ARE EMAIL
INTERVIEWS
RUINING
JOURNALISM?
7 TELL-TALE
SIGNS OF TOXIC
FREELANCE
CLIENTS

DAYS PLUS!
HOW POETRY
CAN HELP
YOUR FICTION
(AND VICE VERSA)
IMAGINE
WRITE
PUBLISH
April 2018 • Volume 131 Number 4

FEATURES
14
Write a book
in 90 days
How to complete a first draft of your
manuscript in three months or less.
BY JEN GLANTZ

18
Writing to save 28
the world Where fiction
Authors are becoming increasingly
concerned about the state of our
& nonfiction
planet – and what we can do about it.
Enter climate fiction, or “cli-fi,” a new
collide
The top techniques writers should
genre that deals with climate change steal from novelists.
and global warming on both a mod- BY HEATHER VILLA
ern and future scale.
BY MELISSA HART
32
22 Let me send
When verse you some
meets prose questions!
How writing poems can enhance Are email interviews ruining
your fiction – and vice versa. storytelling?
BY JACK SMITH BY DONNA TALARICO
DEPARTMENTS IN EVERY ISSUE
8 BREAKTHROUGH
My favorite mobster 38 LITERARY
Catapult
SPOTLIGHT 4 From the Editor

What a reformed bootlegger This multi-faceted organization 5 Take Note

taught a cub reporter about is a literary journal, publish- Featuring Yi Shun Lai, Clara
journalism – and life. ing house, writing center, and Bingham, and more.
BY JAIMIE SEATON online community, all in one
place. 42 Markets

10 A truthteller’s toolbox
WRITING ESSENTIALS BY MELISSA HART
47 Classified advertising
Ten essential resources for
nonfiction writers.
40 The Frost Place Conference
CONFERENCE INSIDER
48 How I Write
BY LINDA LOWEN on Poetry Kamilah Aisha Moon: “I really
A historic setting provides the think for many of us, poetry
chooses us.”
12 FREELANCE
Letting go
SUCCESS perfect backdrop for a celebra-
tion of poetry and the artists
Seven signs it’s time to say who craft it.
goodbye to a client. BY MELISSA HART
BY PETE CROATTO

10
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FROM THE EDITOR IMAGINE
WRITE
PUBLISH

Senior Editor Nicki Porter

Contributing Editor Melissa Hart

S
urely an editor should love all of her editorial children the Copy Editor Toni Fitzgerald
Art Director Carolyn V. Marsden
same, but I confess the April issue holds a special place in my Senior Digital Designer Mike Decker
Graphic Designer Jaron Cote
heart. It’s the month this magazine was founded, way back in EDITORIAL BOARD
1887. It’s the month Shakespeare was born (and also the month James Applewhite, Andre Becker, Eve Bunting, Mary Higgins
Clark, Roy Peter Clark, Lewis Burke Frumkes, Gail Godwin,
he died). And it’s National Poetry Month, which always makes my lit- Eileen Goudge, Rachel Hadas, John Jakes, John Koethe, Lois
Lowry, Peter Meinke, Katherine Paterson, Elizabeth Peters,
erary pulse quicken. Arthur Plotnik
I think I didn’t really fall in love with the written word until I dis- MADAVOR MEDIA, LLC
EXECUTIVE
covered poetry. Oh, I was a voracious fiction reader as a child, but it Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey C. Wolk
was Poe, Tennyson, and the Bard who revealed all the tricks the Eng- Chief Operating Officer Susan Fitzgerald
SVP, Sales & Marketing Robin Morse
lish language has up its sleeve. I once checked a book of Carl Sand- OPERATIONS
burg poems out of the school library and was so horrified at the VP, Business Operations Courtney Whitaker
Technical Product Manager Michael Ma
thought of returning them that I copied his poems by hand into a Operations Supervisor Nora Frew
Operations Coordinator Kathleen Sullivan
hardcover notebook in a horrid shade of vomit-green. It was hideous, Human Resources Generalist Alicia Roach
Supervisor, Client Services Jessica Krogman
but it held the world. Client Services Darren Cormier, Tou Zong Her, Andrea Palli
A few years later, it was Gwendolyn Brooks who grabbed me by the Accounting Director Amanda Joyce
Accounts Payable Associate Tina McDermott
poetic jugular with “piano after war:” On a snug evening I shall watch Accounts Receivable Associate Wayne Tuggle

her fingers / Cleverly ringed, declining to clever pink / Beg glory from the AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
VP, Audience Development Bob Dortch
willing keys. Such phrasing! As I read and reread it, it hummed with VP, Strategy Jason Pomerantz

life, a living thing. She begged glory from the willing page. SALES & MARKETING
Media Solutions Director Scott Luksh
Then came Edna St. Vincent Millay, Kevin Young, Beth Ann Fen- Media Solutions Manager Alexandra Piccirilli
Phone: 617-279-0213
nelly, poets who shocked and moved and woke me. Too many people Email: [email protected]
Client Services [email protected]
say they don’t like poetry when what they really mean is they haven’t Marketing Director Andrew Yeum
read poetry – or at least read the right poem, the one that’s lurking Marketing Associate Michael Marzeotti
Newsstand Distribution National Publisher Services
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Senior Editor

4 | The Writer • April 2018

 ¾“It is good to have an end to journey toward,
but it is the journey that matters in the end.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin

Long story short, we published the writer, but what went

into our literary magazine was a reasonably far cry from the
submission I received. The lead-in had changed. The event
that had gripped my attention was given more clout, and
was recounted all the way through. The final touch was a
new title for the piece, since the essay was no longer about
what it used to be about.
This happens a lot more than you think it might. For the
Tahoma Literary Review, the magazine I edit for, I’ve talked
to writers about revisions on everything from 300-word
flash pieces to way longer essays and short stories. Some-
times, those revisions might be changes in phrasing or para-
graph breaks, but those are more line edits, tinkering with
the way the writer is telling the story.
What really makes my editing heart go pitter-patter are
changes in the aboutness of a piece, to borrow a phrase from
writer Ana Maria Spagna. That is, the writers think they are
writing an essay or a short story about one thing, but the
editor (and, thus, potentially, your lay reader) sees some-
thing entirely different. This experience, for an editor, is like
discovering a third Twix bar in the wrapper. It’s tickets to
Hamilton wrapped in an ugly Christmas sweater; 25-year-
old Scotch in a mason jar.
Helping a writer to tell – or see – an underlying story is
the absolute best part of being an editor.
THE EDITOR,
THE EXCAVATOR
so what’s a good candidate for revision look like?
First, here are some things that make a piece stand out in
the open queue: Clarity and uniqueness of voice; a clear
Sometimes it takes another set of eyes to see hook; a strong narrative thread; good grammar. (About that
what your story is really about. last: I love experimental pieces, but there’s a vast difference
By Yi Shun Lai between work that knowingly breaks rules and work that
makes it look like the writer believes he or she is above

T he essay begins nicely. It’s fabulously written, ostensibly

about the way a young man feels having his life chroni-
cled each week in his mother’s newspaper column.
learning the rules.)
After those things, editors see when a writer dances
around and around something without quite ever getting to
About three-quarters of the way through, the writer naming it, or when the writer touches on something really
recounts an event that makes my ears prick up, something quickly and then backs away from it, like she’s discovered
so significant that it gives the words and events in the pages something hot and painful.
before a new angle. And then he kind of just drops it. I can Then the editor knows to follow up with a process: With
feel him physically dragging the essay back to what it was the writer’s help, we pick at the work, asking pointed ques-
about before, trying to give due diligence to the narrative tions, until we can get to the heart of what the writer really
plan he’s laid out for himself. wants to talk about.
The essay holds my attention all the way through, but by My process looks like this: I have a phone call with the
the end of it, I’m feeling hungover, literally, because hang- writer, somewhere between 15 minutes to an hour. We talk
overs are accompanied by the sense that you know you did about what the writer intended; where he or she wants to go
Mascha Tace/Shutterstock

something last night; you just can’t place exactly what it is. I with the piece; maybe address some style points that might
read the writer’s cover letter, thinking there might be some help the writer to illuminate the point of their story. We
hint as to whether or not I’ve misread the essay, but it touch upon the tinkering, sure, but mostly we noodle over
doesn’t elucidate the issue for me, so I ping the writer an what the piece is about; where its heart is. We bat around
email asking for a phone conference. cutting great swaths, sometimes, and move things around.
writermag.com • The Writer | 5
When we’ve had this conversation, I send over a copy of the before the writer settles into an ending or a conclusion.
original essay with suggested changes tracked and ask the Often you find the work taking a left turn you never
writer to tackle these changes. thought you’d take, or, better yet, making a deeper dive
And then I give them a week or two to get back to me. It into meaning.
doesn’t feel like very long, but the work that wants to be That meaning is unique to you, and it will make your
written, the aboutness that wants to be exposed, is often work genuinely shine.
lying just beneath a thin veneer of craft, and it doesn’t take Sometimes, the meaning is hidden beneath proximity –
very much scratching to reveal what it is. that is, the writer is too close to the work or the event that
Years ago, I cribbed an exercise from essayist Brenda inspired it. Giving yourself time to process the event takes
Miller that I still use with my writers today, with some vari- utterly no effort at all, barring the self-restraint it takes to
ations: Make a list of 10 words. Pick one and write about it. keep from hitting “submit” on that first draft. (Reason
Set it aside for a few minutes while you get up and have a being, of course, that you’re so happy you finally put all
cuppa. Then come back to your list and the word you’ve those loose thoughts you had down someplace.)
chosen. This time, write about why you might have chosen The stories and essays we accept right off the bat; the
to write about that word. ones that don’t need revisions: These are rare beasts. We’re
Many revisions are like that. Put yourself in the mindset happy to receive them. But we’re just as grateful for the
of why you might have chosen to write this particular chance to work with a writer to unearth a story that obvi-
essay or story, rather than focusing on the narrative itself. ously needs to be told.
And give yourself space to write. One of the most common —Yi Shun Lai is a novelist and editor. Not a Self-Help Book: The
pieces of advice I give a writer is to ask them to spool a Misadventures of Marty Wu is available at booksellers everywhere. Find Yi
story or an essay way out, exploring all the implications, Shun at tahomaliteraryreview.com, thegooddirt.org, and on Twitter @gooddirt.

BOOKISH
The Business of Being a Writer Behind the Book: Eleven Authors on
By Jane Friedman Their Path to Publication
By Chris Mackenzie Jones
Writing is an art, and writers can
spend a lifetime honing their craft It’s easy to explain how most writers
and still never feel like they’ve per- create their manuscripts: They work
fected it. But all the how-to books in on them, day after day, butt-in-chair,
the world won’t help you if you actu- hands-on-keys. Word by word, a draft
ally want to make a living off your is built. But actually creating and pub-
passion. Enter Publishers Weekly col- lishing a salable, successful manu-
umnist and mega-popular writing blogger Jane Friedman, script? That’s an entirely different story. Chris Mackenzie
who’s here to demystify the dollars-and-cents portion of Jones, marketing and communications director at the Loft
the writing industry. “Learning about the publishing Literary Center, showcases 11 first-time author success sto-
industry will lead to a more positive and productive writ- ries in an attempt to highlight the many different routes a
ing career,” writes Friedman in The Business of Being a path to publication can take. “Each chapter will investigate
Writer. “While business savvy may not make up for medi- these 11 books through the natural stages of book develop-
ocre writing, or allow any author to skip important stages ment: generating ideas, refining the focus, fostering support,
of creative development, it can reduce anxiety and frustra- polishing craft, building themes and structure, revising
tion. And it can help writers avoid bad career decisions – drafts, making a publishing choice, dealing with setbacks,
by setting appropriate expectations of the industry, and by preparing to publish, publishing, and moving on to the next
providing tools and information on how to pursue mean- project,” Jones promises. Featured authors include Edan
ingful, sustainable careers in writing and publishing on a Lepucki, author of California; Cynthia Bond, author of
full-time or part-time basis.” Ruby; and Eric Smith, author of Inked.
6 | The Writer • April 2018
 ¾ “Poetry remembers that it was an oral art before
it was a written art.” —Jorge Luis Borges

WRITERS ON WRITING And what worked for me, for this last
book, was having a routine of going
Clara Bingham to a place called the Society Library,
which is on 79th and Madison
Clara Bingham’s nonfiction book Avenue. I think it’s one of the best-
Class Action: The Landmark Case that kept secrets in New York. And you
Changed Sexual Harassment Law was can join – it’s private – for 250 dollars
adapted for the screen as the movie a year, and it’s on the fifth floor.
North Country, which starred Charlize There’s a great room that’s filled with
Theron, Frances McDormand, Sean writing tables. And so what I would
Bean, Woody Harrelson, and Sissy do – I live on the West side – I would
Spacek. She is the author of two walk across [Central] Park every day
other nonfiction books, Women on with my laptop and go to the Society
the Hill: Challenging the Culture of Library and work there all day, five or
Congress and most recently Witness six days a week. And once I started
to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, that, it was the only way I could write
Vets, Hippies, and the Year America that book. Whenever I tried any other
Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul. formula, it wouldn’t work for me.
Bingham is also a prolific journalist. There’s something about being
She worked as a reporter for around other people who are
Newsweek between 1989 and 1993, working and writing, not being able
and her freelance work has appeared to use my phone or use anything that
in Vanity Fair, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, “You’re climbing Everest created sound, because everyone
and elsewhere. there is very persnickety, and it just
by looking down at
forced me to work.
WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT your feet, not looking The other thing that I also think is
THING YOU’VE LEARNED ABOUT up at the mountain. hard to do as a writer in this day and
WRITING? The second I look up, age is turn off social media and
At least I’ll say for my last book, the emails. That helps me for some
thing that I found that was most
I wouldn’t be able to reason. And I’ve chosen this space
important was going to the library – breathe, and it would all that forced me to be disciplined and
getting out of my house, where I work be too daunting.” write. I also would then turn off my
normally, going to a library every day emails and turn off Facebook and
and working, and also having a word Instagram, and not allow myself to
count that I wanted to try to reach. I turn them back on for X amount of
had a 1,000-word word count, and I’d AND HOW HAS THAT HELPED YOU time. I would either turn it off or just
make that an average for my day. So if AS A WRITER? put it away or try not to look at it. I
I did 800 one day and 1,200 the next, It’s helped me realize that writing think that one of the challenges now
that would be fine. I kept a log of my requires enormous self-discipline, with social media is that it feels like
word count every day in a notebook, because nobody’s making you do it. writing. Creating original work is that
taking it a day at a time. You know, The phone is not ringing. You’re not much harder than it used to be,
you’re climbing Everest by looking responding to anybody. That’s why because there are so many more
down at your feet, not looking up at every other job is easier. I used to – distractions. So, I think, having a place
the mountain. The second I look up, I whenever I was in the throes of to go that becomes your ritual place
wouldn’t be able to breathe, and it deadline, and I went out to dinner, I really helps, and so does creating
would all be too daunting. But if I would get weepy, because all I rituals around writing, [it] helps the
could just do the one foot in front of wanted to be was a waitress, day-to-day process of the bloodletting,
the other, in a really plodding, because people would just tell me of getting words on pages.
Maggie Peters

methodical way, and I could get into a what to do. And the sense of having —Gabriel Packard is the author of The Painted
routine that worked in my life, that nobody telling you what to do is so Ocean: A Novel, published by Corsair, an imprint
was how I could finish a book. hard, so you have to do it yourself. of Little, Brown.

writermag.com • The Writer | 7

BREAKTHROUGH
BY JAIMIE SEATON

My favorite mobster
What a reformed bootlegger taught a cub reporter about journalism – and life.

