Off to Atlanta

Well, folks, I'm taking off later today for the AWP Conference in Atlanta. See you back here next week (hopefully, with photos!). Have a great few days!

P.S. Just a reminder that our most recent Practicing Writer newsletter was a special double (February-March) issue. We'll get back on our monthly schedule for April, with our next issue going out to subscribers during the last week of March. Thanks for your patience!

Writing Questions & Quandaries, Online

Brian Klems is a nice guy. This I know from our e-interactions concerning several of my Writer's Digest articles (Brian is Associate Editor for the magazine). And now he's joined the blogosphere:

Many of you are already familiar with my "Questions & Quandaries" column in the print version of Writer's Digest, but now I'm entering the blogosphere--that's right, they're crazy enough to have me blogging. Of course, I tried negotiating for a fancier office, a nicer parking spot and 3 free breakfasts a week, but they countered with, well, nothing, so I settled for having my mug at the top.

I'm hoping most of you are as excited about this as I am, as each week I'll try to give you insight into some of your grammatical, ethical and business-oriented questions. Ask me anything you want (writersdigest@fwpubs.com) and I'll do my best to answer as many as I can. So kick off your shoes, get comfortable and get ready to learn all the writing secrets you've always wanted to know.

Check out Brian's new blog here.

In the Mail: Good News and Bad News

The bad news first--and this sort of thing is always bad news for those of us who rely on the U.S. postal service as we submit our work (and SASEs)--it looks as though postal rates will be going up again. Expect another increase in May, to $.41 for a first-class stamp (that's what I'm reading this morning, though I'd heard $.42 was a possibility).

So maybe there's some good news in the "limited" hike. Another reason for good cheer is the the imminent introduction of the "forever stamp."

As the Christian Science Monitor explains this morning:

Beginning in May, customers would be able purchase the stamps in booklets of 20 at the regular rate of a first-class stamp. As the name implies, 'forever stamps' will retain their first-class mailing value for all eternity, even when the postage rate goes up.

The new 'forever stamp' is the United States Postal Service's (USPS) answer to customer complaints about frequent rate increases. The May hike will be the fifth in a decade. Postal rates have risen because of inflation, competition from online bill paying, and the rising costs of employee benefits, including healthcare, says Mark Saunders, a spokesman for USPS.

Watch for updates on this--or risk consigning your manuscripts to oblivion when a journal can't add a two- or three-cent stamp to your SASE and you haven't used the "forever" stamp!

Monday Morning Market Listings

Welcome to this set of Monday Morning Market Listings!

1) Interested in pitching Gourmet magazine? Read this profile of Deputy Editor Jocelyn Zuckerman first. (The article is targeted to PR professionals, but writers will find it helpful, too.)

2) Here's another opportunity for a foodie-writer (provided that you're in the Chicago area): Time Out Chicago is looking for a part-time assistant for its "Eat Out/Drink Up" section. Job entails about 20 hours of work/week and pays "based on experience." Details here.

3) News University invites applications for a yearlong paid fellowship to help create e-learning for journalists. Deadline: March 15. More info here.

4) Know a lot about cars? AOL Autos is looking for freelance writers "to draft original, engaging content." Pays: $250-$400/article. Check the announcement here.

5) Chicken Soup for the Soul is looking for stories for a number of new titles. Check here for themes and deadlines.

6) If you're based in the Chapel Hill/Durham area, you may want to look into this call for "writers for feature articles in local community monthly paper." Pays: $75-$100/article. Details here.

7) A New Jersey magazine is looking for "NJ parents who are working the NJ system to care for and educate their kids. We want to know your successes and failures, speed bumps, wild goose chases--the good, the bad and the ugly. Details and specifics. This is how we can inform and help other parents with special needs children. We are interested in your experience with your children right through adulthood. Mental illness, ADD, learning disorders, autism, behavioral etc. School, private and public sector, medical, health care, intervention--what can you share." Pays: $.10/word "and/or flat rates." Details here.

