So I have two questions in light of a recent Washington Post article. First, and most fun, what did fans think of the new Jodi Picoult movie, which took in ... Read More

I discovered Wordle on a recent blog carnival: it generates word clouds, or collages, using text you enter. (The program chooses words based on frequency; the most frequently used words ... Read More

When I've used this creative writing exercise in a class, it's consistently resulted in interesting work. You'll begin the exercise by thinking of someone for whom you have strong feelings, ... Read More

I recently read Avi for the first time, mostly to find out what this one-named author was all about. I was stunned to learn how many books he's written, and ... Read More

We received very last-minute notice of a few contests for June and July, and wanted to pass on the news, for those in full contest mode. For June (I ... Read More

This week a reader named Siobhan wrote with a question and asked that I post it in the blog. So here goes: "After a long period of just writing and ... Read More

If you're traveling this summer, do a little research and give your trip a literary edge. Cities like London easily lend themselves to a literary walking tour, for instance (those ... Read More

We had a question from a guest nicknamed "Exploded Bunny" in the reader response section of the writer's block article this week, and I think a wider range of answers ... Read More

The Bard Fiction Prize, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowships, the Story Prize, and others are coming up in July, for those who aren't taking it too ... Read More

For those who are planning to create a book trailer -- or book lovers in need of a distraction -- I wanted to pass on the link to a book ... Read More

I have to apologize for the late notice on this award: I just learned of it myself. The good news is that while the deadline for their middle-grade novel contest ... Read More

This is the question posed by a review of The Program Era, in the Summer Fiction issue of the New Yorker, out this week. Having just posted an article based ... Read More

Lately, I've heard a number of writers complaining that readings don't really sell books anymore. These writers had recently done bookstore readings and then found out that only a few ... Read More