I
had been in South Africa for only two weeks in 1996
when I landed an interview with the Godfather of
Soweto. The moniker had double meaning, referring
to both Godfrey Moloi’s early life as a gangster boot-
legger and later role as social benefactor.
After spending three years as a researcher in the D.C.
bureau of a large British newspaper, I moved to Johannes-
burg to pursue my dream of being a real journalist. Once in
town, I bluffed my way through an interview with the editor
of the largest daily and persuaded him to let me write a fea-
ture about the luxurious homes of notable citizens. Another
journalist in the newsroom suggested I include Moloi, so I
added his name to the list but didn’t bother learning too
much about him.
It took me a few phone calls to Moloi’s assistant to
arrange the interview, and I arrived at his modern mansion
on a hill in the tony section of Soweto on a hot February
morning, with a photographer from the paper and a new
Steno pad. A maid ushered us in to a dark, cavernous hall
and told us to wait. The entryway was colossal but empty
except for one unique feature: The stone floor was parted in
the middle, and massive ponds loaded with large koi fish
flanked either side.
Moloi kept us waiting for half an hour, during which
time I went over my questions and silently told myself to
not mess up. The 62-year-old man finally appeared in a
maroon velvet jogging suit, looking more like a kindly
grandfather than a mobster. Standing just a few inches taller
than my 5-foot, 4-inch frame, Moloi was much smaller than
I anticipated. He was slight but had a round belly that
The author and Godfrey Moloi at his birthday party at the Blue Fountain.
matched his bald head. His small, dark eyes betrayed his
hard life; and he was puffing on a huge cigar.
“Good morning, Mr. Moloi,” I said in my most confi-
dent tone as I extended my hand. “Thank you for agreeing around his property. I had my questions. They were num-
to the interview.” bered, and my Steno pad was waiting.
Moloi shuffled over and tepidly shook my hand. He We walked around the outside of the house and then
looked me up and down and asked how long I had been stood on the edge of the garden, looking down on the
in the country. When I told him I had just arrived, he sprawling township below. Moloi talked about the painful
turned to the photographer, and they spoke in Zulu for a history of Soweto and then pointed off into the distance
few minutes. toward the shacks and lamented the conditions of the poor.
“Come,” he said, in a low, raspy voice, “Let’s walk around I nodded politely, thinking that none of this had anything to
my property. I want to show you Soweto.” do with the topic of the interview.
This was not part of my plan. I didn’t have time to walk At one point, my photographer got me alone and said
8 | The Writer • April 2018
that Moloi was testing me. Testing me The more I read, the more I into my white Mazda with crushed red
on what? Who was he to test me? He admired and liked Moloi. His book velvet seats and drove out to Soweto.
agreed to be interviewed, and I was not was brutally honest but full of humor, By the time we arrived, the party
leaving his house empty-handed. After and my motivation changed from was hopping. Moloi was strutting in
an hour, I said we really needed to wanting to beat Moloi at his own game his white suit and black hat, puffing on
begin. Moloi smiled and said there to genuinely wanting to interview him a fat cigar. My boyfriend and I were the
would be no interview that day. He so I could get to know him better. I only white people in the room, and
gave me a copy of his autobiography made more calls to him directly, dur- were seated at the head table. Moloi
and told me to call him in a few weeks. ing which he peppered me with ques- made us feel like honored guests, and I
On the way back to the city, I was tions about his book. Finally, he felt proud when he introduced me as
incredulous that the old man had invited me back to his house and told his friend. When the other couples at
wasted my time, and I was even more me to bring my boyfriend. our table asked if they could take pho-
determined to get the interview. If he We arrived early one morning, to tos with us so they had proof that
wanted to test me, I would call his find Moloi nearly in tears. He was white people dared to drive into
bluff. I would read his book and jump kneeling over his indoor pond, where Soweto at night, we happily smiled. We
through whatever hoops he put in dozens of dead koi fish floated on the all drank a lot of wine and clapped
front of me. surface. Apparently, a member of the when Moloi got up on stage to play his
In the ensuing weeks, I read his staff tried to clean the pond by pouring saxophone. When it was time to leave,
autobiography and learned about his bleach into the water. I stood awk- another couple offered to let us follow
difficult childhood and how he became wardly next to Moloi, not quite know- them out of the township and back to
a self-described teenage street thug. ing what to say and wanting to comfort the highway.
Moloi somehow parlayed this into a him. There would be no interview that From then on, I visited Moloi fairly
career in low-budget movies made by day, either, but I stayed to offer sup- regularly and we spoke on the phone.
and for black Africans in Apartheid port, and by the time I left, I felt a kin- On a couple of occasions he gave me
South Africa. He was often cast as the ship with the old man. story ideas or put me in touch with a
heavy, which fit his persona perfectly, The following week I finally got the source. Then one day in 1998, I got a
and he developed a huge and loyal fol- interview. Soon after, Moloi began call from Moloi’s brother.
lowing. From there he went into busi- phoning me on a regular basis, and Godfrey had died of cancer. I hadn’t
ness and became a highly successful we forged an unusual friendship. On even known he was sick and his death
bootlegger, eventually ruling the the surface we had nothing in com- came as a painful shock. His brother
underworld of Soweto. mon: I was a sheltered white woman asked if I would speak at the funeral,
Somewhere along the line, though, from the United States and he was a so on an uncommonly windy February
Moloi turned his back on crime and street-smart black South African who day, my boyfriend and I drove out to
became a legitimate businessman, had literally murdered people, but we Soweto, and I sobbed my way through
starting the first black taxi company had an inexplicable connection. We recollections of our friendship.
and opening the first guesthouse in each saw the person beneath the exte- It wasn’t until many years later that
Soweto. By the time I arrived at his rior and the stereotypes into which we I understood the invaluable lesson
door, he was a millionaire who was were born, and we felt protective of Godfrey taught me on that first day
building a reputation as a generous one another. we met.
philanthropist. Moloi was dedicated When he invited me to his birthday I had been trying so hard to act
to rehabilitating young criminals and party at the Blue Fountain, I told him like a journalist that I forgot to do the
helping Soweto’s poor. He famously he would have to send a car; there was one thing necessary to be a good jour-
held regular “Ball Drops,” hiring a no way I was driving into Soweto at nalist: listen.
helicopter to fly over the township night. He agreed, but at the last minute
and release dozens of soccer balls to called to say there was no car available. Jaimie Seaton has been a journalist for over
the cheering children below. He also He assured me that I would be safe and 20 years and is a former Thailand correspondent
ran a nightclub in the township called said if anyone tried to carjack me, I was for Newsweek. Her essays and reported stories
The Blue Fountain, where he held to flash his business card. I knew this have appeared in numerous publications, includ-
court in his signature white suit and was another test. After mulling it over ing Pacific Standard, CNN Travel, the Washing-
black Stetson hat, often serenading for about five minutes, my boyfriend ton Post, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Follow her
diners on his saxophone. and I decided to risk it, and we climbed @JaimieSeaton.

writermag.com • The Writer | 9

WRITING ESSENTIALS
BY LINDA LOWEN

A truthteller’s toolbox
Ten essential resources for nonfiction writers.

T
he adults around the table are fragile – 12 eggs how to write. Zinsser was in his 80s when he revised the
outside their carton. They’re here to write, but book for the eighth time in a 30th Anniversary Edition.
they’re afraid they’re not good enough. As the Amazing, right? His simplicity and clarity will both chal-
instructor, I start out reassuring. “Compared to lenge and shame you to do better.
the fiction students next door, you’re out from behind the
eight ball. Nobody will ever say, ‘That couldn’t happen,’ 2. Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide from the
because it already did.” Nieman Foundation at Harvard University edited by Mark
That’s the gift of nonfiction: the surety that the stories are Kramer and Wendy Call 
real, and the weight that lived experience imparts to narra- Notable nonfiction writers once had their own prestigious
tive. The task, then, is to write nonfiction that’s compelling, event: the annual Nieman Conference at Harvard. Though
and that’s the skill new writers often find toughest to master. that ended in 2009, this book draws from those talks. Over
As a creative nonfiction instructor working with begin- 50 writers, including bestselling authors and Pulitzer Prize
ning to intermediate writers, I’ve test-driven hundreds of winners, share pithy insights in dense, intense essays. While
resources. Below are my desert-island 10 – the ones I can’t the focus leans toward journalism, the lessons are universal,
live without. Some are well-known, others oddball, but covering everything from interview techniques to ethical
each tool can help you build nonfiction that’s straight, considerations. Nearly any writer from freelancers to mem-
strong, and true. For convenience, I’ve sorted them into oirists will find meaty chunks to chew over again and again. 
four categories. 
3. Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by
CRAFT BOOKS: ESSENTIAL REFERENCES Roy Peter Clark 
1. On Writing Well by William Zinsser  The exact opposite of “Telling True Stories,” these 50 short
Last in the alphabet but first in every writing instructor’s craft essays go down as easy as a bucket of popcorn, yet
Mascha Tace/Shutterstock

heart, Zinsser excels at eliminating excess and demonstrat- they’re loaded with kernels of truth. Added bonus: A free
ing how precise, clean prose is always in style. On Writing PDF is available online as well as the free 50-episode pod-
Well should be the cornerstone of every personal library, its cast series “Roy’s Writing Tools,” one per chapter, through
chapters regarded as the Twenty-Five Commandments on the Poynter Institute. You can’t afford to pass this one up.
10 | The Writer • April 2018
INSPIRATION: SPRINGBOARDS FOR sible and dispels the myth that writing experience the material they shape into
CREATIVITY needs to be “fancy” to succeed. narrative. Either with or without them,
4. Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to persist in giving your all to your writing.
Using Brain Science to Hook Readers 8. Wild by Cheryl Strayed  It’s the work, not the tools, that counts.
from the Very First Sentence by Lisa Cron The story of Strayed’s collapse and
“That story touched my heart,” you say, recovery from the loss of her mother is Linda Lowen teaches craft workshops at writ-
but neuroscience would disagree. That one of the best examples of framing, a ing conferences and festivals, and is the
story triggered something inside your structural device every writer can ben- founder of AlwaysWantedToWrite.com, a writ-
head, and the neurological response efit from. The author uses her hike ing studio in Syracuse, NY.
was to keep reading. Cron delves into along the Pacific Crest Trail as the basis
psychology, human behavior, and evo- of her tale and peppers it with flash-
lution to explain why humans crave backs to childhood, her mother’s illness “If it hadn’t been for this conference,
story. Tap that primal need, and your and death, and the disintegration of her I’d probably still be sitting on a rerun
writing will keep readers salivating. marriage. Wild is a journey on many of The Dating Game somewhere.”
Fannie Flagg, NYT bestselling author
levels, and we’re happy to tag along.

Santa Barbara
5. The War of Art: Break Through the
Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Bat- SECRET SAUCE: THE UNEXPECTED
tles by Steven Pressfield
If you aren’t doing the work you’re
INGREDIENT
9. James W. Pennebaker’s Expressive
Writers Conference
capable of, you need Pressfield’s tough- Writing technique
love approach. His examination of Can writing heal you? Pennebaker, a June 17-22, 2018
resistance – toward writing, self- social psychologist at the University of
improvement, personal growth – is a Texas at Austin, conducted studies on
Join us for 6 days
cattle prod that’ll jolt you into creative expressive writing. His research con-
beachside, at the
action. This slim volume is a quick cluded that writing about a traumatic
Santa Barbara Hyatt
read and an instant pick-me-up no event in your life – 20 minutes a day for
matter how stuck you are. four consecutive days – has measurable
health benefits that last for days, weeks, • Workshops
SUCCESS: EXAMPLES TO FOLLOW even months. After teaching this tech- • Agents
6. This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff 
Every book makes an implicit prom-
nique but never trying it myself, I did so
half a year ago, and yes – it really works.
• Speakers
ise to the reader, and those that disap- • Panels
point fail to keep it. In the first five 10. The newspaper obituary section
paragraphs, This Boy’s Life outlines Who are you and what defines you? • Improve your craft
that promise more adroitly than any Moving beyond the labels placed on us • Find your tribe
other memoir, and at the end of its by family, career, and community, I give • Make lifelong connections
288 pages you will be more than satis- students a stack of obituaries and ask
fied. Other works of creative nonfic- them, “For each individual, what’s the
tion may come and go, but in a memorable detail that stays with you?”
hundred years we’ll still be reading Consistently they cite unique, intimate
this literary masterpiece. aspects: She was the county dairy prin-
© Peanuts Worldwide LLC

cess, he was a collector of Beatles mem-

7. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls  orabilia. Then they write their own
Want to write memoir? Take this book obituaries with an eye toward descrip- Our
as your model. An antidote to the tors that are personal, evocative, and 46th
overwrought personal story, the narra- unforgettable. This exercise helps them Year!
tive is clean, straightforward, and grasp those elements that animate char- Register online:
never places blame, even though the
events described make it clear: Walls
acters and resonate with readers.
These tools are meant as aids, not
www.sbwriters.com
grew up in a disturbingly dysfunc- crutches. Your determination is the
[email protected]
tional family. The Glass Castle is acces- muscle that powers them, your (805)568-1516
writermag.com • The Writer | 11
FREELANCE SUCCESS
BY PETE CROATTO

Letting go
Seven signs it’s time to say goodbye to a client.

W
riters get so used to doing and what my lengthy feature honoring an imaginary deadline – and
hearing “no” from edi- needed. It was like taking a graduate- then I politely declined his assign-
tors that letting go of a level journalism course, and I’m for- ments while shooting my inbox the
bad gig sounds dan- ever in her debt.  middle finger.
gerous. It is not. Editors will not black- Then there are the editors who want This reminds me of another reason
list you; your life will not tumble into to push your prose around. Why? to go.
foreclosure. In my experience, when Because they can. 
you bid adieu before you get screwed, Five years ago, I was assigned a Your editor is a bully
work becomes more pleasant and lengthy feature on a sportscaster for a See above. Life is too short.
profitable.  popular Northeast-based regional
Here are the biggest warning signs. magazine. I filed the piece and a few Pointless, time-consuming revisions
days later got a phone call from the Again, I try to handle revisions well. If
Money issues assigning editor. He went through the I fall short of an editor’s goals, he or
Your rate goes down. Checks take for- story line by line, editing as if he were she has every right to demand changes.
ever to arrive, and your editor getting paid per red pen mark. Here’s That is how the game is played.
expresses disdain when you inquire the most enraging exchange: Of course, when the demands fly
over their whereabouts. (God forbid, outside the boundaries of reason, that’s
the checks bounce.) Him: “You have this line, ‘didn’t god a bad sign.
Writers deserve to get paid without up the ballplayers.’ What does that This happened to me over the sum-
their livelihoods being threatened. mean?” mer. I pitched a 450-word profile for a
Despite the doomsday accounts of college alumni magazine. It was
dying markets and pivots to video and Me: “It’s a famous expression accepted. My draft came back
writing for exposure, you can find cli- that Red Smith, the sports columnist, swamped with edits. I swallowed hard,
ents who will treat you like a human heard from his old boss, Stanley interviewed the subject a second time
being and not as a cog in the perpetual Woodward,” I said.  over the phone, and did a rewrite.
content machine. It just takes time. Then there was an email with more
You’ll get those when you ditch crappy Him: “We’re not trying to be Sports requests.
clients and devote your energy to find- Illustrated here.” And with that snide Then another.
ing far more suitable replacements.  dismissal, this portion in an unending And another.
condescending conversation con- The edits were starting to contradict
Your voice gets obliterated cluded. The line got cut. earlier edits. With a story of this size,
Revisions are like visits to the doctor: I any tweak, throws everything off
dread them, but I know that I’ll leave Get a load of Harold Hayes. First, he because there’s no slack. It appeared
in better shape than when I arrived.  refuses to give readers credit that they the editor wanted to write her own ver-
If an editor’s revisions are heavy but might enjoy a nice turn of phrase. Sec- sion of this story, which is fine. Then
improve the article – without compro- ond, he is angry at emulating Sports she should do it herself. I fired off an
mising my style – great. If I learn Illustrated, one of the best-written email explaining just as much, divorc-
something about writing in the pro- magazines over the past 60 years. Gary ing myself from the project.
cess, even better. At the (sadly) defunct Smith, who has won more National A small number of editors cannot
Grantland, Sarah Larimer tore my first Magazine Awards than anyone, was an grasp that many freelance writers are
draft to shreds and brought me to SI mainstay. basically landing planes on Thanksgiv-
tears. But Sarah (now at The Washing- I took on one more assignment for ing eve. I’m happy to handle legitimate
ton Post) also explained what she was the editor – who accused me of not complaints regardless of size, but I will
12 | The Writer • April 2018
not hold up a line of planes to ensure outlier made swearing off both outlets what I delivered slipped. 
the Diet Cokes are all 42 degrees Fahr- much easier. Plus, I prefer acting like a Nobody was benefitting. I had to
enheit on the 4:35 a.m. Newark to sane person. It’s good for my blood leave. When I told Lauren and Nicki,
Providence failed salesmen express. pressure and for inanimate objects. they understood. Good editors know
Neither should you. when a writer must depart, and a
You outgrow the client good writer knows how to deliver that
You get angry working with them… One of my favorite regular gigs ever message in compassionate, easy-to-
I was so frustrated with the college was serving as a sports books colum- understand language.  
alumni pub that I spewed a fountain of nist at BiblioBuffet (RIP). I could write
profanity over this situation at my par- whatever I wanted, and my editors Respect should flow both ways in
ents, who were in town to watch my there, Lauren Roberts and Nicki Leone, every aspect of the editor-writer rela-
daughter. The “Sports Illustrated” edi- were kind, supportive, and smart. tionship. If the editor is not reciprocat-
tor drove me to kick a random projec- I got the gig in 2009, when I was ing, it’s time to consider why you’re
tion screen when my weekly pick-up gaining traction in my freelancing sticking around.
basketball game failed to calm me. career. I was paid $25 per column,
which became harder to accept as I Pete Croatto (Twitter: @PeteCroatto) is a fre-
…and you’re not alone landed higher-profile, higher-paying quent contributor to The Writer who has written
Two friends who had written for both assignments. I couldn’t afford to take for The New York Times, Publishers Weekly,
publications shared their own exasper- on passion projects for that little Columbia Journalism Review, and many other
ating experiences. Getting acknowl- money. I began writing out of neces- outlets. He lives with his family just outside
edgement that my ordeal was not an sity. The quality – and frequency – of Ithaca, New York.