8) Web magazine "seeks writers to craft articles to teach financial and business tactics as well as the art of living well on small budgets. In addition, feature articles are needed on financial markets, business and consumer markets. Length will range from 500-2,500 words per article." Pays: "$50-$75 per 500 words starting." Details here.

Friday Find

Well, I finally "found" the wherewithal and time to take a nighttime photo (and transfer it from my camera). So now you can compare the views from my apartment depending on the time of day. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

March is Small Press Month

Did you know that almost 80% of all books published in 2005 came from "small" independent presses? That alone should be reason to celebrate Small Press Month (March). Discover more fun facts about small presses here, and peruse the schedule of festive events honoring their work here (especially relevant for those in New York, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas).

What a J-School Dean Does

Ever wonder what the dean of a journalism school actually does? Find out in this new MediaBistro interview with Steven Shepard, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at my new place of employment, The City University of New York.

Illness in Fiction

One day I will get back to my critical study of "caregivers in fiction." Meantime, I'm intrigued by Anita Sethi's recent post over at the Guardian's book blog about "fiction's best depictions of the sick."

Let's bring the discussion over here: Which fictional depictions of illness have you found most powerful, and why? I'll begin with one of my own all-time favorites (this sounds kind of morbid, as I write it): Lorrie Moore's short story, "People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk."

Not too long ago I tried (but failed) to find this story's full text online. But it's not too hard to find elsewhere--just look in Moore's Birds of America volume, or in the appropriate issue of The New Yorker, or in any of the "best of" anthologies that have republished it.

This tale of a baby's battle with kidney cancer--and his mother's way(s) of dealing with it--amazes me every time I reread it. I marvel at the fact that I can smile as I read. I marvel at the way Moore brings humor--if a bitter/very dry humor--into this most dreadful subject.

(I'm really missing having all my books here with me in New York--I've stored way too many of them back in Massachusetts. This would be the perfect time for a quotation to help you see exactly what I'm talking about. I'm sorry!)

What about the rest of you? Which readings would you recommend here?

And here's a special offer: The first person who can find and post a legitimate link to the full text of the aforementioned Lorrie Moore story for the rest of us to read online will receive his/her choice of any e-book from our library. Ready, set, surf!

Monday Morning Market Listings

Here they are--in no particular order--the weekly batch of opportunities! Good luck!

1) Intriguing new contest from the Whidbey Writers Workshop. The "Student Choice Contest," which will be run monthly beginning in March, is open to manuscripts of 1,000 words (or less) in fiction, creative nonfiction, prose poetry, and work for children/young adults. There's no entry fee. Send unpublished work only (no simultaneous submissions). Each month, the winning entry will be posted on the student page of the Whidbey Writers Workshop and its author will receive $50. "If a piece is not selected, authors may submit the same entry in subsequent months" (apparently the student judge will change each month). More information and submission instructions here. (via Duotrope.com)

2) Essayists, check out the upcoming themes at Common Ties. Themed essays are published every Friday; essays on other topics appear Monday-Thursday. Pays: $100-$200 (in exceptional cases, up to $1,000). See the latest announcement here.

3) Tea Party magazine seeks submissions for its Summer 2007 issue. "Our theme for Issue #17 is TRANS•in all its many shades of meaning. As a prefix or abbreviation, TRANS• can mean 'across, beyond, through, on or to the other side, into another state or place, change, the opposite side of,' or can even refer to something farther and allow us to experience new, in-between states. What does TRANS• mean to you? What words or associations does it conjure?" Pays: $10-$50. Check the announcement for details about the magazine and submission instructions by genre (it seems the deadline for poetry submissions has already passed, but fiction and essays are still welcome).

4) "ADDitude, the leading online community for parents and adults living with attention and learning disabilities, seeks an experienced online writer to reconfigure existing magazine content for its web site relaunch." Telecommuting is acceptable. Check the announcement here.

5) "PlanetJam, one of the leading providers of interactive content to radio stations, is looking for an experienced managing editor for 100 Hats, the online magazine for multi-tasking women." Pays: $750/month (job "will take 10 to 12 hours per week"). See the announcement here.

