Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do

184 Pages·2013·0.94 MB·English

by  Meredith Maran

A PLUME BOOK
WHY WE WRITE
MEREDITH MARAN is the author of ten nonfiction books and the acclaimed 2012
novel A Theory of Small Earthquakes. A member of the National Book Critics
Circle, she writes features, essays, and book reviews for People, Salon, the
Ladies’ Home Journal, Real Simple, the Guardian (London), the Boston Globe,
the Chicago Tribune, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She’s been a writer in
residence at UCLA and at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, and a fellow at the
MacDowell, Mesa Refuge, Ragdale, and Yaddo artists’ colonies. Meredith
divides her time between sunny writing spots in Oakland and Los Angeles,
California.
Why We Write
20 Acclaimed Authors on
How and Why They Do
What They Do
Edited by Meredith Maran
A PLUME BOOK
PLUME
Published by Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a
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District, Beijing 100020, China Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL,
England First published by Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, February 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Copyright © Meredith Maran, 2013
All rights reserved
Each selection is the copyrighted property of its respective author and appears in this volume by
arrangement with the individual writer.
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION
DATA Maran, Meredith.
Why we write : 20 acclaimed authors on how and why they do what they do / Meredith Maran ; with
Isabel Allende…[et al.].
p.cm.
ISBN: 978-1-101-60282-9
1. Authorship. I. Allende, Isabel. II. Title.
PN165.M37 2013
810.9’0054--dc23 2012018687
Printed in the United States of America Set in Adobe Caslon Pro
Designed by Eve L. Kirch
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
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time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for
changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not
assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
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ALWAYS LEARNING PEARSON
For those who read, write, publish, purvey, and love books.
And in memory of Françoise Sagan, who made me
a reader and a writer and a lover of books.
Acknowledgments
Becky Cole: Best. Editor. Ever.
Linda Loewenthal: Best. Agent. Ever.
For making magic possible: the MacDowell Colony, Ragdale, the Mesa Refuge,
the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo.
For making this book, and innumerable reading hours, not only possible but
delightful: The Twenty.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter One: Isabel Allende
Chapter Two: David Baldacci
Chapter Three: Jennifer Egan
Chapter Four: James Frey
Chapter Five: Sue Grafton
Chapter Six: Sara Gruen
Chapter Seven: Kathryn Harrison
Chapter Eight: Gish Jen
Chapter Nine: Sebastian Junger
Chapter Ten: Mary Karr
Chapter Eleven: Michael Lewis
Chapter Twelve: Armistead Maupin
Chapter Thirteen: Terry McMillan
Chapter Fourteen: Rick Moody
Chapter Fifteen: Walter Mosley
Chapter Sixteen: Susan Orlean
Chapter Seventeen: Ann Patchett
Chapter Eighteen: Jodi Picoult
Chapter Nineteen: Jane Smiley
Chapter Twenty: Meg Wolitzer