The Oldest Low-Residency

MFA IN FLORIDA
Fiction | Nonfiction | Poetry

Past and Present Guest Writers and Editors Include:

Richard Bausch, Michael Connelly, Lydia Davis, Arthur Flowers, Nick Flynn, Roxane Gay,
Hal Hartley, Terrance Hayes, Amy Hill Hearth, Eli Horowitz, Denis Johnson, Miranda July,
Ben Lerner, Jamaal May, Susan Minot, Rick Moody, Francine Prose, George Saunders,
Heather Sellers, Patricia Smith, Deborah Treisman, Colson Whitehead, Lidia Yuknavitch

Teaching Faculty Include:

Jessica Anthony, Sandra Beasley, John Capouya, Brock Clarke, Erica Dawson (director),
Mikhail Iossel, Stefan Kiesbye, Kevin Moffett, Donald Morrill,
Jason Ockert, Alan Michael Parker, Jeff Parker, Corinna Vallianatos

Learn more at www.ut.edu/mfacw

or by calling (813) 258-7409.

writermag.com • The Writer | 13

 Write a
book in

days
How to complete a first
draft of your manuscript
in three months or less.
By Jen Glantz

14 | The Writer • April 2018

It can be argued
that the hardest part of writing a book is 4 a.m. to write, working at my day job until
actually sitting down to write it. You might 5 p.m., and then writing until my fingers
have a Word document, a list written on a went numb at around 11:30 p.m.
napkin, or even a mental note saved of a I eventually finished with just one hour of
book you’re eager to write. There’s just one my 90-day deadline to spare. But the experi-
question stopping you: When is a good time ence taught me books don’t have to take
to write a book – and how long will it take? years out of their authors’ lives; with plenty
You can write a book over the course of of determination and a little know-how, a
many years. Some successful authors have writer can start a book in April and have it
taken as long as 10 or 15 years to write finished by the fourth of July. Here are the
their books. eight techniques I used to write the first draft
But it doesn’t have to take that long. of my memoir in just three months.
In 2015, a publisher green-lit my pro-
PREPARE BEFOREHAND
posal for my second book. I was over-the-
moon excited. I couldn’t wait to get started
on the writing process, which I imagined
1 You might be excited to dive into your
goal, but before you sit down and write all
would take me between two or three years, day, every day, it’s important to do prepara-
since at the time I was working full time and tion work. Spend a full month doing some
running a business on the side that occupied homework before you begin writing.
most of my weekends. But before I signed The first thing you should do is read as
the contract, they asked that I write the many books as you can. Read classic favor-
book in three months. ites, new releases, and especially read the
Three months. It seemed like a ridicu- genre of the book you plan to write. Read as
lously short amount of time. But I realized I much as humanly possible so you can start
was up for the challenge, especially when I identifying techniques that you would like
remembered how much time I wasted on to incorporate into your writing and ways to
my first book because I had the leisure of a structure your manuscript.
longer deadline. The other thing you will want to do is
I decided to spend the first month of my begin exercising your writing muscle. Write
three-month deadline simply getting myself for an hour or two every day. Just like you
prepared to write. I read a lot of books for would train for a race, train for your book
research, and I started out slowly, only writ- marathon by writing more and more every
ing for an hour or two a day. When month day. When it’s time to spend five to 12 hours
two started, I got serious. That was when I writing each day, you’ll have built up your
gave myself a goal of writing a new chapter stamina, and it’ll be easier to power through
every two days, which meant waking up at those long sessions.
writermag.com • The Writer | 15
 SET A TIME FRAME
2 Have a heart-to-heart with yourself to
determine how many hours a day you will devote
come to you naturally during the writing process,
you still need to sketch out your book’s structure
if you’re going to complete it on such a com-
to writing and at what time of the day you will pressed timeline.
devote those hours. Are you a morning person? A Outline how you want the book to start, how
night-time person? Do you know the only way the middle will flow, and what you imagine the
you will make this work is by waking up early, ending to be. If you are writing a collection of
writing on your lunch hour, and then skipping essays or stories, outline what each piece will be
your post-work TV-watching time so you can about, how you will structure it, and how you can
write another chapter? make it flow differently than the other pieces in
If you find that you can only commit to five the book, so your draft doesn’t seem repetitive.
hours a day during the week, then you might Share the outline with your editor, agent, or
want to schedule 12-hour writing days on both close friends. Get as much feedback on it as you
Saturday and Sunday. Let weekends be your buf- can; that way, when you begin your two-month
fer time: If your week becomes too chaotic, spend writing binge, you have a crystal-clear path show-
your weekends catching up on your goals so you ing what you need to write and how it will fit in
don’t fall behind. to the overall storyline.

CANCEL OTHER PLANS WRITE OUT OF ORDER

3 You might want to suspend any belief in a
work-life balance during this marathon writing
5 Though it may seem like a limitation, one of
the biggest benefits of having a chapter-by-chapter
process. You’ll need to dedicate as much of your outline is the freedom it grants the writer. You
time to writing and editing the first draft of might find you wake up one day unexcited to
your book as humanly possible. While your write chapter five, even though it’s the next chap-
“research month” will be more flexible, it’s a ter in your book.
good idea to pick a time for your two-month Instead of fighting your way through it, try
writing period in which you don’t have many writing out of order. Your outline will tell you
big life events happening, such as family or exactly what each component needs to be suc-
friends’ weddings, big projects at work, or cessful. So if chapter 12 excites you more one
planned vacations. morning, write that chapter. You can comb
If it’s unavoidable to plan around these events, through your draft later to make sure it’s cohe-
you need to figure out how you’ll make your sive, rewriting any sections that seem out of place
schedule work in advance. That might mean wak- and adding details you might have missed along
ing up earlier or going to sleep later so you can the way.
get more writing in. It might even mean you With such a tight deadline, you should write
bring your laptop with you on vacation, to your what you feel like writing that day instead of
day job, or to a big family holiday. wasting time fighting your impulses.
It’s a good idea to send a note to your close
FIGHT THE BLANK PAGE
friends and family letting them know you will be
absent for a two-month period – not because
you’re avoiding them, but because you’re accom-
6 There will be many moments throughout
your two-month writing process where you find
plishing one of your biggest life goals. yourself spending quality time eyeballing a blank
page. With such a tight schedule, it is extra-
OUTLINE EACH CHAPTER
4 Before you dive into the writing process,
take the time in your “research month” to outline
important to learn how to handle writer’s block.
Learn how to transform that blank-page staring
contest into a writing exercise that gets your cre-
each chapter. Even if you decide to leave some ative juices flowing.
plot twists out of your outline in the hopes they’ll Develop a game plan for such moments. One
16 | The Writer • April 2018
 You might want to suspend
any belief in a work-life balance during
this marathon writing process.
FIND SOMEONE TO KEEP YOU
technique you can use when you don’t know what
to write next is to turn to your outline and just
start writing. Don’t worry about form, spelling, or
8 ON TARGET
Since not many people in your life will be able to
even churning out complete sentences. Set a understand this crazy writing goal you have set,
15-minute alarm on your phone, and don’t let it’s important to surround yourself with one per-
your fingers stop typing during that time. When son or a group of people who have either written a
time is up, print those pages and highlight any book before or are jumping onto the same writing
passages or sentences you feel work well. When goal as you. That way, you have a support system
you force yourself to free-write, you’ll notice new to bounce off ideas, ask questions, share motiva-
ideas coming out of you that you might not have tional tactics, and to keep yourself accountable.
ever expected. Ask one or two of them to check in on you at
Another strategy is to take a short break from set intervals – maybe once a week, or every day if
writing and read a chapter or two from your you think you need more rigorous structure. You
favorite book. Reading other people’s writing can can choose to either share your word count or
jump-start the inspiration or confidence you share what you’ve written thus far. Either way,
need to put your own pen to paper. these “accountability buddies” can help you stay
on pace to meet your goal.
TAKE MINI-BREAKS
7 Real talk: This marathon writing session
isn’t going to be easy or comfortable. You might
Writing your entire book in such a short time is
doable. But if you decide to commit to this pro-
find your body in physical pain from sitting cess, it’s crucial to have personal rules and guide-
down for long periods of time or from typing for lines set before you begin. Be sure to do
hours on end. As important as it is to schedule preparation the month before, whether that’s
writing time throughout the day, it is equally research, reading books, or beginning a daily writ-
essential to schedule breaks. ing habit. When you enter your 60-day writing
When planning a long writing session, sched- period, you’ll have a built-in framework ensuring
ule four 20-minute breaks and a two-hour lunch you’re guaranteed to stay on track, pushing away
break. Set a “break alarm” to remind you it’s time any and all distractions, whether those come from
to get up and walk around or break for a workout external forces or from yourself.
and a solid meal.
You can also try switching up your surround- Jen Glantz is the founder of the viral business Bridesmaid
ings. You might find yourself getting bored or for Hire, the creator of the blog The Things I Learned From,
sleepy if you write all day in the same seat. Set up and the author of the Amazon best-selling book All My
two or three workstations in your home or office Friends are Engaged. Her new book, Always a Bridesmaid for
that you can move back and forth from all day Hire, published by Simon and Schuster, is available now. Jen
long. Every two hours, pack up your work and is a freelance writer for more than 25 different publications,
move to a different spot. You’d be surprised how including Today.com, Glamour magazine, Prevention maga-
much a new environment can motivate and zine, BRIDES magazine, and Bumble (the dating app). She
inspire you as you write for long hours through- teaches creative nonfiction and memoir writing at Gotham
out the day. Writers Workshop in New York City.

writermag.com • The Writer | 17

 Authors are becoming increasingly concerned
about the state of our planet – and what we can
do about it. Enter climate fiction, or “cli-fi,” a new
genre that deals with climate change and global
warming on both a modern and future scale.
BY MELISSA HART

IN
Ashley Shelby’s Twin Cities near-future trilogy; Jeanette Winter- Artist & Writers Program and meets a
home, climate change domi- son’s The Stone Gods, set on a fictional scientist who believes climate change is
nates household conversation. planet; and Margaret Atwood’s dysto- a hoax. Shelby’s publisher describes the
Her father is a retired investigative pian MaddAddam trilogy. You’ll also novel as “a comedy of errors” – unex-
journalist and television anchor who find a handful of cli-fi authors, like pected in a book that hotly debates the
devotes his days to climate activism. Shelby, penning novels set in the cur- veracity of climate change claims.
Her 10-year-old son is well-versed in rent world and informed by concerns Shelby explains that some of her story
concerns about fossil fuels and warm- that reflect those of readers right now. is based on the experiences of her sis-
ing ocean temperatures. Shelby herself ter, who lived at the South Pole in her
is the author of Red River Rising: The Crafting cli-fi as contemporary fiction early 20s. “They use humor as a sur-
Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of While Shelby admires writers who take vival strategy,” she says.
an American City, a book about one of a dystopian approach to climate She notes that people are often so
the most dramatic floods in U.S. his- change, she worries that more apoca- caught up in bad news about natural
tory, and a debut novel, South Pole Sta- lyptic stories create a distance and a disasters that they become over-
tion. Booksellers categorize her novel, scenario that reads more like science whelmed by despair, convinced that
which follows a group of contempo- fiction. “It feels outlandish, like it’s not there’s nothing that they as individuals
rary misfits living at the South Pole, as something that’s really going to hap- can do to mitigate the problems. “Fic-
both humor and climate fiction. pen,” she explains. tion writers working in contemporary
“You have to be eccentric to want to She prefers cli-fi that looks at what settings can humanize the issue,” she
spend 12 months at South Pole Station,” could happen in the next five years. says. “If we can present a world that’s
Shelby explains. “Humor is what I use “Look at all that’s happening now,” she changing and familiar, we can get peo-
to face the difficult challenges we have.” says. “The hurricanes in Florida, what ple to think about climate change in a
Climate fiction, or cli-fi, as it’s happened in Puerto Rico, the western way that’s not necessarily scary.”
called for short, refers to those novels states on fire. Soon, cli-fi will be classi-
Zastolskiy Victor/Shutterstock

and short stories that include some fied simply as contemporary fiction.” All the things you want in a good novel
discussion of climate change and Her novel, South Pole Station, tells Alaskan author Nancy Lord also sees
global warming. Among them, you’ll the story of protagonist Cooper Gos- the value in approaching climate fiction
find speculative works like Kim Stan- ling, who travels to Antarctica as part with a sense of humor. In 2011, Coun-
ley Robinson’s Science in the Capital of the National Science Foundation’s terpoint Press published her literary
writermag.com • The Writer | 19
 Facts are not enough to change minds regarding
climate change; people need stories.

nonfiction book, Early Warming: Cri- temperate parts of the world. While miracle,” Lord explains. “A scientist
sis and Response in the Climate- Alaskans are enjoying a longer grow- comes to town and examines the phe-
Changed North. In the process of ing season, erosion threatens their nomenon from a scientific point of
writing the book, she realized that coastal communities, and roads buckle view. There’s romance and all the other
people suffer from what she terms because of thawing permafrost. “In things you want in a good novel.”
“bad news fatigue” related to climate pH, I wrote about warming oceans
issues and the environment. “It’s really and also about acidification,” Lord People need stories
hard to engage readers in a nonfiction explains. “It’s what we call ‘the other Ellen Meeropol began writing cli-fi
way because it’s all so terrible,” she CO2 problem,’ which has giant effects until after first grandchild was born. A
explains. “Fiction can encapsulate the on the ocean’s ecosystem.” political activist for almost her entire
issues in a narrative story that’s fun to Getting the science right is critical life, she began thinking about the kind
read. I tried to give my novel a fair in climate fiction, she says. Getting it of world adults were going to leave to
amount of humor.” wrong or oversimplifying it within the children. She began working with a
Her book pH: A Novel is about a story does readers a disservice. “We local group in Massachusetts to study
marine biologist and his students who want people to take away an awareness issues surrounding fossil fuels and ice
study the effects of oceanic acidifica- of the real reasons that these things are melt and rising seas. Much of that
tion on a keystone species off the Gulf happening,” Lord explains. information found its way into her
of Alaska. During the Association of She cites Ian McEwan’s novel Solar novel, Kinship of Clover, which
Writers & Writing Programs Confer- as particularly influential in showing explores some of the ways in which
ence (AWP) in 2016, Lord visited her her how to blend witty characterization people have decided to fight back
senator, Lisa Murkowski, in Washing- with scientific information on climate against climate change with a range of
ton, D.C., and presented her with an change. She also studied Barbara King- political strategies.
advance copy. “She was very excited solver’s Flight Behavior, about a family “I didn’t start out to write about cli-
and promised to read it,” Lord says. living in the Appalachian Mountains mate issues,” Meeropol explains. “My
“She recognizes all that’s happening where Monarch butterflies appear, hav- books begin with a situation or a char-
in Alaska.” ing eschewed their normal Mexican acter. In a previous book, I’d written
Lord notes that her home state has destination because of global warming. about a character named Jeremy who
been warming twice as fast as more “The people there see it as a religious loved to draw plants. When I was
20 | The Writer • April 2018
thinking about what I wanted to work alive, to make us care enough to do would have looked like more sustain-
on next, he started to whisper in my something about it.” able farming practices,” he says. “In
ear, ‘Don’t you want to know how I Houston, this past year, that should
turned out?’” Cli-fi as preemptive planning have looked like better development
In Kinship, Jeremy is a college bot- Climate fiction also speaks to those policies to avoid destroying invalu-
any major obsessed with disappearing who will be most affected by global able wetlands and the region’s ability
plant species. His twin brother is a cli- warming – young readers. Arizona to soak up rainwater. I hope that
mate change denier. “In our incredibly author Austin Aslan is the author of readers of my books, when they’re
polarized political climate right now, The Islands at the End of the World and asked to design, fund, or vote on
it’s really important in writing work The Girl at the Center of the World, local/state/national initiatives to pre-
that could be considered partisan to be novels about a teen protagonist and pare more smartly and thoroughly for
generous to characters who do not her ecologist father set against the disaster, will remember how unpre-
share our authorial point of view,” she backdrop of climate chaos in Hawai’i. pared the Hawaiian Islands were for
says. “Instead of adding to the polar- Aslan earned a master’s degree in trop- the disaster awaiting them in my ficti-
ization in our fiction, we can look for ical conservation biology while living tious scenario.”
ways that people can talk to each other on the Big Island. Contemporary cli-fi, whether writ-
about these things about which we dis- He believes that many scientists are ten for adults or young readers, offers
agree so strongly. Jeremy’s brother uncomfortable taking a stand on any new ways to think about our changing
comes to his aid when most needed. issue, including global warming: “Most planet. In immersing ourselves in sto-
He’s politically opposite, but he’s not a scientists – too many, in my view, and I ries with engaging characters and plot-
bad guy.” am one – abdicate their responsibility lines, we absorb new ideas and gain
Meeropol says that cli-fi authors to call for action when their findings insight into the role that we might play
must resist the urge to lecture. Instead, demand attention.” Aslan explains that in helping to mitigate disaster.
she says, let the characters and the story scientists often leave climate advocacy “Novelists have a disproportionate
carry the theme. She notes that fiction work to nonprofits and activists with- share of the burden in calling attention
is better at asking questions than out strong enough followings to gain to issues, whether they be environmen-
answering them. “What we can do best critical momentum on issues. tal or social or cultural or whatever,”
is to goad people into thinking about This is where novelists play a cru- Aslin points out. “The key is for our
things they haven’t thought about cial part. “Storytelling is how people ideas to infiltrate critical minds in the
before, experiencing the world in a way listen and learn new things,” he says. smoothest possible way. I think that’s
that’s new to them and seeing the world “Data and facts and figures go in one best done not by proclaiming the facts
through the eyes of characters who are ear and right out the other. Storytelling and the truth as we know them, but by
really different from them and their adds to our personal experiences. getting out of the way of our own
own experiences,” she explains. Without knowing it, we absorb and training and allowing our stories to
Ann Pancake’s 2007 novel Strange assimilate what other people and char- speak for themselves, out of the vast
as this Weather Has Been showed acters are going through.” array of experiences that our readers
Meeropol what contemporary cli-fi He cautions climate fiction authors already carry with them when they
could look like. The book follows a against being didactic. “The quickest turn to a story.”
family who works in coal mining and way to kill a good plot and deaden great Up in the Twin Cities, Shelby
struggles with the challenges presented characters is to start using them as bull- believes young readers and writers are
by mountaintop removal mining and horns for specific agendas,” he notes. already heeding the images and issues
the resulting environmental destruc- Schools around the country use in cli-fi. After South Pole Station was
tion. “It’s beautifully written,” Meero- Aslan’s The Islands at the End of the published, her 10-year-old son had to
pol said, “and just as relevant today as World as a teaching tool. Since the write a short story for school. “He
it was 10 years ago.” book’s publication, he’s seen a number walked into my office and handed me
She believes facts are not enough to of homework projects and reports that a piece of climate fiction he’d written,”
change minds regarding climate show how students use the novel to Shelby explains. “He introduced his
change; people need stories. “We can conceptualize the effects of climate classmates to the term ‘cli-fi’ and it
access the facts about the risk of fossil change. He hopes his books help became part of their curriculum.”
fuels and the tipping point of CO2,” young people to recognize the impor-
she says, “but unless someone brings tance of pre-emptive planning to miti- Contributing editor Melissa Hart is the
those facts to life, neither our politics gate future climate-related floods, author of the middle-grade novel Avenging the
nor our behavior will change. Stories hurricanes, wildfires, and earthquakes. Owl (Sky Pony, 2016) and two memoirs for
are a way to make those facts come “In my books, set on Hawai’i, that adults. Web: melissahart.com.

