Writers
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Today’s Comment of the Week: About Those Vampires…
Yesterday I posted about the Magic of Storytelling. Yes, I got a full head of steam going on that one (it happens!), and we definitely achieved liftoff. Fortunately, Wonderful Reader Rain, Rain was there to keep the post anchored in the comments. To make one of my points, I asked readers to fill in the blanks Continue reading
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Writers Laughing: Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving
Here’s a reminder that life has moments of joy as well as sorrow. What a great picture. Why do I think that Vonnegut must have said something funny (unexpected and acerbic and witty), and Irving started laughing uncontrollably, and finally Vonnegut joined in because Irving’s laughter was infectious… Have a great day, everyone! Onward Continue reading
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Writers Laughing: Flannery O’Connor
Oh, I know, I know. I should be promoting my latest book (price drop! we broke the buck!). I have another Object almost ready to go. I should be working on that. But how can I resist this one? Robie Macauley and Arthur Koestler – themselves two titans of the mid-century literary scene. And… …and Continue reading
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Writers Laughing: James Baldwin
Here we go again! These are harder to find than you might think. So many poses, so many polite smiles, so many serious looks… and then now and then you find a gem like this one… …and everything’s worth it. Like an extra shot of espresso added to my cup of Thursday. Have a great Continue reading
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Writers Laughing: Zora Neale Hurston
Another great one. There’s at least one other picture of her in this car: Continue reading
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A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #20: The Sign
I was in my twenties and working yet another dead end job. You know how it is. Overworked. Overtired. Undervalued. I simply could not believe that this was all there was to life. And then what? Death. Oblivion. So it was this and then that. Wow. Or was there a Heaven to look forward to? Continue reading
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Don’t Be Discouraged: You Are New!
Editor’s Note: In honor of springtime, I thought I’d rerun this post from last year, which remains one of the most popular posts we’ve had. Hope wins! In an interview with Tinhouse’s J.C. Hallman, Walter Kirn refers to a common anxiety among writers: J.C. Hallman: Do creative writers have an obligation to act as critics, to offer Continue reading
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What They Knew #13
““The language belongs to fishermen, not scholars.” –Jorge Luis Borges (on efforts to impose an official diction on English) Continue reading
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The Jacke Wilson One-Word Test: Are Your Themes What You Expected?
Years ago The New Yorker ran a cartoon after Ken Burns had just come out with his second major documentary, Baseball. (The first, of course, had been the masterpiece The Civil War.) The cartoon showed a man’s hand holding a piece of paper with “Ken Burns To-Do List” at the top. Underneath the title it said: WAR SPORTS Continue reading
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Self-Publishing: On the Respectability of Small Audiences
I was still feeling the afterglow of the Alice Munro announcement, so I headed over to Munro’s Paris Review interview. One of the things I was struck by was her description of the first fifteen years or so of her career: MUNRO I was about thirty-six [when my first book came out]. I’d been writing Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 