Jan 24, 2018
You've no doubt heard the adage, "Write what you know," but what if you want to write about aliens, dragons, wizards, or people from an entirely different culture? Four writers debunk the myth that “knowing” trumps all, and how it's far more important to write what you imagine, what inspires you, and what story you...
Jan 24, 2018
The Summer of Love brought us sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll, but it was also a decade of extremes and radical cultural change that, in many ways, mirrors what’s going on today. A renewed interest in psychedelic drugs? Check. Women organizing for vast social change? Check. The back-to-the-land movement? You bet....
Jan 18, 2018
Behind appearances are stories — and sometimes they’re complex, frightening stories that people hide. People milling through The Cheeseboard on Shattuck Avenue are harboring heart-stopping secrets in Shanthi Sekaran’s page-turner, ‘Lucky Boy.’ That normal-looking guy at the Chinatown restaurant is actually...
Jan 15, 2018
How do we process loss? What role does memory play in mourning? The novelists gathered here—from Iceland, Sweden, and the United States—all use extraordinary restraint and carefully structure their work in order to create great emotional impact. Why do they take this approach; how do they sustain it; and what it is...
Jan 11, 2018
Mentored by LGBT rights pioneer Harvey Milk, Cleve Jones is an activist and author whose new memoir, ‘When We Rise,’ inspired an ABC TV mini-series of the same title. Rebecca Solnit said, “You could read Cleve Jones’s book because you should know about the struggle for gay, lesbian, and transgender rights from...