writermag.com • The Writer | 21

 WHEN
VERSE
MEETS
PROSE
HOW WRITING POEMS CAN ENHANCE
YOUR FICTION – AND VICE VERSA.
BY JACK SMITH

22 | The Writer • April 2018

A
re you a two-genre writer? Fiction, say, and poetry too? If
you are, you’ve surely noticed some advantages of work-
ing in two genres. If you’re not, and you’re drawn to
either, give it a try. The two overlap quite a bit, and there are
distinct benefits of writing both.
First, when you write both fiction and poetry, you
strengthen your ability to handle language. As a creative
writer, you must find ways to place readers in your world.
Certainly, as conscious creatures, we live in the world of the
mind. But we also live in a world of the five senses. As read-
ers, we like to be fully present, concretely there in the imagi-
native literature we read. If you work in both genres, you’ll
have double the practice at placing readers in both internal
and external worlds.
Second, there is the matter of rhythm or pacing, the pulse
of the language itself. What is the right pacing for this poem,
this story? What tempo do you need to create the voice that
needs to come through? Voice is essential to drive both fiction
and poetry.
Voice also relates to perspective. Have you created the
right lens for this poem or story? Is there a better one? A
more interesting one?
Naturally, the more you work as both poet and fiction
writer, the more you will hone your ability to handle these and
other key elements of imaginative writing.

Still, it may not be easy to manage working in two genres.

What’s the best way to juggle a dual writing schedule to pro-
duce your best work? And what about that mysterious, that
magical element of all imaginative writing – the process? Are
they the same? Could they be?
Let’s hear what the pros say.

writermag.com • The Writer | 23

 The process of writing both fiction and poetry Maybe what sparks your writing is different.
Tess Gallagher, author of numerous works of Maybe it’s something you’ve read, a movie you’ve
poetry and fiction, looks back to when she adopted seen, or an idea you’ve been mulling over. Never-
husband Raymond Carver’s process for writing fic- theless, one thing you should keep in mind about
tion: Don’t stop until the draft is complete. process – regardless of genre – is the importance
“He advised me not to lift my pen from the of discovery, of surprise. Knowing everything in
paper before finishing a draft of a story. I had advance about your poem or story may not be a
been used to revising as I went along, and it was good idea.
slowing down the motion of the writing. He told In fact, being “full of uncertainty” is essential
me to just put a dash when I didn’t know some- to Fincke as he enters the drafting process. He
thing and then fill that in when I reworked the doesn’t want the answers ahead of time; he
story – but to stay in the swim, the flow of the wants to find them out as he writes. For Juli-
story as I wrote it,” she says. anna Baggott, author of 16 novels and several
She began to adopt this process for her poetry volumes of poetry, the process is working just
as well. Writing stories as well as poems “at speed” right when she “knows the questions but none
has meant she’s been able to keep herself “in a fluid of the answers.”
state during composition, which leads to more dis- “There might be a word or image I know I’m
coveries and opens the work up considerably.” driving at,” she says. “I don’t know how I’ll get
While Gallagher follows the same process for there, but when I’m finished with the poem or
both genres, she arrives at poems differently from the scene – surprised that it’s suddenly night
stories – and this, too, goes back a ways. because I was unaware of the bleed from after-
“Sometimes I had dreamed entire poems and noon through dusk – I’ve kind of arrived at it or
written them upon waking. I never had that expe- past it. When I’m writing well it feels good, the
rience with stories. Poems seem to come from a same kind of good, regardless of genre. It’s
quite mysterious and cathartic place in my genre-blind.”
psyche,” she says. Experimentation is good in both genres. It’s
Stories, though, required more intentionality: wise to give your imagination free rein. But it also
“To write stories, I felt I had to become more doesn’t hurt to go with patterns you’re familiar
careful in putting down my breadcrumbs so I with, old friends you’re comfortable with, and
could be followed in the forest.” simply see what happens.
Where exactly do stories come from? And For Jim Daniels, author of several works of fic-
poems? Whether it’s an intuitive process or an tion as well as poetry, the pattern is invariably
intentional one, probably some sort of catalyst narrative. “I have always been primarily a writer
sparks creative work. of narrative, regardless of genre. In fact, I’ve been
Maybe it’s a dream, maybe a memory, maybe writing narrative poems for a long time, and
an image. For Gary Fincke, author of more than more than one person over the years either ques-
30 books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, the tioned whether my poems were actually poems
catalyst for both poems and stories is usually or advised me to focus on fiction.”
something sensory – often visual or aural. “The Though Daniels works in several genres –
poems most often begin in image; the stories poetry, fiction, and film – he’s surprised at how a
nearly always begin in voice, one that I need to given genre can shape similar material into a
listen to over a period of time, one that I can hear whole new thing. “I don’t usually sit down think-
well enough and long enough to have it take me ing I’m going to write a poem or story – I’m just
beneath the surface of that character’s life.” Being sitting down to write and see what happens.”
attentive to a sensory trigger is important to You don’t have to see genre, then, as a limit-
Fincke because he wants the reader to “be some- ing thing. You can work conveniently across
where” and “with someone.” And, regardless of genres. Daniels states, “As writers, we can’t listen
the difference in the two genres’ demands – fic- to people trying to steer us into little boxes and
tion requiring character development, poetry keep us penned in. One of the amusing things
requiring “associative thinking” – both genres I’ve seen in recent years is writers publishing
need the writer to engage the reader and create prose poems and publishing the same pieces as
some sort of emotional resonance early on. flash fiction pieces. Everything gets pretty
24 | The Writer • April 2018
 TIPS AND TRICKS FROM
“I don’t usually sit down DUAL-GENRE PROS
thinking I’m going to write TESS GALLAGHER:
“One of the
a poem or story – I’m just things most
helpful to my
sitting down to write and writing process
is that I walk
see what happens.” every day on
both sides of a river. Having that
—JIM DANIELS in my day allows an expansive
zone of walking meditation in
which many thoughts, recogni-
tions, and spirit connections
come to me that might never do
blurry, and sometimes trying to make genre dis- so otherwise. It is a kind of
tinctions can be a distraction from the quality of sacred time when I let myself
the work itself.” take joy in birds and trees and
the sound of the river.”
Choosing genres at any given time
If you’re already writing in two genres – or plan JIM DANIELS:
to – how should you manage your writing given “Active verbs
the ordinary demands and constraints of day-to- drive both
day life? What about work demands? What’s the poems and sto-
best time to write poetry, the best time to write ries. Circle all
fiction? (Is there even one?) Can you write poetry your is/was/
in the middle of writing fiction, and vice versa? were’s and see
Until his recent retirement, Fincke directed the how many you can cut or replace.”
Susquehanna University Writers Institute and
taught a full course load. Breaks and summers, he JULIANNA BAGGOTT:
found, were best for fiction writing. He loves both “Let the poet in
genres, but fiction writing simply required more you pick the
time for the process. best image –
Daniels’ experience is similar. A professor of only one where
English at Carnegie Mellon University, he tends one will do just
to write more poems during the regular school fine. The fiction
year and more fiction in the summer, when he writer will want to hold onto a
has longer stretches of uninterrupted time. “It’s bunch of them, muddying the
easier for me to pick up the thread of the stories whole lot. Don’t let him.”
when I don’t have the interruptions and interfer-
ence of other obligations,” he says. But there are GARY FINCKE:
always exceptions – when some idea really takes “A common ‘tip’
hold of him: “Then all bets are off.” And these for poets is
rules only apply to first drafts: “I find that I can Frost’s reminder
work on revisions of both at any time,” he says. that no surprise
But even if you aren’t restricted by career or for the writer
job, ordinary distractions might determine means no sur-
which genre you can handle at any given time. prise for the reader. It’s just as
For Gallagher, it’s the story that takes the most important for prose. Let the char-
concentration. “If one is likely to be dislodged acters lead you to the story. Lis-
from one’s solitude, then the poem is easier to ten to their voices, not yours.” 
write in the smaller time period. You can lose a Photography by (top to bottom): Karen Matsuda,
Tim Kaulen, Carlos Alejandro, Jonathan Macbride
 story by being interrupted in the writing of it. third of her time, Gallagher feels she’s “sure to
Ray and I maintained strict periods of solitude. I encounter daily both of these elements.” But
never entered his writing office without a quiet presently, she’s more drawn to poetry, which sat-
knock for permission.” isfies her current need for the less straightfor-
Time factors surely apply to everyone. But ward, less nailed down. “I go to poetry these days
what about emotional factors? Does writer’s block because the nature of what I’m exploring seems
pick and choose genres? As humans, we’ve got more episodic and untethered. I have more ques-
our predilections and our moods. You’d probably tions than details.”
do well to go with them. For her, poetry is characterized by mystery.
But ask yourself this: Which of the two genres With this form, she can meet the challenge that
is your real life-blood? Is one more geared to presently works in her to express the ineffable:
who you are, what you really need or want, than “When unknowns accumulate, maybe one has to
the other? take refuge in the malleability, the mystery of
For Baggott, it’s writing fiction: “I can go long words, that smaller unit.” Story, on the other
stretches without poetry, but not fiction. It’s a hand, “seems lodged more in sentences and para-
daily blue-collar grind, and it keeps me grounded graphs, in being able to extend the actions until
and engaged. It always has
been. And I love the long mar-
riage with the page. I wouldn’t
know how to operate without
being engrossed in the build-
ing of novels and trilogies. I
love the enormous architec-
“Image and epiphany are
ture. So mostly that’s where I
dwell. Except when I can’t.
poetry’s greatest gifts
Then, poems.”
When her life feels “more
to the fiction writer.”
fragmented” due to emotional —JULIANNA BAGGOTT
pressures of various kinds
bearing down on her, like “loss,
fear, and trauma,” she turns to
poetry. At times like these, says
Baggott, “my observations are
heightened – sometimes because of adrenaline – they reveal their mysteries.” And, at present, Gal-
and my patience with words has worn thin.” In lagher is more into knotting than unraveling –
this emotional condition, she chooses to write she’s more interested in a form that is anchored in
poetry because it allows her “to say something tightly woven conundrums: “Poetry asks for dis-
urgent – vicious, fearful, angry, bereft.” In this tillations, and curvatures, and disjunctions, over-
emotional state, she would feel “too urgent to lap, and most of all emotion, feeling.”
dawdle in fiction.” She also doesn’t find it possible to write poetry
The materials Gallagher generates in the early when she’s devoting her energies to story writing.
stages of writing tend to decide the choice of “Writing fiction gets in the way of writing poetry,
genre for her. “If the actions involved bring for- and I feel quite unable to do so when I am in a
ward a cast of characters, then it has to be a story. period of story writing. The two minds, though
If there are only a couple of people or one speaker, related, really are very distinct for me.”
that would indicate a poem could carry it.” “Story writing seems discursive and tends to
Yet there’s more to her choice of genres at any be ‘about’ something, whereas poetry seems a full
given time than this. There’s also a sort of exis- immersion into language and event,” she contin-
tential need that causes her to produce creative ues. “I never feel ‘outside’ when writing poems
materials in the first place. On the one hand, she but always as if I am inside the cocoon, spinning.”
claims an addiction to “wit and story:” In the Fincke feels much the same way. He finds it
Northwest of Ireland, where she spends about a difficult to begin a new poem if he’s busy crafting
26 | The Writer • April 2018
a short story. Revision is a different matter, sustain voice in certain stories such as ‘The Lover
though. He can take a first or second draft of a of Horses,’” in which a “female speaker had to
poem and revise it while immersed in a story speak across time yet also move in the present.”
draft. When he’s hit a blank wall with a story, this Writing poetry, says Daniels, helps him with
strategy works quite well for him. fiction in terms of compression of language,
When Daniels is at work on fiction, he often voice, and rhythm. Writing fiction also has its
begins his day revising poems. Doing so builds payoffs for his poetry. He credits fiction writing
him up for the day by giving him a sense of with making him a more patient writer. He usu-
accomplishment. Sometimes fiction writing pro- ally has to take a story through several drafts, and
duces “very little in terms of actual pages,” says in doing so he has to “scrap” a lot. While this
Daniels, and he feels he’s at least got these revised practice is frustrating, it’s nonetheless paid off in
poems to show for his day’s work. “Also,” he says, poetry writing. Recently, for instance, he “crystal-
“it just helps ease me into the calm state of mind ized” a long poem down to three short stanzas,
that helps me focus on longer fiction pieces.” evidence of the same kind of economy he’s
achieved in fiction writing.
The payoffs of working in more than one genre “The skills are transferrable,” agrees Baggott.
Can writing poetry help you write fiction? Can Writing poetry helps her write fiction. “Image
writing fiction help you write poetry? According and epiphany are poetry’s greatest gifts to the fic-
to the pros, you will benefit on both ends. tion writer. I know certain characters’ emotional
“The challenges of form and language that beats because I’ve worked through these things in
poetry presents have seeped into my fiction,” poems. The truth is that my most commercial
Fincke says. He’s seen a number of important fiction is where I allow myself to be my most
carryovers. For one thing, he’s not “bound to the poetic. Commercial fiction and poetry share a
chronological” but feels free to adopt an associa- spareness, a directness, and the terrain is fertile.
tive story structure. Because of writing poetry, But writing fiction also helps you write poetry.
he is more attentive to “precise, evocative lan- And, of course, narrative line is what fiction
guage,” including metaphor and allusion. In a brings to poetry.”
larger way, he’s more able to ground his stories in
the contexts of place, time, character, and cul- Experimenting with verse and prose
ture. And fiction helps with poetry, too: “It’s On paper, poetry and fiction may seem like two
always good to be reminded that it’s the subject different genres, but at some point, because of
under the surface rather than the one in plain their similarities and how writers have experi-
sight that might drive a poem’s narrative as well mented with the boundaries between them, it’s
as a story’s.” not always easy to label a particular work as one
For Gallagher, writing fiction has meant writ- or the other. Is this a prose poem? Or a flash fic-
ing better poetry. This was true going back to her tion piece? Will your idea bloom into a short
years with Carver: “I began to write poetry which story or a narrative poem? Do you want to arrive
carried a stronger narrative thread after I joined at a conclusion via a story, or leave your ques-
Raymond Carver in our life together in 1978. I tions unanswered in verse? Should you even
also became Ray’s first reader for his stories, think in terms of genre? Genre-crossing tells us
which got me interested in writing my own – something about the age we live in – a more rela-
something he greatly encouraged. A new clarity tivistic one, where exact lines between things are
of motion came into my poetry as a result of writ- disappearing. We realize that we need not be so
ing fiction.” She terms this “a crisper, cleaner caught up in reductive labels that we stifle living,
lion’s leap to my poetry. A conciseness.” She breathing things. And literature, if anything, is
believes she’s built up her readership because her living and breathing. This is one great value of
work is more accessible. writing in these two genres: having broadened
“Poetry is so empowered by voice that I made your range, you will get to know this truth more
a lot of use of that element when I could carry it fully, experientially.
over to my fiction writing,” Gallagher says.
“On the fiction side of things, poetry carries a Jack Smith is the author of four novels, two books of non-
singing quality,” she explains, “and helped me fiction, and numerous articles and interviews.

