A Muse and a Maze: Writing as Puzzle, Mystery, and Magic

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With his characteristic talent for finding connections between writing and the stuff of our lives, Peter Turchi ventures into new and even more surprising territory. In A Muse and a Maze, Turchi draws out the similarities between writing and puzzle-making and its flip-side, puzzle-solving. As he teases out how mystery lies at the heart of all story

Reviews

Reviews of A Muse and A Maze "Turchi invites us to think about books as mysteries unfolding in time, giving us clues that we piece together."--Washington Post "One of the country's foremost thinkers on the art of writing...Turchi argues that writers are like magicians who aim to lead us to a state of wonder."--Houston Chronicle "Altogether stimulating."--Brain Pickings "Consistently engaging, lively, and thought provoking. The interactive element is also a delight, as there are actual puzzles scattered throughout (answers are provided in the back) to demonstrate the challenges and rewards offered by puzzles--and by good writing...Readers and puzzle lovers should find much of value."--Publishers Weekly "My favorite book about literature... Anyone who likes books should read it."--Chris Offutt, author of No Heroes "A brilliant book on writing craft, providing the reader with a new way to think about composing fiction. It's also simply a delight to read--smart, well organized, and full of muscular writing and funny anecdotes."--Robert Boswell, author of Tumbledown "The wide-ranging connections Turchi draws are convincing, provocative, and not infrequently funny, drawing the reader into a labyrinth of reflection where each turn brings a new surprise."--Santa Fe New Mexican "He's done it again. Peter Turchi, the best-selling author who inspires artists, designers, and anyone trying to understand how to capture an audience's imagination through storytelling, has written a book that aligns the art of literature with puzzle creation and illusions."--World Literature Today "Turchi combines puzzles and discussions of magic tricks as well as conventional literary analysis to show how arranging information to deepen the sense of mystery can make writing more interesting."--Chicago Reader "A glorious craft book--absolutely delightful."--Julia Larios

Author Bio

Peter Turchi's books include Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer; Suburban Journals: The Sketchbooks, Drawings, and Prints of Charles Ritchie, in collaboration with the artist; a novel, The Girls Next Door; and a collection of stories, Magician. Turchi's short story "Night, Truck, Two Lights Burning," listed as one of 100 Notable Stories of 2002 by the editors of Best American Short Stories and one of 15 Recommended Stories by the jury for the O. Henry Prize Stories, has been published in Arabic and, in English, combined with images by Charles Ritchie, in a limited edition artist's book. He has also coedited, with Andrea Barrett, A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers on Their Craft and The Story Behind the Story: 26 Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work; and, with Charles Baxter, Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life. Turchi's stories have appeared in Ploughshares, Story, the Alaska Quarterly Review, Puerto del Sol, and the Colorado Review. He has received Washington College's Sophie Kerr Prize, an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award, North Carolina's Sir Walter Raleigh Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. From 1993 to 2008 he directed the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. Turchi recently taught at Arizona State University, where he was director of the creative writing program, and he's currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Houston.