Authors Electric

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard   Annie Dillard writes poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction. For more than 20 years, she also taught writing at Wesleyan College. She was such an influence on Alexander Chee that his desire upon graduation was to become Annie Dillard. Like all good writing teachers, Dillard believes in reading. Listen to this anecdote. "A well-known writer got collared by a university student who asked, 'Do you think I could be a writer?' 'Well,' the writer said, 'I don’t know. … Do you like sentences?' The writer could see the student’s amazement. Sentences? Do I like sentences? I am twenty years old and do I like sentences? If he had liked sentences, of course, he could begin, like a joyful painter I knew. I asked him how he came to be a painter. He said, 'I liked the smell of the paint.'”   Annie Dillard, The Writing Life (Harper Perennial 1990) A Tough Life It’s hard to tell if Dillard likes sentences or r...

On the road sounds mythic, doesn't it? Think about Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation. Or, if you've been binge-watching old movies these days, you'll know all about Bing Crosby and Bob Hope on the road to some place exotic. Writing while on the road is a whole other ball of wax. Could I do it? Would I do it? These were the questions that haunted me as we set off on our 7 month long journey. I tried to prepare myself. Uploaded a handful of works-in-progress. Made sure my devices would store everything into the cloud. Resigned myself to the fact that I could not write with pen and paper while on the road. Typing with two thumbs was what I had to do. I wanted to produce something more than What I Did on my Summer Holiday. In short, I was aiming to write new fiction. Now you want to know: did I? Shrines for your Domestic Wishes by Marcia Espinosa. Photo credit: Karen Kao   Reading on the Road For me, reading leads to writing. Of course, every writer does a c...