writermag.com • The Writer | 27

 W H E R E
FI C T I O N &
N O N F I C T I O N
P CIDE
O L L
T H E T O R I T E R S
Q U E S W
T E CH N I E A L F R O M
SHO U L D S T
NOVE L I S T S . BY
HEAT HER
VILLA
As a freelance reporter, I relied on the five Ws: who, what,
where, when, and why. However, when an editor told me a
submitted article seemed stiff and too business-sounding, my
approach was challenged. “The goal is to make the reader
feel like you’re sitting across from them, telling them the
story – not reading it from a brochure,” she said.
Excessive facts dominated the verbiage. As a view – literary techniques pioneered by writers
result, the story was missing. I needed to set aside like journalist and author Tom Wolfe in the
my clinical approach and figure out how to tell a 1960s. (See “New Journalism: Fact-based story-
story in the way it deserved to be told – all while telling” on page 30 for more information.)
preserving reality. As Mitch Hoffman, a fiction and nonfiction
Writing nonfiction became easier the moment literary agent at Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency
I began to think like a fiction writer. After all, ele- and former editor of New York Times best-sellers,
ments that make a story inviting are characters, says, “Strong storytelling is what makes other-
desire, and conflict. Even a well-written brochure wise inaccessible subject matter accessible.” And
could contain these elements. who better to teach us about storytelling than
Using fiction techniques to write nonfiction fiction writers?
isn’t a new concept and certainly not an idea I Here are the essential fiction techniques neces-
claim as my own, but it is one worth exploring. sary to write a compelling nonfiction story.
“Generally, a (true) story should have a narra-

1
tive arc with a beginning, a middle, and an end, Use sensory details to set the scene and
but of course good writers have been known to engage the reader.
mess with that formula,” says William Reynolds, a Alissa Greenberg, a freelance writer and edi-
professor at Ryerson University School of Jour- tor whose byline has appeared in The New Yorker
nalism in Canada and co-founder of the Interna- and The Atlantic, understands the importance of
tional Association for Literary Journalism Studies documenting surroundings while reporting. “I
(IALJS). He mentions a true story should also take time to jot things down that I notice,” she
contain some basic elements of fiction writing, says. She also observes people closely, noting if a
such as scenes, details, dialogue, and point of subject wears shorts on a cold day, for example.

writermag.com • The Writer | 29

“Not all of the details go into the story,” Naomi Hirahara, an Edgar Award- questions are asked. Greenberg
she adds, but emphasizes to err on the winning mystery writer and social his- explains that journalists have a privi-
side of detail. “Detail is where you find torian who has written and edited leged ability to talk with other people.
the story.” multiple nonfiction books on the Japa- She begins an interview process by
The day following our chat, an nese American experience, uses con- asking the easy questions. This stan-
article Greenberg wrote about the crete details to humanize her real dard interview design, she explains,
California fires in Napa and Sonoma subjects. “For instance,” she says, “for a allows for the interviewer to set a calm
counties appeared on the front page nonfiction book, Life after Manzanar, I and polite tone and to build trust
of the Washington Post. In the open- recently wrote about a Buddhist priest, before the more difficult questions are
ing paragraph of her story, “‘A recipe his wife, and three young daughters asked. Greenberg mentioned she
for disaster’: Urban growth fuels leaving a detention camp in Califor- attended the 2017 commencement at
deadly California wildfires that chal- nia’s Owens Valley in November 1945, her alma mater, UC Berkeley Graduate
lenge traditional firefighting tactics,” almost three months after the official School of Journalism, where journalist
the details immediately set the scene end of World War II. I included this Jorge Ramos offered advice about ask-
for the reader. “The fire had already concrete detail from the point of view ing difficult interview questions.
come down one side of the hill and of the then-8-year-old middle daugh- Ramos, an Emmy Award-winning
been beaten back,” Greenberg ter: ‘Her most treasured possession journalist who has covered events such
writes. “Now, it was backtracking had been a Jeannie Walker doll that as the fall of the Berlin Wall,
across the gully, low tongues of flame her younger sister had ruined by explained, “If I don’t ask that [difficult]
threatening a house with gray shutters combing out its hair.’”
at the end of the cul-de-sac.” Later in Hoffman offers a similar perspec-
the article, descriptions such as tive. “If a writer is attempting to com-
“scorched eucalyptus” and “a tangle of municate complex ideas that usually
burned vegetation” employ carefully require a certain level of expertise in New Journalism:
placed details used to further set a order to be fully understood and Fact-based storytelling
scene and evoke emotion. appreciated, giving the readers charac- The immersive writing tech-
When you’re trying to decide what ters who they can care about and are niques Tom Wolfe and other
details to include in your story, con- invested in becomes the engine for car- pioneering nonfiction writers
sider Hoffman’s advice. “If a reader just rying their audience on a journey adopted in the 1960’s broke
wants an information dump, they can through the otherwise intimidating from conventional reporting,
find it. The basic ‘who, what, where, terrain of the unfamiliar and into the helping to create a style called
when, and why’ are available through promised land of ‘Ah ha! I get it now!’” “New Journalism,” which
academic or professional sources,” he The intimacy happens when a included an experience-based
says. “But if your goal is to write for a writer spends time with a subject, perspective instead of merely
popular, general readership, and to either through in-depth research or presenting facts. The result, in
build a bridge between the sources of face-to-face conversation. Getting to works like Wolfe’s The Electric
rarefied knowledge and the rest of us, know the main players you’re writing Kool-Aid Acid Test and Truman
you can earn an audience’s interest and about is imperative. Capote’s In Cold Blood, was
attention by making sure you are engaging, story-driven report-
age that read like a novel.

3
answering these two questions for Reveal the problem to launch
readers, on every page: Why am I read- the inciting incident. Though many have argued
ing? Why should I care?” Well-written novels include con- that New Journalism was
flict. Conflict is a main story ingredi- never “new” to begin with, cit-
ent, and Hirahara doesn’t shy away ing engaging literary nonfic-

2
Introduce the main characters
to create a connection with from writing about it. tion written by the likes of
the reader. “As I’m a former journalist turned Daniel Defoe, Mark Twain,
Get to know who you’re writing about. social historian, I was trained to look Joseph Mitchell, and the
Character studies allow personalities for conflict in opening our stories,” she muckrakers of the late 19th and
to come to life, revealing universal says. “The issue for both fiction and early 20th century, the move-
wants and needs. Then, find out who nonfiction is to look for the conflict ment did help ensure creative
else is part of the story. No story ever underneath the surface, the unex- nonfiction was seen as a
involves just one person. Not even a pected contradictions.” respectable (and marketable)
memoir. Someone else is always Conflict in nonfiction is often genre for writers in the years
involved, be it friend or foe.  exposed when uncomfortable to come.
30 | The Writer • April 2018
 5
Go beyond a simple resolution.
When I asked Hirahara why res-
olutions in nonfiction are
important, she answered: “Truth be

Conflict in nonfiction told, I struggle with this area of resolu-

tion in nonfiction. For one thing,
sometimes the end of a real-world
is often exposed when conflict defies understanding. Our
subject doesn’t do what we would
hope for her; the victory in a court
uncomfortable questions case doesn’t result in the reconciliation
or happiness that would be empha-

are asked. sized in a fictional movie. Digging

deeper for the reasons or motivations
in real life, however, can be more illu-
minating than those we can superfi-
cially conjure up in our minds.”  
As Janet Reid, a literary agent at
New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc., who
question, no one else is going to do it.” friend still lives in his childhood specializes in crime fiction and narra-
While the advice he offers is geared home?” Ringing the doorbell unan- tive nonfiction and offers straightfor-
toward journalists, his guidance could nounced collided with my etiquette. ward writing advice at jetreidliterary.
apply to all writers. An older gentleman answered the blogspot.com, explains in her post
When I accepted an assignment to door of a turn-of-the-century home – “Querying for memoir:” “There has to
write about a well-known vacation while I squeamishly waited in the car be a story. A story is more than what
retreat, I found the real story was and watched. After a wide-eyed reac- just happened. The story is the POINT
about a couple’s partially constructed tion, followed by obvious small talk, you’re making. The reason you write a
mansion that never became a home to the older gentleman waved me inside memoir is not to tell us what hap-
their seven children due to financial the house. As I sat on the stranger’s pened, it’s to tell us how what hap-
issues. The couple ultimately turned couch and chatted with one of the few pened changed you (and better yet,
their liability into the popular destina- living people who knew the younger, changed lots of things).” She also adds
tion 10 years following the construc- fresh-out-of-college version of my that memoirs should contain elements
tion standstill. Had I not established a father, I learned endearing anecdotes, found in novels – such as dramatic
rapport with the couple, followed by like how my father found homes for stakes and choices – and her advice
asking an uncomfortable monetary- kittens who had been placed in a bag seems sound for all nonfiction forms,
related question, I wouldn’t have found and destined for a river. not just memoir.
a drama that ended in redemption. Become uncomfortable and daring Whether you’re writing a memoir,
enough to learn something new, to see book, exposé, article, or even a bro-

4
Produce ongoing suspense what’s hiding or even what’s right chure, present a real story, one your
by divulging the conflict. before you. audience will find relatable and
Before my father and I went on “In my decades as an editor,” Hoff- irresistible.
a road trip to a remote area of North- man says, “I was always desperate to “How do you know when a nonfic-
ern California where he once lived and work with writers who could translate tion author creates a connection
worked, I knew I’d write about our esoteric, academic, or obscure and for- between the storyline and the reader?”
excursion. But my essay ultimately gotten topics into stories that felt rele- I asked Hoffman.
turned into a piece about an vant and immediate. So as an agent, I “That’s easy,” he answered. “When
unscripted 60-year reunion between know very well the value of a writer – the reader can’t put the book down.
my father and his friend. The reunion whether they’re a journalist who has When they want to know, with every
happened because my father found his access to experts at the top of their turn of the page, what happens next.”
friend’s name and address in a thin fields or the expert themselves with the
motel phone book. “I used to room ability and desire to communicate their Heather Villa is a former cartographer and told
and board with the guy and his fam- knowledge to a wide audience – who stories with maps before becoming a freelance
ily,” he said before asking me to drive can fashion page-turning, dramatic writer. Visit HeatherVillaWrites.com or say hello
to the house. “Could it be that my nonfiction on the page.” on Twitter: @HeatherVilla1.

writermag.com • The Writer | 31

 LET ME
SEND YOU
SOME
QUESTIONS!
Are email interviews in 2005, i developed a bad habit.
I was finishing up my communications

ruining storytelling?
degree after a six-year hiatus in the real
world – I had left school for a radio
career and, in the meantime, began
freelancing. Even though I was in my
BY DONNA TALARICO mid 20s and had already earned a few
bylines by the time I returned to the
classroom, I longed to be part of the
student newspaper. While there, I fell
into a routine of emailing professors
and peers questions.
But then I took an oral history class –
and, soon after contributed a storty to
the local paper where I interviewed a
man in his 80s about a would-be Penn-
sylvania river port that instead, tragi-
cally, became a ghost town soon after it
hit the map. This story about Stod-
robodread/Shutterstock

dartsville was one of the best pieces I’d

written to date – I’d captured the fluc-
tuating tone and volume of John But-
ler’s voice, the twinkle in his eyes, the
writermag.com • The Writer | 33
way he interacted with his dog, Jenny, I decided to finally speak up about this Capturing authentic voice
the interior of his stone house that elephant in the writing room. and rich detail
could pass for a museum. It suddenly In 2017, I presented a session called Email interviews can be so sterile.
hit me: I’d been sacrificing quality for “Interview Like a Journalist, Write Like Even their default design is stark:
the sake of convenience. Interview a Marketer” at two higher education- blank white background, black text.
transcripts – pauses and all – are a gold related web conferences. The inspira- That’s why Lindsey Wotanis, associate
mine for content. They’re beautiful, tion for this was simple: I’d seen too professor of communications arts and
surprising. Our surroundings sing. many colleagues of all ages and levels – advisor to the student newspaper at
Our nonverbals scream. and student employees at various insti- Marywood University in Scranton,
Static text in an email reply? Not so tutions – using email as a crutch. My Pennsylvania, stresses that email
much. presentation – geared toward marketing interviews are a no-no to her journal-
Soon after my epiphany, I shared my directors, alumni magazine editors, and ists of tomorrow.
(re)discovery of the power of talking to other content creators – focused on “You lose all spontaneity. You lose
people in an article called “Why I emotional storytelling for recruiting, the ability to follow up in real time.
Deleted Email Interviews” at a now- retention, engagement, and fundraising. You miss body language,” she said.
defunct writing website. More than a My biggest point was if we’re looking to While a phone interview is a good
decade later, I still share the sentiment connect people to our campuses and happy medium, she strongly encour-
that we’re doing ourselves and our warm people’s hearts, why are we using ages student reporters to meet people
readers a disservice by typing up a list the coldest method possible to capture in person. “If you rely on email, you’re
of questions and – boop! – sending stories? I advised attendees to make sto- not going to get that richness – pauses,
them off into the ether. But my concern ries about humans sound more human. tears in their eyes. The nonverbal is
is growing; this shortcut is becoming I urged them to get out their shovels. just as important.”
more ubiquitous. (But is it even a short- Whether for a company or a publica- In fact, Wotanis sometimes requires
cut, what with unpredictable response tion, for journalism or content market- students to turn in transcripts with
times and inbox overload?) ing – whether a personality profile, news assignments; it’s obvious when a stu-
In full disclosure, I’ve done email story, or piece of marketing collateral – I dent doesn’t heed her advice.
interviews. (I think it’s a stretch to call firmly believe we can create stronger, “You can absolutely tell,” she says
them interviews; they’re more like more compelling stories when we talk, with a chuckle. “When a quote is so
questionnaires.) And I’m betting many live, with our interview subjects. perfectly structured…we don’t talk like
of the most talented reporters have we write. We speak in fragments and
given in to their so-called ease. But at phrases.” She adds that it may be nec-
what expense? I’ve been pondering Note: Email interviews are necessary in essary to remove “ahs” and “ums” from
nonstop how email – or, now, direct some cases; for example, they serve as an a news story, but “for a [feature], fillers
message or text – interviews impact appropriate and helpful alternative if a and fragments – our crazy language –
our storytelling. How they affect the writer or subject has an accessibility need. can create better characters.”
tone and structure of our articles. How This article isn’t intended to focus on those That’s why my Stoddartsville story
they might even be making us lazy. instances, but rather in cases where there’s was so alive.
How email exchanges are making what a choice. Amma Marfo, a Boston-based
could be great stories just good or OK. speaker, writer, and consultant, often
34 | The Writer • April 2018
 If we’re looking to What if the source
wants to email?