6) London-based Spread the Word is looking for a project manager for its Write Up Your Street writing competition. "Minimum of 25 days @ £130 per day, on a freelance basis." Information and application details here.

7) CHILD magazine is looking for a freelance factchecker. Details here (scroll down to the listing posted Feb. 13).

8) Always sad to see a publication fold. In this case, the Dana Literary Society's Online Journal is no longer accepting submissions (via Duotrope.com)

Friday Find

Another fab find from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism: During my Web wanderings this week, I found a guide to freelancing ("Where to Pitch & How") for a selection of New York-based publications. Most of the profiles tell you how much you can expect to be paid, too (don't get too excited--in most cases, you won't be able to pay too many bills with these checks!). Check it all out anyway here.

New Contest from Inside Higher Ed

Here's something especially for our practicing writers-who-teach, perfectly appropriate for this Valentine's week.

To celebrate the launch of its new "Dual Career Search" feature, Insider Higher Ed is sponsoring a contest: "Commuting for Love": "Readers are invited to submit stories of their challenging academic commutes--1,000 words or less. We'll post the best stories on Inside Higher Ed--and pick one couple to win a round-trip airfare between any two U.S. cities (up to $500)."

(And Insider Higher Ed "will send a box of chocolates to the first five academic couples who report that they found jobs in the same city using the Dual Career Search.")

More info on the contest--and the Dual Career Search--available here.

An Opinion on Opinions

I love this new piece at the Chronicle of Higher Education's Web site, which reads, in part:

Apparently, nowadays an opinion will trump a fact, a reasoned argument, an empirically verified observation -- even a treatise by an eminent scholar. An opinion is the great equalizer, and everyone has one. It silences all arguments, squelches all dialogue: That's your opinion. End of discussion.

According to Gary A. Olson, the author of "That's 'Your' Opinion," the prevalence of opinion (particularly ill- or not-at-all-grounded opinion) masquerading as valid argument is something to deplore. Why? Well, for one thing, it's anti-intellectual.

We seem to be witnessing the apotheosis of opinion, a trend that has grave consequences for all of us in higher education. A generation of students and others are training themselves not to become critical thinkers, not to search for evidence or support of an assertion, and not to hold themselves or others accountable for the assertions they make.

A major challenge for higher education in the years to come will be to ensure that logic, critical thinking, close reading, the scientific method, and the spirit of inquiry in general don't become lost arts -- lost to the imperative of opinion.

It's a major challenge for writing workshops, too, especially MFA workshops, which are (theoretically, at least), conducted on an advanced, graduate level. Theoretically, "logic, critical thinking, close reading," and so forth, actually matter in graduate-level discourse. Theoretically, you're on the right side if that's what you're emphasizing.

Unfortunately, even MFA workshops fall prey to the primacy of "opinion." I certainly saw that happen in my own experience as an MFA student.

I'll spare you the details. But too often (and, to be frank, not only in those MFA workshops) I've had to endure being told that I should value certain other people's ideas simply because they were their ideas. Never mind their accompanying lack of expertise, evidence, or simple logic/facts.

Lawrence Summers may have (had) his enemies, but I continue to endorse the view Harvard's former President expressed awhile back in The New York Times Magazine: "The idea that we should be open to all ideas [...] is very different from the supposition that all ideas are equally valid."

I'm guessing that Olson would agree, too.

(A real paradox I've observed is that those most confident in their opinions so often seem to be those least worthy of such self-assurance. I know a few quite well-read and knowledgeable people who hesitate to share their "opinions" because they still consider others far better-informed. [A memory returns as I write this: Fifteen years ago one professor faulted me for waiting until the very end of my senior honors thesis before "choosing to express an opinion." But what did my little opinion matter set against the words of the historians and journalists I was quoting throughout the text?] And yet, I've encountered probably just as many people who, while seeming to possess very limited knowledge about a particular subject, display no hesitation to push their views on others. Interesting, isn't it?)

