This week I’ve been introducing the writing process to my college writing students through a multi-draft assignment based on NPR’s “This I Believe” project. In class on Wednesday, I had them begin a quick 250-word “credo” to get the ball rolling on the series of drafts, and, like a good teacher, I sat down andContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: “This I Believe””
Tag Archives: nonfiction
Who’ll get me a book I ain’t read….
Oh, where to begin? It seems like the publishing market — or, at least, the small press and indie lit markets — like to work in tandem, with everyone publishing stuff all at once. It’s like our literary periods are in synch or something. I say this because a lot of my friends and acquaintancesContinue reading “Who’ll get me a book I ain’t read….”
A Writer’s Notebook: family history
This one rambles, but it’s an exercise and it’s rough, so bear with me. I used to read books. I mean on paper, pages made of wood pulp pressed flat in huge machines, cut and stitched or glued together and then cut again, printed with ink and bound in cardstock covers. When I turned theContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: family history”
A Writer’s Notebook: an essay about Mom
My mother is retiring from 36 years of teaching, and to honor her, my sister, my brother, and I threw her a surprise party while I was down visiting during my PCA/ACA conference. My sister and my mom’s good friend Debbie, also a teacher, also organized a scrapbook for people to leave memories of myContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: an essay about Mom”
A Writer’s Notebook: News stories
Believe it or not, this is a true story. Sort of. I remember studying H. P. Lovecraft in college, though at the time we studied him as literature, not gospel. I was enchanted by his name, Lovecraft, as though it was a commandment: here is the craft of writing fiction, and you shall adore it.Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: News stories”
A Writer’s Notebook: Mapping a story
This past Tuesday, I visited Zayed University to speak to an education class studying youth literature and preparing to write young adult stories of their own. (I’ll write a fuller post on this experience later this weekend.) We talked about books they were reading and how they might begin to write their own stories. TheContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Mapping a story”
New fiction from Bill Roorbach
Bill Roorbach has announced on his blog, Bill and Dave’s Cocktail Hour, that his new novel, The High Side, is scheduled to appear in print next spring. I can’t tell you how excited I am by this: I’ve long been a big fan of Bill — his writing but also his nature, because he’s oneContinue reading “New fiction from Bill Roorbach”
A Writer’s Notebook: found objects
This week is a little random, but I’ll explain why below. When I lived in the States, I used to get a lot of junk mail. I got more junk than mail, actually, and I’m not including my bills in that. Brochures for apartments and trailer homes, ads for banks and groceries and shoe storesContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: found objects”
This librarian is totally hot
The good news abounds in the Snoek-Brown household this week: after my story announcement yesterday, today my wife, who is a (brilliant!) librarian, found out she’s online as well! A while ago, a freelance writer named Meredith Southard contacted my wife and asked to interview her for a short article on the librarian profession (because,Continue reading “This librarian is totally hot”
11-11: Memoir review (Elmer Kelton)
A short while ago I mentioned that I plan to read new types of books this year — eleven new categories of books, in fact — and so far, I’ve read a lot of graphic novels. Which isn’t really new for me, and which certainly isn’t on my list of eleven categories. But I just sneakedContinue reading “11-11: Memoir review (Elmer Kelton)”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 