warm people’s hearts, Sometimes a writer may wish to

interview someone in person or
on the phone, but it’s the source

why are we using – or their PR person – who’s

relentless in wanting an email
interview. Lindsey Wotanis sug-
gests a few things. First – and

the coldest method only if it’s true – let the subject

know email interviews are
against policy or, at the least, not

possible to capture a best practice – that the story

won’t be as compelling. Second,
you can reiterate your goals for
the story – get them excited to

stories? talk to you. And, third, you can

anticipate common concerns and
address them in your interview
request. For example, many peo-
ple cite the fact that they’ve
interviews comedians and women in or group of friends come across based been misquoted before, so an
higher education. She’s a strong advo- on if they wrote or spoke their answers. email interview may give them
cate for expressive writing, and this comfort because they’ll have a
richness starts with the interview. Flexibility and freedom… written record. Here, you could
Marfo says personality-driven pieces – and what isn’t said explain ahead of time any fact-
where you really want the reader to Nicole Haase, a Wisconsin-based free- checking or review processes to
connect with a subject – need nuance. lance writer who specializes in collegiate put them at ease. Remind them
And nuance is hard in email. athletics, prefers to show up to inter- you’re a pro.
“You have to guess tone, guess how views without actual questions. This
[subjects] feel. It’s not just what they doesn’t mean she’s unprepared, though.
say, but how they’re saying it,” she said. “I have one to two thoughts written
“Written answers give you the what; down – topics I’d like to discuss – and
they don’t give you the how and why.” the rest comes from what they’re tell-
Marfo also says with email answers, ing me.” she said. An email would limit
pieces profiling more than one person her preferred tactic of letting the story
can appear disjointed – think co- develop naturally.
founders or an ensemble cast. Once, Marfo says live interviews allow a
she had to interview two colleagues, story to take a new path or, at the least,
women who had a similar personality spawn an interesting follow-up ques-
and manner of speaking. Due to con- tion based on an answer, a change in
straints, she had to use email – and the voice, or body language.
pair’s penchant for being on the same “[I can] pick up on a comment or a
wavelength was absent. way someone is speaking,” Marfo said.
“They came off tonally different “Those cues…those follow-ups are a
[in writing],” Marfo said, adding she’d lot harder to orchestrate over email.”
have “gotten a completely different As I listened to Marfo, I realized
product” if she’d been able to use an her comment seemed especially appli-
interactive medium. cable to one of her beats: comedy.
“I don’t know that we always pay Since we were talking by phone, I was
attention to those kinds of things,” she immediately able to interject: “Oh.
said of the varying ways an individual Yes! And you said earlier you covered
writermag.com • The Writer | 35
 comedy…I bet these cues make so real-time. This flexibility just isn’t
Live interview tips much more of a difference when possible – or at least not as easy –
you’re talking to people…who are without personal interaction.
Looking to make in-person or known for being funny.” Marfo lit up,
over-the-phone interviews more and she instantly segued into about Email interviews and veracity
efficient? Here are some tips: her experience interviewing actor, Pidgeon, also a former railroad media
writer, and comedian J.B. Smoove, relations official, offers a perspective
 Record your interviews. (Be perhaps best known for his role as from “the other side.” As a writer, he’s
sure to ask for permission.) Leon on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. not fond of email interviews; but, in
“There’s absolutely no way that PR, he used them to his advantage,
 Take handwritten notes, would have worked in an email,” she even if it killed his inner journalist to
even if you’re recording. said, explaining that he writes very do so. He explains, hypothetically,
(Tech fails, and written notes differently than he speaks. “It would what could happen if a reporter sent
also provide easier reference have fundamentally been a different him an email about a hot-button issue.
for recorded content.) experience if I had said, ‘Hey. Here, “I have full control over that con-
 On your written notes, circle answer these questions and send them versation. [An email] gives me all day
or star items you think back to me.’” to prepare…to think about the sound-
would make great direct Dave Pidgeon, a writer and pod- bite I’d want to land in the media. And
quotes; this helps you find caster from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I’m under no obligation to be available
them later. says beat reporters have an opportunity for follow-up,” he said. “The writer
to build relationships with people they loses the opportunity to gain details to
 Consider using transcription
encounter again and again – and can serve the story, to serve the readers.”
tools – or a freelance tran-
also to get to know people’s habits or tell Haase experiences the “PR touch” as
scriber, if you have the
if they’re having an “off day” through well. Sports information directors
budget.
observation. For example, at a council often will finesse student quotes, a tac-
 Get basic research out of the meeting, he could see if one official tic she says removes some of the per-
way: Don’t waste interview rolled their eyes or sighed when some- sonality of young athletes. She prefers
time on things you can find one else spoke. Or maybe he noticed phone interviews for profile pieces and
publicly. someone get tripped up by a question reserves email for fact-gathering or an
 Prepare. Being well-prepared from a resident or another reporter. expert quote from a secondary source,
builds trust and respect and “I can approach them later and say, such as a team doctor.
could lead to more openness. ‘Hey, I noticed...’” he said. Encountering public relations folks
Along with this, Wotanis says asking isn’t limited to hard news; plenty of
 Take notes of your surround-
questions one on one allows the writer high-profile individuals – musicians,
ings. Include them in your
to maintain control – and comfort. For actors, chefs, authors, politicians (espe-
story where appropriate.
example, if there’s a particularly emo- cially politicians!) – may direct a writer,
 If doing a phone interview, tional question, a writer can read body especially one with whom they don’t
pay attention to tone and language and hold off on asking it until have a relationship yet, to a PR rep.
pauses, too. Or consider they’re sure the source is ready. And “prepared answers” isn’t limited to
video as an alternative to get “But with an email, you can’t with- when a publicist serves as an interme-
more sensory detail. hold a question for the right moment,” diary. With email, anyone can take
 Listen to interview-heavy she advises. “[The subject] can look at their time, self-edit, or self-censor – or
podcasts (such as Radio Lab) the list of questions…and avoid the ask a friend or family member for help
to learn how compelling con- whole process.” “sounding good.”
versations can sound, even Like Pidgeon, a seasoned reporter Who do you really want telling
when edited or pieced can pick up on nonverbal cues to your story? Do you want pre-fab or
together. uncover a story – or find another coached answers, or authentic ones?
angle of an ongoing one. As Wotanis Do you want polished statements or
suggests, a solid interviewer can pace personal anecdotes?
things in such a way to gain trust;
they can sense when a topic is deli- If you must…proceed with caution
cate, pull back, and revisit later. Like Sometimes it’s beyond our control, and
Marfo and Haase, a strong storyteller sometimes it’s just personal preference.
can build an angle organically, in But if we must rely on email, we can
36 | The Writer • April 2018
 “Written answers Email interview tips

Still need to do an interview by

give you the what; email? Here are a few tips to
gather better raw material and
turn it into a winning story:

they don’t give you  Send one question at a time.

This somewhat replicates a
natural conversation.

the how and why.”  Let one of the questions be:

Where are you writing these
answers? Are you at your
home office? Traveling? In a
busy airport during a layover?
make the interviewing and writing pro- can be tempting to highlight, copy, and
cess more effective. For starters, Haase paste blocks of text or – gasp! – use the  If your story has multiple sub-
suggests saying “no” to the “yes or no?” entire transcript verbatim, save for an jects who know each other,
“Open-ended questions elicit more original introduction and conclusion. do the interview jointly.
information; if you keep it narrow, you This seems like a time saver, but it isn’t  Encourage subjects to be
miss out on things that may allow the ideal, not even for a straight Q&A for- conversational in answers.
story to take a different direction,” she mat, as some things are left better to the Ask them to read answers
said, adding that some of her best stories cutting room floor. In this case, Haase aloud and modify parts that
were born from a follow-up question – says, “Flex your writing muscles a little.” sound too formal.
from the spontaneity that’s often lost in She says you’ll do just fine “without
 Set expectations that there
emails. She also encourages subjects to using a direct quote or dry language.”
could be follow-up
be conversational, especially those who I agree with Haase wholeheartedly.
questions.
work in academia, medicine, or another If we’re merely transferring chunks of
technical or jargon-filled field. words from an inbox to a document,  Give your subject a clear
“[People] may default to how they’d you could say our subjects are the ones deadline – on initial and
write for a professional journal,” she doing the heavy lifting, almost writing follow-up questions.
said. Knowing this, Haase suggests the stories for us; who deserves the  Remember that the cutting
sources read their answers aloud before byline then? Where’s the craft in that? room floor is OK! You do not
replying so they can hear where they have to use everything your
may be overly technical or verbose. We’re storytellers. And the best sto- subject writes. Prepare your
Marfo prompts interview subjects, ries come from the best raw material: source for this as well.
where appropriate, to “stretch out our curiosity, our research, our first-
their thought process in writing.” For hand knowledge of the topic, our
example, starting with: “Oh, that’s a interest in other people, and, yes, our
difficult question…” The nuances of interviews. From there, our talent,
how we react, how we may preface an creativity, and skill – perhaps what
answer, can absolutely get lost in drew us to writing – allow us to weave
email – and along with it, hints of per- things together.
sonality or passion. “Your job [as the writer] is to
Pidgeon says one way to strengthen choose the most compelling bits, and
a story based primarily off an email the person you’ve interviewed may not
interview is to talk to others close to be the best judge,” Wotanis said. “You
the main subject, such as a mentor or do that work for the reader.”
relative. “Don’t be a single-sourced
story. Don’t be dependent on that Donna Talarico, an independent writer and
email for everything,” he said. content marketing consultant from Lancaster,
The writing process is also different Pennsylvania, is the founder of Hippocampus
when working from emailed answers. It Magazine and its books and conference divisions.

writermag.com • The Writer | 37

LITERARY SPOTLIGHT INSIDE LITERARY MAGAZINES
BY MELISSA HART

Catapult
This multi-faceted organization is a literary journal, publishing house,
writing center, and online community, all in one place.

C
atapult’s tagline reads persistent roar that tormented
“launching remarkable us for hours; a roar that was fol-
writing.” With that goal in lowed by a profound and deso-
mind, a team of editors, lating silence. A silence that was
designers, and illustrators maintains a filled by an AM radio station.
publishing house as well as an ongoing An AM radio station that only
series of writing classes, an open narrated bad news.”
online platform for sharing and net-
working, and a daily digital magazine. Contributors
Co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Laura Dorwart’s essay “What the World
Koch explains on the organization’s Gets Wrong About My Quadriplegic
website: “We created a storytelling Husband and Me” (12/6/17) struck
zone with relatively few zoning laws, Catapult editors as a sensitive and
where the stories we publish in our beautifully written piece about mutual
daily magazine inspire stories you post caregiving. “She fields these loaded,
in our Community section. Where offensive connotations by people who
Catapult Community members assume they understand her marriage,”
become Catapult class takers who Chung says of the writer. “People
become Catapult magazine contribu- “Storytelling is a great way to present assume she’s her husband’s caretaker,
tors who, when it’s time to shop their empathy,” she notes. “It presents you but it’s the other way around. In many
manuscripts, maybe circle back to us.” with perspectives you wouldn’t have ways, he takes care of her. It’s great to
Editors at the 2-year-old literary otherwise.” see that piece being shared online; it’s
magazine have a particular passion for One of these stories is Edmaris such an important perspective.”
showcasing the work of emerging and Carazo’s “Island of Debris: The Unof- She also points to Samantha Sanders’
marginalized writers. “It’s why I ficial Toll of Hurricane María” essay “Why Are Opioid Users Overdos-
wanted to get into digital publishing in (12/5/17). “It’s honest and raw,” Chung ing in Libraries, and How Should
the first place, so that underrepre- explains. “It’s great to see the reach Librarians Respond?” (7/24/17) as an
sented stories could be shared,” says that essay got by putting people there example of the reported, researched
editor Nicole Chung. “Across the com- in the scene and showing them what essays that she enjoys publishing.
pany, we’re trying to promote under- everyday life was like after this devas- “Libraries are public spaces that belong
standing and encourage people to tating hurricane.” to the community, and people there
think about their own perspectives Carazo begins her piece with this may overdose,” Chung says of Sanders’
through narrative.” description from the frontlines of the piece. “Librarians are first responders –
disaster: either formally, or on the fly, they have
Tone, editorial content “As I write this, it’s been three to learn what to do in a crisis. It’s much
Editors at Catapult publish first-time weeks since my not-so-new- more common than I realized.”
writers, as well as emerging and well- anymore-spouse, my two dogs In the piece, Sanders writes:
published writers. “When we’re a writ- and I quartered ourselves in the “In 2015, there were more opi-
er’s first byline, that feels special. It’s a middle of a hallway. Barely a oid-related deaths – 33,000 –
privilege,” Chung says. month since the roar that vio- than deaths from car crashes.
She looks for diverse stories that lently entered through our Many of the people being asked
promote community and empathy. doors and windows – a long, to respond in the moment – to
38 | The Writer • April 2018
 think clearly and decisively in a more stories by experts and by academ-
life-or-death situation, and ics in the field,” she ways. “If people “An innovative publisher that
sometimes even to administer already have these deep wells of knowl- celebrates extraordinary
life-saving treatment – are edge, I’d love to share that with readers.” storytelling.”
librarians. But do we have a She’s also interested in think pieces – DIGITAL, DAILY.
right to expect that of librarians? particularly thoughtful pieces on pop-
Genres: Nonfiction/fiction.
Do we have any choice?” ular culture. “This year was heavy,” she
says about the submissions she Word Count: 500-6,000.
Chung particularly appreciated received in 2017. “I’ve been seeing a lot Reading Period: Nonfiction year-
how the piece included interviews of stories about grief, trauma, and loss. round; fiction biannually – check website
with librarians around the country We’ll never stop taking those, but I’d for details.
about whether they felt they should love to see people looking outside
even occupy the position of first themselves and their lives to create Payment: Varies.
responders – a question relevant to a more outward-looking narrative, more Submission format: Online through
conversation that the editors hadn’t reported pieces.” Submittable.
really seen explored elsewhere. Contact: Editor Nicole Chung,
Contributing editor Melissa Hart is the
[email protected], catapult.co.
Advice for potential contributors author the memoirs Wild Within: How Rescuing
Chung would love to receive pitches by Owls Inspired a Family (Lyons, 2014) and Gringa:
people who have particular expertise A Contradictory Girlhood (Seal, 2009). Web:
because of their line of work. “I want melissahart.com.

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writermag.com • The Writer | 39

CONFERENCE INSIDER
BY MELISSA HART

The Frost Place

Conference on Poetry
A historic setting provides the perfect backdrop for a
celebration of poetry and the artists who craft it.

A
s World War I began, New
England poet Robert Frost
moved his family from
England to the small town
of Franconia, in the White Mountains
of New Hampshire. Here, he wrote and
farmed for several years. The house he
inhabited, now called The Frost Place,
is a home and museum owned by the
town and used each year for poetry
seminars and conferences.
One of these conferences is The
Frost Place Conference on Poetry,
which offers writers the chance to
spend a week learning through work-
shops and lectures, readings and writing
periods surrounded by award-winning
faculty members and participants from
all over the world.
Maudelle Driskell is executive direc-
tor of The Frost Place. A poet herself,
A group shot of the attendees at a recent Frost Place Conference.
she loves to be able to meet and work
with poets from all over the country,
representing different ages and ethnici- What you’ll learn faculty-led workshops with poems
ties. “It’s a Who’s Who of American let- During the day, faculty members pres- they received through the mail and
ters rubbing elbows in a tiny place in ent hour-long classes focused on writ- read and critiqued previous to arriving
the middle of the White Mountains,” ing practice. Last year, two publishers at the conference. Each session is
she says. “I never know what the day talked about how to organize a manu- capped at eight participants, creating
will look like, from breakfast with script and what specific things publish- an intimate classroom setting.
prize-winning poets to sitting around ers look for in poetry. Driskell also Driskell notes that the poetry sub-
with them in the evening enjoying a talked with participants about how to missions show a huge range in terms
cocktail or tea. It’s a magical, creatively change one’s revision strategies by lis- of voice and topic. Participants might
charged experience.” tening to music. “It focused on the way be in a workshop with someone who’s
The Frost Place Conference on our brains react to listening to certain published two books or two poems.
Poetry, held July 8-14 in 2018, offers types of music and how this affects our “You’ll be there with people who have
several scholarships, including the revision process,” she explains. concerns that you maybe don’t think
Latin@ Fellowship and the Gregory Staff and participants share break- about in your daily life,” she notes.
Pardlo Scholarship for Emerging Afri- fast and lectures. During the second “It’s so exciting to get new perspec-
can American Poets. half of the day, attendees participate in tives on the world. A good poem
40 | The Writer • April 2018
 She cautions against offering empty
statements such as “I like this” to fel-
low poets during workshop critiques at
the conference. Instead, she says, learn
to craft a justification for any detailed
comment you might make. Studying
others’ work, she adds – being able to
talk about it in a way that’s helpful to
them – teaches poets so much about
their own writing process.
“No one wants to leave,” she says of
the last day, during which people offer
tearful goodbyes and an exchange of
contact information. “There’s a creative
generosity and community you can’t
find anywhere else.”
The Latin@ Fellowship recipients at the 2017 conference.

