It begins with not one, not two, but three prologues, each spiked with a different kind of horror. First, a scrolling text suggesting that this all really happened to the “five youths” we are about to meet, even though it didn’t. Second, glimpses of cadavers in oily Caravaggio light, culminating in a long, sociopathically calm […]
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Ursula Le Guin wrote about fellow fantasy author JK Rowling, “The only thing that rankles me is her apparent reluctance to admit that she ever learned anything from other writers.” Rating: Correct Attribution About this rating For several years, a quote from famed writer Ursula Le Guin has made the […]
More Videos Julianne Hough has a story, and she’s ready to share it. In 2020, while going through what she calls a “huge transformational period,” Hough asked herself, “How can I create something that I can pour my experiences into without giving all of my details away, but that we’ll all be able to relate […]
First Draft: A Dialogue of Writing is a weekly show featuring in-depth interviews with fiction, nonfiction, essay writers, and poets, highlighting the voices of writers as they discuss their work, their craft, and the literary arts. Hosted by Mitzi Rapkin, First Draft celebrates creative writing and the individuals who are dedicated to bringing their carefully […]
My Hero Academia SUMMARY My Hero Academia has characters who feel real, and have very human emotions, and it is due to Kohei Horikoshi’s incorporation of his own experiences. A scene of Deku playing with his mom was influenced by Horikoshi’s own little game that he used to play with his mother as a kid. […]
Elaborately illustrated matchboxes, one of which features a girl on the back of a small hippopotamus. Another girl stands next to the matchbox holding a red leash, which is attached to the hippo. MINA’S MATCHBOX , by Yoko Ogawa. Translated by Stephen Snyder. “Mina’s Matchbox,” the latest novel by the Japanese writer Yoko Ogawa , […]
Above the Fold Read time 13 minutes Photography by Torkil Stavdal. The novelist joins Document to discuss his new collection of prose on the work of Nan Goldin, Rachel Harrison, and several others Jonathan Lethem wants to do everything a writer can do at least once. His double-digit count of novels, including The Fortress of […]
This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter— sign up here . I always take my characters grocery shopping when I’m working on a novel. I like to push a cart around a supermarket, deciding what my character will buy. It’s the single best way for me to understand a character well enough […]
Photo by Lance Anderson on Unsplash If you lose your hearing, how does the world around you change? What contours of one-on-one conversations become harder to make out, what details of a bustling room come into sharper focus? What creature comforts do you stubbornly cling to all the while? Adèle Rosenfeld’s Jellyfish Have No Ears […]
AI Prompts to improve your writing Have you ever wondered if there’s a way to make the daunting task of outlining your book or essay a bit easier? Imagine having a tool that not only helps you overcome creative blocks but also generates detailed, structured outlines. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, in […]
