Letters to a Young Writer

(Paperback)

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Description

I hope there is something here for any young writer or any older writer, for that matter who happens to be looking for a teacher to come along, a teacher who, in the end, can really teach nothing at all but fire. From the critically acclaimed Colum McCann, author of the National Book Award winner Let the Great World Spin, comes a paean to the power of language, and a direct address to the artistic, professional and philosophical concerns that challenge and sometimes torment an author. Comprising fifty-two short prose pieces, Letters to a Young Writer ranges from practical matters of authorship, such as finding an agent, the pros and cons of creative writing degrees and handling bad reviews, through to the more joyous and celebratory, as McCann elucidates the pleasures to be found in truthful writing, for: the best writing makes us glad that we are however briefly alive. Emphatic and empathetic, pragmatic and profound, this is an essential companion to any authors journey and a deeply personal work from one of our greatest literary voices.

Reviews

A warm, open-hearted paean to the joys of writing * Sunday Times *
Excellent ... This slim volume cannot fail as a pick-me-up * Observer *
Practical writing advice meets a heartfelt love song to creativity * Irish Times *
An intensely literary writer ... His prose thrums with echoes of Beckett, Yeats and Joyce * Sunday Times *
A writer of power and subtlety * New York Times *
A very gifted, charming writer * Guardian *
McCanns writing is elegant and ironic * The Times *
A supremely talented writer * Sunday Times *
Practical writing advice meets heartfelt love song to creativity * Irish Times 'Books to Look Out for in 2017 *
There is beauty to the language and precision, grace notes that return to mind time and again to transport you. McCanns books feel universal. Now the 52-year-old Dublin-born New York-naturalised bestseller is letting some of his secrets out A guide to putting words on the page and a celebration of language, a call to look out, not in * Big Issue in Scotland *

Author Bio

Colum McCann is the author of six novels and three collections of stories. His most recent novel, TransAtlantic, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013, and his previous novel, Let the Great World Spin, won the National Book Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was a New York Times bestseller. His most recent short story collection, Thirteen Ways of Looking, includes the story What Time is it Now, Where You Are which was shortlisted for the 2016 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. His work has been published in forty languages and has received many international honours, including a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, election to the Irish arts academy and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China and an Oscar nomination. He is the co-founder of the non-profit global story exchange organisation, Narrative 4, and he teaches at the MFA program in Hunter College. He lives in New York. colummccann.com