Contributing editor Melissa Hart is the

by participants, who showcase some of author of the middle-grade novel Avenging the
CONFERENCE: the work they’ve done.” Owl (Sky Pony, 2016). She teaches frequently at
writing conferences across the Pacific North-
The Frost Place Conference on Poetry
Featured presenters west. Web: melissahart.com.
DATES: In addition to directing the conference,
July 8-14, 2018 Martha Rhodes will teach a workshop
COST: in 2018. Rhodes is the author of five
Approximately $1,550 poetry collections and the director of
Four Way Books, a small press focus-
LOCATION:
ing on poetry and short fiction.
Franconia, New Hampshire
Other presenters include Driskell,
CONTACT: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award winner
Conference director Martha Rhodes. Vievee Francis, poet and anthology
603-823-5510 or email editor Kevin Prufer, poet Jason
[email protected], frostplace.org Schneiderman, and poet Connie
Voisine, who directs the arts outreach
organization La Sociedad para las
takes you and puts you in a fresh Artes in New Mexico.
place. Being able to experience some-
thing about that person makes us feel Advice for first-timers
more connected as a human being, On a purely practical note, Driskell
which we’re all crying out for, whether tells people to bring everything from
we know it or not.” swimsuits to long-sleeved shirts. “Dur-
After a day of workshopping and ing the day, we’ll go through a lot of
craft talks, free time and meals, people different weather,” she says, and adds,
head to Frost Place for evening poetry “Emotional weather, as well.”
readings by faculty members. “We She advises new participants to be
gather together in the gloaming with open to the environment and to every- Creative Writing
the tiki torches warding off the mosqui- thing that’s occurring during the week.
toes,” Driskell says. “Everyone gathers “Participate with generosity,” she says.
Classes in NYC
together to listen and dance, sometimes “If you’re willing to read people’s work & Online
with cake, champagne, and sparkling and focus on receiving critiques, then
soda. On the last night, there’s a reading you’re going to succeed.” GOTHAMWRITERS. COM

writermag.com • The Writer | 41

 MARKETS
COMPILED BY TONI FITZGERALD

F N C Y BETSY AMSTER LITERARY ENTER-

Literary agents
PRISES Seeks literary, children’s, YA, upscale
commercial and women’s fiction; mysteries; narra-
tive or traditional nonfiction; and quirky gift
books. Query by email only. Contact: Betsy Amster
Before you can approach an editor or publishing house, it’s a good Literary Enterprises, 607 Foothill Blvd. #1061, La
idea to seek agent representation. The following agents are a small Canada Flintridge, CA 91012. Adult submissions:
sampling of what the industry has to offer. Find more listings at [email protected]. Children’s and YA:
writermag.com. [email protected] amsterlit.com

F N BEVERLEY SLOPEN LITERARY

Information in this section is provided to F N Y O AYESHA PANDE LITERARY Seeks AGENCY Seeks literary and commercial fiction,
The Writer by the individual markets and history, narrative nonfiction, anthropology, biogra-
nonfiction and literary and popular fiction,
events; for more information, contact
including YA fiction, women’s, African-American, phy, and some true crime and self-help. Contact:
those entities directly.
and international fiction and graphic novels. Sub- Beverley Slopen Agency, 131 Bloor St. W., Suite
Subscribers to The Writer have online access to
information on publishers, publications, mit via website form. Contact: Ayesha Pande Lit- 711, Toronto, ON M5S 1S3 Canada. 416-964-9598.
conferences, contests and agents. Go to erary, 128 W. 132 St., New York, NY 10027. [email protected] slopenagency.com
writermag.com and click on Writing Resources. 212-283-5825. Email through website.
pandeliterary.com F N Y B.J. ROBBINS LITERARY AGENCY
F = Fiction N = Nonfiction P = Poetry
Represents literary and commercial fiction, YA,
C = Children’s Y = Young adult O = Other
F N BARBARA BRAUN ASSOCIATES Repre- and general nonfiction, with a particular interest
F N C Y 3 SEAS LITERARY AGENCY Repre- sents literary and commercial fiction, women’s, his- in memoir, biography, history, pop culture, sports,
sents romance, women’s fiction, YA and middle- torical, and multicultural stories, art-related fiction, travel, African-American, and health. Contact:
grade fiction, and select nonfiction titles. Query some mysteries/thrillers, and serious nonfiction. B.J. Robbins Literary Agency, 5130 Bellaire Ave.,
by email only. No attachments. Contact: Michelle Query by email only. Contact: Barbara Braun N. Hollywood, CA 91607.
Grajkowski or Cori Deyoe or Linda Scalissi, 3 Associates, 7 E. 14th St., #19F, New York, NY [email protected] bjrobbinsliterary.com
Seas Literary Agency, P.O. Box 444, Sun Prairie, 10003. [email protected]
WI 53590. 608-834-9317. barbarabraunagency.com  F BLUE RIDGE LITERARY AGENCY Handles
[email protected] threeseasagency.com  romances and cozy mysteries. Email a synopsis
C Y BARRY GOLDBLATT LITERARY Repre- and the first three chapters. Contact: Dawn Dow-
F N THE AARON M. PRIEST LITERARY sents picture and chapter books, middle-grade, dle, Blue Ridge Literary Agency.
AGENCY Seeks mainstream and literary fiction and YA. Submit queries by email. No attachments. [email protected] blueridgeagency.com
and narrative nonfiction. Query by email only. No Contact: Barry Goldblatt Literary, 320 7th Ave.,
attachments. Contact: The Aaron M. Priest Liter- #266, Brooklyn, NY 11215. [email protected] F N Y C BOOKENDS Currently considering
ary Agency, 200 W. 41st St., 21st Floor, New York, bgliterary.com romance, YA, mystery, sci-fi/fantasy, picture
NY 10036. 212-818-0344. See website for agent books, middle grade, and women’s fiction. Also
email addresses. aaronpriest.com F N BALDI AGENCY Interested in literary and represents nonfiction. Contact: BookEnds. See
general fiction, reference, biography, computers/ website for individual agents’ email addresses.
C Y ANDREA BROWN LITERARY AGENCY technology, business, history, travel, lifestyle, sci- bookendsliterary.com
Represents authors of children’s, middle grade, ence, memoir, cultural history, creative nonfiction,
and YA only. Query by email only. Contact: and gay/lesbian fiction. Query by email or regular F N THE BOOK GROUP Boutique agency rep-
Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Check website for mail. Contact: Baldi Agency, 233 W. 99th St., Suite resenting fiction and nonfiction. Submit query
agents’ email addresses. andreabrownlit.com  19C, New York, NY 10025. 212-222-3213. and 10 sample pages by email (no attachments).
[email protected] baldibooks.com  Contact: The Book Group, 20 W. 20th St., Suite
F N C ANDY ROSS AGENCY Represents 601, New York, NY 10011. 212-803-3360.
authors of narrative nonfiction, current events F N C THE BENT AGENCY Represents com- [email protected]
and history, journalism, science, literary and com- mercial and literary fiction, memoir, nonfiction, thebookgroup.com
mercial fiction, and children’s fiction. Submit via and children’s literature. See website for agents’
email. Contact: Andy Ross Agency, 767 Santa Ray interests and email addresses. Contact: The Bent F N C Y BRADFORD LITERARY AGENCY
Ave., Oakland, CA 94610. Agency, 19 W. 21st St., #201, New York, NY Seeking fiction (romance, urban fantasy, women’s
[email protected] 10010. [email protected] fiction, mystery, thrillers, children’s, YA). Also
andyrossagency.com thebentagency.com accepts nonfiction, including biography/memoir

42 | The Writer • April 2018

and narrative humor. Email queries only. Contact: advice, social issues, and biography/memoir. email only. Contact: Donald Maass Literary
Bradford Literary Agency, 5694 Mission Center Rd. Query by email only. No attachments. Contact: Agency, 1000 Dean St., Suite 252, Brooklyn, NY
#347, San Diego, CA 92108. 619-521-1201. See Daniel Literary Group, 601 Old Hickory Blvd., 11238. 212-727-8383. See website for agents’ email
website for agents’ email addresses. bradfordlit.com #56, Brentwood, TN 37027. addresses. maassagency.com
[email protected]
F N THE BUKOWSKI AGENCY Accepting fic- danielliterarygroup.com F N Y DOUG GRAD LITERARY AGENCY
tion and nonfiction from Canadian authors. Query Represents fiction and narrative nonfiction,
by regular mail. Contact: The Bukowski Agency, F N Y DARHANSOFF & VERRILL LITERARY including memoir, thrillers, mysteries, historical
14 Prince Arthur Ave., Suite 202, Toronto, ON AGENTS Seeks literary fiction, narrative nonfic- fiction, romance, military, and theater. Query via
M5R 1A9, Canada. 416-928-6728. tion, memoir, sophisticated suspense, and fiction/ email before submitting. Contact: Doug Grad Lit-
[email protected] bukowskiagency.com nonfiction for younger readers. Submit via email. erary Agency. 718-788-6067.
Contact: Darhansoff & Verrill, 133 West 72nd St., [email protected] dgliterary.com
F N CAROL MANN AGENCY Represents gen- Room 304, New York, NY 10023. 917-305-1300.
eral fiction, biography, and general nonfiction. [email protected] dvagency.com F N C Y DUNOW, CARLSON & LERNER
Query by email. Contact: Carol Mann Agency, 55 Handles fiction, narrative nonfiction and chil-
5th Ave., New York, NY 10003. 212-206-5635. F N Y DAVID BLACK AGENCY Represents fic- dren’s and YA fiction. Submit queries by email or
[email protected] tion and nonfiction for adults and YA. Check regular mail (include SASE with adequate post-
carolmannagency.com website for agents’ interests, email addresses, and age). Contact: Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary
submission instructions. Contact: David Black Agency, 27 W. 20th St., Suite 1107, New York, NY
F N CHALBERG & SUSSMAN Actively seeking Agency, 335 Adams St., Suite 2707, Brooklyn, NY 10011. [email protected] dclagency.com 
fiction and nonfiction works in memoir, pop cul- 11201. 718-852-5500. davidblackagency.com 
ture, lifestyle, humor, narrative nonfiction, and liter- F N DYSTEL, GODERICH & BOURRET Rep-
ary fiction. Query by email only. Contact: Chalberg N DENISE MARCIL LITERARY AGENCY & resents fiction and nonfiction. See website for
& Sussman, 115 W. 29th St., Third Floor, New York, MARCIL O’FARRELL LITERARY Specializes in agents’ interests and email addresses. Contact:
NY 10001. 917-261-7550. See website for individual self-help, popular psychology, popular reference, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC, 1 Union Square
agents’ email addresses. chalbergsussman.com health/fitness, and spirituality. Contact: Denise West, Suite 904, New York, NY 10003. 212-627-
Marcil Literary Agency, Inc., 483 Westover Rd., 9100. dystel.com
F N Y THE COOKE AGENCY Seeks literary fic- Stamford, CT 06902. Marcil O’Farrell Literary, 86
tion, commercial fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, and crime), Dennis St., Manhasset, NY 11030. F N C Y EINSTEIN LITERARY MANAGE-
nonfiction (narrative-driven works of pop culture, [email protected] MENT Seeks literary and commercial fiction,
science, history, politics, natural history), and mid- [email protected] including upmarket women’s fiction, crime, histori-
dle grade/YA books. Email queries only. No attach- denisemarcilagency.com cal, middle grade, and YA. Nonfiction interests
ments. Contact: Elizabeth Griffin, The Cooke include blog-to-book, memoir, cookbooks, and
Agency. [email protected] cookeagency.ca F N DOE COOVER AGENCY Represents fic- narrative. Email queries and first 10 pages only.
tion and nonfiction, including narrative nonfic- Contact: Einstein Literary Management, 27 W.
F N CORNERSTONE LITERARY AGENCY tion. See website for agents’ interests. Query by 20th St., Suite 1003, New York, NY 10011. 212-221-
Represents fiction and narrative nonfiction. Con- email only. Contact: The Doe Coover Agency, 8797. [email protected]
tact: Cornerstone Literary, 4525 Wilshire Blvd., P.O. Box 668, Winchester, MA 01890. 781-721- einsteinliterary.com
Suite 208, Los Angeles, CA 90010. 6000. [email protected]
[email protected] doecooveragency.com F N ELYSE CHENEY LITERARY ASSOCI-
cornerstoneliterary.com ATES Represents fiction and nonfiction. Query
F N DON CONGDON ASSOCIATES Repre- by email or by regular mail with a SASE. Contact:
F N C O CURTIS BROWN Represents adults’ sents authors of fiction and nonfiction. Check Elyse Cheney Literary Associates, 39 West 14th
and children’s authors of all genres, including website for individual agents’ interests. Accepts St., Suite 403, New York, NY 10011. 212-277-
illustrators. Contact: Attn: Agent’s name, Curtis queries by email or regular mail. Contact: Don 8007. [email protected]
Brown, Ltd., 10 Astor Pl., New York, NY 10003. Congdon Associates, 110 William St., Ste. 2202, cheneyassoc.com
212-473-5400. See website for agents’ email New York, NY 10038. 212-645-1229.
addresses. [email protected] curtisbrown.com [email protected] doncongdon.com  F N EMILIE STEWART LITERARY AGENCY
Specializes in literary and commercial fiction and
N DANIEL LITERARY GROUP Specializes in F C DONALD MAASS LITERARY AGENCY nonfiction. Query by email only. Contact: Emilie
nonfiction, including narrative nonfiction, reli- Welcoming authors of nonfiction and all genres of Stewart Literary Agency, 241 E. Broadway, Suite
gion/spirituality, business, pop culture, practical fiction, including middle grade and YA. Query by B, New York, NY 10002. 646-559-2702.

writermag.com • The Writer | 43

MARKETS

[email protected] address. Contact: Frances Goldin Literary tact: Harvey Klinger Literary Agency.
emiliestewartagency.com Agency, 214 W. 29th St., Suite 410, New York, NY [email protected] harveyklinger.com
10001. 212-777-0047. [email protected]
F N EMMA SWEENEY AGENCY Handles goldinlit.com F N Y HELEN HELLER AGENCY Represents
general fiction, historical fiction, and narrative fiction, nonfiction, and YA fiction. Query by email.
nonfiction (memoir, history, science, religion). F N Y THE FRIEDRICH AGENCY Representing Contact: The Helen Heller Agency, 4-216 Heath St.
Query via email only. Contact: Emma Sweeney literary and commercial fiction for adults and YA, West, Toronto, ON M5P 1N7, Canada. 416-489-
Agency, 245 E. 80th St., Suite 7E, New York, NY narrative nonfiction, and memoir. Query by email 0396. See website for agents’ interests and email
10075. [email protected]  only. No attachments. Contact: The Friedrich addresses. helenhelleragency.com 
emmasweeneyagency.com Agency. [email protected],
[email protected], F N HORNFISCHER LITERARY MANAGE-
F N C O THE ETHAN ELLENBERG LITER- [email protected] friedrichagency.com MENT Specializes in serious and commercial
ARY AGENCY Handles commercial fiction nonfiction and select fiction. Submit by email or
including thrillers, mysteries, children’s, romance, F N GELFMAN SCHNEIDER LITERARY regular mail. Contact: Hornfischer Literary Man-
women’s fiction, ethnic, fantasy, sci-fi, and literary AGENTS Represents narrative nonfiction, mem- agement. [email protected]
fiction. Also seeks nonfiction, including memoir. oir, politics/current affairs, popular science, and hornfischerlit.com
Submit by regular mail or email. Contact: Ethan pop culture, as well as literary, commercial, wom-
Ellenberg, 155 Suffolk St., #2R, New York, NY en’s, and historical fiction. Contact: Gelfman F N Y INKWELL MANAGEMENT Seeks fic-
10002. 212-431-4554. [email protected] Schneider Literary Agents, 850 Seventh Ave., Suite tion, YA, and nonfiction. Query by email. Contact:
ethanellenberg.com 903, New York, NY 10019. See website for agents’ InkWell Management, 521 Fifth Ave., Suite 2600,
interests, email addresses, and submission instruc- New York, NY 10175. 212-922-3500.
F N FAIRBANK LITERARY REPRESENTA- tions. [email protected] [email protected] 
TION Represents international and literary fiction, gelfmanschneider.com inkwellmanagement.com
memoir, global, race and class issues, lifestyle, pop
culture, humor, and craft. Query by email or mail. F N Y THE GERNERT COMPANY Represents F N Y IRENE GOODMAN LITERARY
Contact: Fairbank Literary Representation, P.O. fiction (commercial, YA, literary) and nonfiction AGENCY Seeking commercial and literary fiction
Box 6, Hudson, NY 12534. 617-576-0030. (biography, memoir, sports, history, current and nonfiction, including mysteries, romance,
[email protected] fairbankliterary.com events, science). Submit via email or regular mail. women’s fiction, thrillers, suspense, and middle
Contact: The Gernert Company, 136 E. 57th St., grade and YA fiction. See website for agents’ infor-
F N Y FINEPRINT LITERARY MANAGE- New York, NY 10022. 212-838-7777. mation. Email queries only. Contact: Irene Good-
MENT Seeks fiction and nonfiction for adults and [email protected] thegernertco.com man Literary Agency. irenegoodman.com
YA. Check website for each agent’s interests and
email addresses and submission instructions. C Y THE GREENHOUSE LITERARY F N Y IRENE SKOLNICK LITERARY
Contact: FinePrint Literary Management, 207 W. AGENCY Seeks children’s fiction (age 5 through AGENCY Seeks literary and upmarket fiction, his-
106th St., Suite 1D, New York, NY 10025. 212-279- middle grade) and YA/crossover novels. See web- tory, memoir, biography, YA, and middle grade.
1282. [email protected] fineprintlit.com  site for agents’ interests. Email queries only. No Submit by email or mail. If emailing, paste the first
attachments. Contact: The Greenhouse Literary 10 pages of your manuscript or book proposal into
C Y FLANNERY LITERARY Fiction and nonfic- Agency. [email protected] the email body. No attachments. Contact: Irene
tion for children and YA, all genres. Email queries greenhouseliterary.com Skolnick Literary Agency, 27 West 20th St., Suite
only. Contact: Flannery Literary. 305, New York, NY 10011. 212-727-3648 
[email protected] flanneryliterary.com F N C Y HANNIGAN SALKY GETZLER [email protected]
AGENCY Represents fiction, nonfiction, and all skolnickagency.com 
F N FOUNDRY LITERARY + MEDIA Accept- levels of children’s and YA literature. Check website
ing fiction and nonfiction. See website for agents’ for agents’ interests and email addresses. Email N JAMES PETER ASSOCIATES Seeking adult
information. Contact: Foundry Literary + Media, submissions only. Contact: Hannigan Salky Getzler nonfiction. Send queries via mail with SASE.
33 W. 17th St., PH, New York, NY 10011. 212- Agency, 37 W. 28th St., New York, NY 10001. 646- Contact: Gene Brissie, James Peter Associates,
929-5064. foundrymedia.com 442-5770. hsgagency.com  Inc., P.O. Box 358, New Canaan, CT 06840. 203-
972-1070. [email protected] writersservices.
F N FRANCES GOLDIN LITERARY F N C Y HARVEY KLINGER LITERARY com/reference/james-peter-associates-inc 
AGENCY Represents literary and commercial AGENCY Seeks fiction, nonfiction, and some
fiction, plus nonfiction. Query using online sub- YA, middle grade, and children’s fiction. See web- F N Y JANE ROTROSEN AGENCY Seeks
mission portal, regular mail, or agents’ email site for agents’ interests and email addresses. Con- commercial fiction: thrillers, mystery, suspense,

