Friday Finds for Writers

Treasure ChestWriting-related resources, news, and reflections to enjoy over the weekend.

  • “It’s one thing to have an interesting story, or perhaps we should say experience. But that’s not the same thing as having an interesting essay. I see this frequently in submissions to Colorado Review: truly interesting things—sometimes amazing things—happening to people, that don’t translate into very interesting essays.” On Essay Daily, Stephanie G’Schwind adds thoughts on how those interesting things can become interesting essays. (h/t Brevity blog)
  • Nelly Reifler on story “endings that hover.”
  • On the Ploughshares blog: Tasha Golden interviews Stephanie Vanderslice (whom we have also interviewed) re: what MFA programs should be teaching, life after the MFA, and ways to connect in our big, beautiful literary world.
  • For some interesting numbers (on writers’ money spent and money earned), see Douglas Light’s “My Decade of Writing” and Jeff Chu’s “Counting the Costs” (both of which I found thanks to @Scratch_Mag).
  • Finally, if you missed it on Wednesday, my post on “Nonacademic Jobs for Writers” (written in response to the release of AWP’s latest report on the academic job market, linked within the post) really seemed to resonate with people here, on Facebook, and on Twitter. On a related note, this week brought a profile on The Atlantic Wire with the provocative title “What’s the Ideal Day Job for a Poet?” (h/t @GreensboroRevie).
  • Have a great weekend!

    One thought on “Friday Finds for Writers

    1. Sean M. Price says:

      Endings – You gotta have one. Perhaps it’s truly a matter of taste, but I like resolution. To me a lack of resolution is like a four course meal where the waiter disregarded the dessert. I think the ending to any story should show character change and/or resolution to the story problem. Otherwise, for me, it just feels incomplete like a lingering hunger.

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