The Writer's Reader : Vocation, Preparation, Creation

The Writer's Reader is an anthology of essays on the art and life of writing by major writers of the past and present.

These essays offer a wealth of insights into how writers approach their craft and represent a practical resource as well as a source of inspiration. The writings collected here range from classic to less well-known, historical to contemporary, and include, for example, essays on the vocation of writing by Natalia Ginzburg, John Berger, Edwidge Danticat, Julia Alvarez, and Flannery O'Connor; thoughts on preparing for writing by Roberto Bolaño, Henry Miller, Jorge Luis Borges, Ha Jin, and Cynthia Ozick; and essays on the craft of writing by authors such as Italo Calvino, Colm Tóibín, Virginia Woolf, Philip Roth, Lydia Davis, David Foster Wallace, and Zadie Smith.

Taken together, this collection is a must-read for any student or devotee of writing.

"The Writer's Reader is maybe the best literary conference of all times: a witty, wide-ranging conversation between some of the smartest and most thoughtful writers who have ever put pen to page, pitched toward practitioners at every stage in their development. Best of all, for a population rife with introversion and acute social anxiety, one can attend this particular conference gloriously alone." -Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies

"A wondrous compendium of essays both well loved and new to me, each of which feels as if it were written in the middle of the night to be tossed in a bottle for another writer not yet born. The words of the improbable fortune papers read: It will be impossible. Keep going. Take heart." -Mona Simpson, author of Casebook

"The superbly literary essays collected here by writer-professors Cohen and Parini vary from classics to the unheralded, from the mid-1500s to 2014, and present an array of perspectives on how writers approach their work that will reward readers and writers seeking inspiration and guidance. … This loaded, diverse, and provocative anthology has something for readers and writers of any ilk." -Booklist

"An invaluable resource for the student of writing, and enlightening in all sorts of ways … All the contributors are generous and honest, often painfully so, providing plenty of aphorisms you might want to scribble down and stick on your PC." -Sydney Morning Herald