Talking to Writers

Am I a writer? Where should I get ideas? Is my writing any good? How did my favorite authors make it big? The act of writing is a daunting task for many people, and becoming a "writer" means so much more than putting pen to paper.

Dean Nelson embraces the questions that plague writers by turning to some of the best-known authors of our time. With encouragement, advice, and refreshing honesty, writers discuss their own beginnings, struggles, and victories in a manner that will make readers say, "I can do that."

In Talking to Writers: The Craft of Fiction, readers will hear from Ray Bradbury about why everyone should write, Alice Walker about writing with courage, Nick Hornby about creating dialogue, Anthony Doerr about getting ideas, and Amy Tan about discipline. Among the many other featured writers are Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Smiley, Don Winslow, Amor Towles, Billy Collins, and more.

Bringing together interviews from thirty years of the annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea, Nelson reveal writers' motives, connect dots to their past, acknowledge their struggles, and often begin sentences with, "I've never said this publicly before..." The revelations are honest and encouraging, with a good dose of humor, to give writers of every level courage and support necessary to live the writing life.