If you love sports, learn to write
By Marjorie Kehe | 05.12.08
Talk about a dream job. When not busy with other pursuits (he’s also a columnist for the Washington Post, a guest commentator on NPR, and a color commentator for United States Naval Academy football games), John Feinstein spends his time immersing himself in one professional sport after another.
This he does to be able to turn out books (”A Season on the Brink,” “A Good Walk Spoiled,” “A March to Madness,” “The Punch,” and “Next Man Up” are among his best known). (more…)
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China, Food and Olympics
By Marjorie Kehe | 05.08.08
It’s now official: This has become the “Year of Reading About China.” With the Olympics in Beijing fast upon us this summer, books about China are arriving in droves, with more still to come. (more…)
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The writer as a child
By Marjorie Kehe | 05.06.08
If you find “Dictation,” Cynthia Ozick’s new collection of short stories as charming as I do, you might want to further treat yourself by finding a collection of Ozick’s writings that contains “A Drugstore in Winter.”
Ozick’s parents were the proprietors of a pharmacy in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, NY, in the 1930s. In those days, a traveling library used to visit the Ozick’s neighborhood. At the end of their long day, the weary librarians would come to the Ozick’s pharmacy and drink coffee at the counter. (more…)
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Why a writer needs an agent
By Marjorie Kehe | 05.05.08
We’ve all heard the stories of magnificent novels initially turned down by multiple publishers before sparking any interest. (How many times did Madeline L’Engle send out “A Wrinkle in Time”?)
In the case of Louise Erdrich’s first novel “Love Medicine,” however, there’s an interesting twist. Apparently Erdrich was turned down everywhere she sent the novel. Then, her husband, the writer Michael Dorris, decided to promote the book himself. He made his own stationary with the words “Michael Dorris Agency” printed at the top.
The novel was then accepted by Holt and was an almost immediate success. (Note to writers eager to try this method: It helps to actually be able to write like Louise Erdrich.) “The Plague of Doves” is her twelfth novel.
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A scholar’s perspective
By Marjorie Kehe | 04.07.08
Yesterday’s New York Times Magazine contained an article by Noah Feldman on the democratic process in Iraq. Feldman (who is a professor of law at Harvard and an author of note) begins his piece by recognizing the enthusiasm most Americans have for the electoral process.
