Joseph Epstein is, in my opinion, one of the foremost essayists honing the craft today. I just bought his most recent collection, Wind Sprints, and am both exhilarated and encouraged from reading it.

The title itself is an example of

 … finish reading Emulating Epstein

A few days ago the annual issue of Time magazine’s one hundred most influential people arrived. It is a marvel of slick promotion, but it hooked me in anyway.

Instead of the usual one-page front cover, there were four featuring

 … finish reading Time Magazine

I’ve been studying independent publishers and their websites the past couple weeks in preparation for starting my own publishing company. It’s fascinating. First, there is a ton of publishers “out there,” both indie and established.  Second, there is another ton

 … finish reading Getting Ready

There is a charming catalog called Bas Bleu that comes to my door every so often.  Most of its offerings revolve around books and book-y things, and even when I don’t need anything to read I always thumb through this

 … finish reading Bas Bleu

I subscribe to a variety of publications, both online and off, about writing. And over the years, I’ve seen a shift in their focus. Today’s message is about ten ways to do this, five things not to do about that,

 … finish reading Tips on Writing vs. Writing

The Great Book Club met last night, and five of us discussed Mrs. Dalloway, a 1925 novel by Virginia Woolf.  It made me think about first sentences in novels.

I’m sure you remember “Call me Ishmael,” which is the start

 … finish reading Opening Lines

I belong to two book clubs, the 4B and the GBC.  The former is an abbreviation for Broads and Books Beyond Belief, while the latter stands for the Great Book Club. It’s the GBC that’s reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia

 … finish reading Mrs. Dalloway

For the uninitiated, it’s National Novel Writing Month, an annual event among writers and wannabees that’s about writing a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. The math works out to 1,666 words per day.

I’ve done this project twice, once

 … finish reading It’s NaNoWriMo Once Again

Today the local monthly book club I belong to was held at my home.  Only it wasn’t “Book Club” this time.  It was “Poetry Club.”

I love poetry, possibly more than the general public does. The oldest book I own

 … finish reading Poetry

I’ve kept this email in my inbox since June of 2014.  It’s a link to an article titled “14 Brilliant Pieces of Literature You Can Read in the Time It Takes to Eat Lunch.”

Isn’t that a wonderful way to

 … finish reading Literature