44 | The Writer • April 2018

women’s fiction, romance, and YA. Also considers F N THE LA LITERARY AGENCY Handles F N Y MARIANNE STRONG LITERARY
narrative nonfiction. Query by email or snail nonfiction and literary and commercial fiction. For AGENCY Focuses on nonfiction, but seeking
mail; no attachments. Contact: Jane Rotrosen nonfiction, email query letter and book proposal. some fiction. Submit query letter via form on
Agency, Attn: Submissions, 318 East 51st St., New For fiction, email query letter and manuscript. website. Contact: Marianne Strong Literary
York, NY 10022. See website for agents’ email Contact: Ann Cashman, The LA Literary Agency. Agency, 65 E. 96th St., New York, NY 10128. 212-
addresses. janerotrosen.com [email protected] 249-1000. stronglit.com
laliteraryagency.com 
F N C Y JEAN V. NAGGAR LITERARY F N C Y MARSAL LYON LITERARY
AGENCY Represents commercial and literary F N Y C THE LAURA DAIL LITERARY AGENCY Seeks fiction (commercial, multicul-
fiction, nonfiction, and YA/children’s books. AGENCY Seeks commercial and literary fiction tural, genre), nonfiction, middle grade, and YA.
Check website for agents’ interests. Query via and nonfiction for adults, YA, and children. Query Contact: Marsal Lyon Literary Agency LLC, PMB
website form. Contact: Jean V. Naggar Literary by email. Check website for agents’ interests. Con- 121, 665 San Rodolfo Dr. 124, Solana Beach, CA
Agency, 216 E. 75th St., Suite 1E, New York, NY tact: The Laura Dail Literary Agency, 121 West 92075. See website for agents’ emails.
10021. 212-794-1082. jvnla.com 27th St., Suite 1201, New York, NY 10001. 212-239- marsallyonliteraryagency.com
7477. [email protected] ldlainc.com 
F N C Y JOHN HAWKINS AND ASSOCI- F N MCCORMICK LITERARY Seeks literary
ATES Seeks fiction, nonfiction, contemporary F N LAURA GROSS LITERARY AGENCY and commercial fiction and nonfiction, including
journalism, history, biography, YA/ middle-grade Represents fiction and nonfiction, including first- memoir, humor, and essays. Contact: McCormick
fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. Submit queries time authors. Query via website form only. Con- Literary, 37 W. 20th St., New York, NY 10011. 212-
via email. Contact: John Hawkins and Associates, tact: Laura Gross Literary Agency. lg-la.com 691-9726. [email protected]
80 Maiden Ln., Suite 1503, New York, NY 10038. mccormickwilliams.com
212-807-7040. [email protected] jhalit.com  F N C Y THE LITERARY GROUP INTERNA-
TIONAL Seeks fiction and nonfiction and YA/ F N C Y MENDEL MEDIA GROUP Seeking
F N JOY HARRIS LITERARY AGENCY Look- children’s. Email queries only. Contact: The Liter- nonfiction (including memoir), fiction (inspira-
ing for literary fiction, strongly written commer- ary Group International, 1357 Broadway, Suite 316, tional, literary, multicultural, mystery/thriller,
cial fiction, narrative nonfiction, memoir, and New York, NY 10018. 212-400-1494. Frank Wei- women’s) and children’s (picture books, chapter
biography. Contact: The Joy Harris Literary mann: [email protected] books, and YA). Submit by regular mail only. Con-
Agency, 1501 Broadway, Suite 2310, New York, theliterarygroup.com tact: Mendel Media Group LLC, 115 W. 30th St.,
NY 10036. 212-924-6269. Suite 800, New York, NY 10001. 646-239-9896.
[email protected] F N LORETTA BARRETT BOOKS Seeks adult mendelmedia.com
joyharrisliterary.com  fiction (including genre and literary) and nonfic-
tion (history, biography, popular science, psychol- F N MOVABLE TYPE MANAGEMENT Rep-
F N C Y JUDITH EHRLICH LITERARY MAN- ogy, spirituality, health, women’s issues, narrative resents high-quality commercial fiction and non-
AGEMENT Represents commercial and literary nonfiction, memoir, humor, sports, politics, true fiction with archetypal themes, stories, and
fiction (romance, historical, literary mysteries, crime). Queries via email only. No attachments. characters, especially with strong film/TV poten-
women’s fiction, and some thrillers) and narrative Contact: Loretta Barrett Books, Inc. 212-242- tial. Contact: Movable Type Management, 244
nonfiction, including memoir. Also accepts chil- 3420. [email protected] Madison Ave., Suite 334, New York, NY 10016.
dren’s books. Query by email only. No attachments. lorettabarrettbooks.com [email protected] mtmgmt.net
Contact: Judith Ehrlich Literary Management, 146
Central Park West, 20E, New York, NY 10023. 646- F N LIZA DAWSON ASSOCIATES Represents F Y NELSON LITERARY AGENCY Seeking lit-
505-1570. See website for agents’ email addresses. literary and commercial fiction and nonfiction. erary, commercial, crossover, women’s fiction,
judithehrlichliterary.com  See website for agents’ interests and email romance, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy, YA, and middle
addresses. Contact: Liza Dawson Associates, 121 grade. Query by email only. No attachments.
F N Y JULIA LORD LITERARY MANAGE- W. 27TH St., Suite 1201, New York, NY 10001. Contact: Nelson Literary Agency, 1732 Wazee St.,
MENT Represents fiction (historical, YA, myster- 212-465-9071. lizadawsonassociates.com Suite 207, Denver, CO 80202. 303-292-2805. See
ies, thrillers, adventure) narrative nonfiction, website for agents’ emails. nelsonagency.com
reference, biography, history, lifestyle, sports, F N MANUS & ASSOCIATES LITERARY
humor, and science. Submit by email or regular AGENCY Accepts general fiction and nonfiction. F N Y PARK LITERARY & MEDIA Represents
mail. No attachments. Contact: Julia Lord Liter- Contact: Manus & Associates Literary Agency, fiction, nonfiction, and some middle grade and YA.
ary Management; 38 W. 9th St., New York, NY 425 Sherman Ave., Suite 200, Palo Alto, CA Check website for each agent’s interests. Submit
10011. [email protected] 94306. 650-470-5151. See website for agents’ queries by email only. No attachments. Contact:
julialordliterary.com email addresses. manuslit.com The Park Literary Group, 270 Lafayette St., Suite

writermag.com • The Writer | 45

 MARKETS

1504, New York, NY 10012. 212-691-3500. erary Agency, Studio B. Productions, Inc., 62 Nas- 07020. 201-945-9353. info@stimolaliterarystudio.
[email protected] parkliterary.com  sau Dr., Great Neck, NY 11021. 516-829-2102. com stimolaliterarystudio.com 
[email protected] salkindagency.com 
F N C PHILIP G. SPITZER LITERARY F N THE TALBOT FORTUNE AGENCY Seek-
AGENCY Seeks general fiction, mystery, thriller/ F N Y SARAH JANE FREYMANN LITER- ing romance, women’s fiction, thrillers, mysteries,
suspense, sports, politics, children’s, and African- ARY AGENCY Seeking nonfiction: self-help, spir- literary fiction, and narrative nonfiction. Query
American. See website for agents’ information. itual, cookbooks, narrative nonfiction, lifestyle, by email with first five pages of manuscript. No
Contact: Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency, 50 multicultural issues. Also seeks literary, commer- attachments. Contact: Talbot Fortune Agency.
Talmage Farm Ln., East Hampton, NY 11937. cial, and YA fiction. Prefers email queries. Contact: [email protected]
[email protected] Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency. 212-362- talbotfortuneagency.com
spitzeragency.com 9277. [email protected] 
  sarahjanefreymann.com F N TESSLER LITERARY AGENCY Boutique
F N C Y P.S. LITERARY AGENCY Seeks literary agency seeking nonfiction, including narrative, pop
fiction, genre fiction, LGBT, YA, middle grade, pic- F N Y SCOVIL GALEN GHOSH LITERARY science, memoir, history, psychology, business,
ture books, memoir, and nonfiction. Email queries AGENCY Handles books for adults, YA, and mid- biography, food, and travel, and literary and com-
only. Contact: P.S. Literary Agency, 2010 Winston dle grade. Email queries preferred. Contact: Scovil mercial fiction. No genre fiction. Query from web-
Park Dr., 2nd Floor, Oakville, Ontario, L6H 5R7 Galen Ghosh Literary Agency, 276 Fifth Ave., Suite site. Contact: Tessler Literary Agency, 27 W. 20th
Canada. 416-907-8325. [email protected] 708, New York, NY 10001. 212-679-8686. Check St., Suite 1003, New York, NY 10011. 212-242-
psliterary.com  website for agents’ email addresses. sgglit.com  0466. tessleragency.com 

N REGINA RYAN BOOKS Handles narrative F N Y C SERENDIPITY LITERARY AGENCY F N C Y THOMPSON LITERARY AGENCY
nonfiction, architecture, history, politics, natural Represents adult, children’s, and YA fiction and Represents some literary and commercial fiction,
history (especially birds), science (especially brain), adult nonfiction. Submit query from website form plus children’s and YA, but specializes in nonfic-
environment, women’s issues, parenting, cooking, only. Contact: Serendipity Literary Agency, 305 tion. Email submissions only. Contact: Thomp-
psychology, health, lifestyle, pop reference, and lei- Gates Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11216. son Literary Agency, 115 W. 29th St., 3rd floor,
sure. Query online only. Contact: Regina Ryan [email protected] serendipitylit.com New York, NY 10001. 347-281-7685.
Books. Email via website. reginaryanbooks.com [email protected]
C Y SHELDON FOGELMAN AGENCY Repre- thompsonliterary.com
F N Y RICHARD HENSHAW GROUP Focuses sents authors and illustrators for children’s and YA
on popular fiction (including YA) and nonfiction. books. Contact: Sheldon Fogelman Agency, 420 F N C Y O TRANSATLANTIC AGENCY Rep-
Also accepts some literary fiction. Query by email E. 72nd St., New York, NY 10021. 212-532-7250. resents trade fiction, nonfiction, children’s and YA
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46 | The Writer • April 2018

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writermag.com • The Writer | 47

HOW I WRITE
BY ALLISON FUTTERMAN

Kamilah Aisha Moon

P
oet Kamilah Aisha Moon not
only expresses herself with
depth and beauty but also
does so while addressing
issues of substance. In her most recent
collection, Starshine & Clay, she writes
about topical subjects, including race
and police brutality. Her poems elo-
quently examine the complexity of
humanity, from injustice to kindness.
Moon also bravely shares deeply per-
sonal experiences related to illness, to
which readers have strongly con-
nected. Her poetry is accessible, relat-
able, and moving.

Writing about current events “I really think for many of us,

My first collection didn’t focus on cur-
rent events. But with this one, we are poetry chooses us.”
entrenched in so many crises that I felt
like I couldn’t turn away. I had to speak
to what was happening right now and able now, such a wide range of tastes physical act of putting pen to paper as a
record the emotional history of the and styles. I would encourage people poem reveals itself that is unique.
time we’re in now. to find some of the new literary jour- Sometimes I get seized by ideas and
nals that include poetry. There’s also write for five or six days straight. I write
Deeply personal material the Academy of American Poets. Sign in squalls. Lately, I notice that I’m wak-
Those were poems I had to write. As up for [their Poem-a-Day newsletter] ing up with clarity and moving into a
you know, there’s a difference between and be greeted every morning by a phase where I write in the mornings.
what you write and what you publish. poem. Figure out what you like. As you
It’s scary to say I want to put this in the become more comfortable and Choosing poetry as a form
record and have it reach people I don’t respond to certain work, images and I also write creative fiction, but poetry
know. There have been times when I’ve lines may be sparked for you. You can is my first love. I had an experience my
stood up to read personal pieces, and I experiment from there. People think of junior year in high school that was
think, I can’t read this. That’s made it a poetry with capital “P.” But no one has similar to Dead Poets Society. My
different experience this time around, lived in your body or had your experi- teacher, Bill Brown, took a bunch of
doing readings at colleges and book- ences. Start writing from your specific 19-year-olds to the lake and had us
stores. It’s been the right thing to do. vantage point. writing in our journals. He introduced
People from all different walks of life – us to many contemporary and classic
various socioeconomic backgrounds, Writing routine poets. I took the class on a whim, and
genders, and ethnicities – have I don’t have a daily ritual in terms of he told me I had a knack for it, a good
responded to these pieces. when I write. I like to write by a win- ear for language. I really think for
dow, to look outside as I think, remem- many of us, poetry chooses us.
How to start with poetry ber, or daydream. I like to write
We’re at an exciting time in American longhand before I start to work with it Allison Futterman is a freelance writer based
poetry. There are so many voices avail- digitally. There’s something about the in Charlotte, North Carolina.

48 | The Writer • April 2018

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extra
You can't find this in print.

EXCERPT: STARSHINE & CLAY

TO THEMA, ALMOST TWO YEARS AFTER YOUR BURIAL

I don’t know their names

& they don’t know yours,
though your flesh now
of their flesh as a donor.

I try not to get angry

at strangers pressing too close, STILL LIFE AS ROCKET: 42
choosing kindness just in case
there’s a part of you Thanks, Yolonda
brushing by. What have
your gorgeous, castaway eyes
gifted another to see? This is the part where the boosters begin
I must have dined near what remains to fall away, & I’m moving
of you, faithful organ so fast it feels like slow motion.
thriving in a body From here I can see
spending your hours, strolling past the blue contours of my journey
milestones you won’t reach. Your children against eternal midnight lit
with torches held by unseen hands.
play around us, your laugh I understand why many choose
inside tiny throats, holding their bodies not to look—it really does take
the way you held yours my breath away, steers this ride toward
against fading light, letting music enter terror & away from thrill. I think of
& move them alive. Alive! Your name Joy, Thema, Kerry, Phebus, Anthony. Sandra & those
sweet pepper burning your parents’ tongues, lynched by cops, the satellite spirits
the spice of you fresh as the day who didn’t reach this orbit alive, how I must
they brought you home. feel the fuel burning & praise them
by not cursing the mirror or clinging
In lieu of flowers, this. Oh cousin, to the rear view and its new
you know the deepest sacrifice— blurriness; dare to comb defiant curls
being a miracle is far from the glory emblazoned by moonlight.
of receiving one. No longer blessed, There is so much still launching
you live on as blessing. in me.

Reprinted with permission of the author.