Yummy

Originally Published February 25th, 2013

Have a peek at the reading list for the spring session of the Elephant Rock Writing Salon. In addition to imagination-building writing exercises, we'll be discussing some elements of craft, inspired by reading short excerpts of the material below. The hardest part by far was narrowing down the list for our "reading light/experience heavy" approach. Still, this series should generate some lively conversation!

March 13 WRITING FROM OUR LIVES, MEMORY, AND THE WRITING LIFE

Vivian Gornick (from The Situation and the Story)

Atul Gawande (from Complications)

Natalie Goldberg (from Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life)

March 27 STORYTELLING: MEMOIR, PLOT, AND AN EXAMPLE

Various Writers (from Naming the World, on plot and narrative)

William Zinsser (from Writing About Your Life)

Jeannette Walls (from The Glass Castle)

April 10 PERSEVERANCE, MATERIAL, AND AN EXAMPLE

Walter Mosley (from This Year You Write Your Novel)

Anne Lamott (from Bird by Bird)

Jane Hamilton (from A Map of the World)

APRIL 24 SEEING, DESCRIBING, MAKING MEANING

David Sedaris (from Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim)

Louise Erdrich (from The Blue Jay’s Dance)

Annie Dillard (from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

May 8 DIALOGUE (AND MORE ON THE WRITING LIFE)

Various Writers (from Naming the World, on dialogue)

Harper Lee (from To Kill a Mockingbird)

Annie Dillard (from The Writing Life)

May 22 LISTS AND LETTERS (AND AN EXTRA DOSE OF THE SENSES)

Cheryl Strayed (from Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar)

E.B. White (from Letters of E.B. White)

Oakley Hall (from How Fiction Works)

June 5 SELF-EDITING AND REVISION

Claire Kehrwald Cook (from Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing)

Jeffrey McQuain (from Power Language)

Goldberg (from Writing Down the Bones)