Dana Goodyear on "The Moneyed Muse"

Poets (and other practicing writers): Don't miss Dana Goodyear's article in the new New Yorker, "The Moneyed Muse," subtitled "What can two hundred million dollars do for poetry?".

FYI for Newsletter Subscribers

Just a quick note to let our newsletter subscribers know that the latest version of our complimentary contest guide (a subscriber-only benefit) is now available for downloading (at the same old location--just log in and click "Files"). Enjoy it! (Not yet a subscriber? Our newsletter is free! Find out more here.)

Monday Morning Market Listings

Here's the newest batch of opportunities. Enjoy!

body & brain magazine, a national quarterly focusing on holistic health/yoga, is looking for freelance writers. "Our magazine is currently expanding and therefore we are hiring writers for the following depts.: food and nutrition, holistic health, alternative medicine, film and book reviews, science and brain research, sustainable and green living plus many other departments." (I went to the magazine's own site and downloaded the guidelines; payment seems to range from $50-$125 for short pieces [75-600 words] to $150-$400 for full stories.)

New science fiction contest (no entry fee) offers the overall winner paid publication in Jim Baen's Universe, free entry into the 2007 International Space Development Conference, an autographed copy of The Best of Jim Baen's Universe, a totebag, and a coffee mug. Deadline: April 7, 2007. More information about the James Patrick Baen Memorial Writing Contest available here. (And many thanks to the practicing writer who forwarded this information to me!)

StoryCorps is looking for a part-time temporary Associate Producer for its Griot Initiative. "The StoryCorps Griot Initiative is a one-year grassroots national tour that brings StoryCorps directly into African-American lives and communities across the nation. The Associate Producer will be responsible for cutting 24 segments for National Public Radio from StoryCorps Griot material." Pays: "$25K annualized; 25 hours per week position. This is a one-year position to begin on April 1, 2007." Applications are due by March 1, 2007. For more information/application instructions, click here. (My guess is that this job is based at the StoryCorps HQ in Brooklyn.)

Interested in pitching Boston Magazine? Find out more about its content/needs in this interview with Editor James Burnett.

Southern Adventure, a new magazine, covers "outdoor recreational activities as well as conservation and land use issues. Departments include Destinations and Reviews of gear, books, and indie/small label music." Pays: $60-$100/feature. More information here.

Montréal Magazine, an "online publication about the people, places and things that make the city unique," is looking for freelance writers. Compensation: "To be discussed." More information here.

Real Weddings Magazine (Canada) "is looking for submissions of op-ed articles relevant to engaged couples. At 1,000-1,200 words in length, these would be first-person narratives about some aspect of your wedding that stands out in memory and is story-worthy. We're looking for stories that are touching, thought-provoking, funny and that give readers pause for reflection of the meaning and significance of their wedding -- something that would make our readers laugh, cry or identify." Check the announcement here. Pays: $.35/word on publication (presumably in Canadian funds).

"Grandparents.com is creating a stable of regular writers to contribute in the areas of travel, intergenerational relationships, health, fun activities, events, wonderful toys, games, gear, and all things related to modern grandparenting. Right now we send two email newsletters per week, our full site will launch this spring." Pays: "competitive" rates. More information here.

Friday Find

Valentine's Day arrives again next week. In honor of the occasion let me give you a little Italian poetry (or Italian-American poetry, at least).

It's included in this news release that I discovered at the main City University of New York (CUNY) Web site yesterday (See how well I'm researching everything that goes on at my new university-of-employment?).

I was really pleased to discover that George Guida, who is an English professor at one of the CUNY colleges, was a finalist for the Bordighera Poetry Prize; Guida's debut collection, Low Italian: Poems, was recently published by Bordighera Press.

Read the release for more information about Guida, and for excerpts from the book.

Decisions, Decisions

Ever wonder what happens to your essay (or poem or short story) once you send it in to a literary magazine? Or wish you could be a fly on the wall in a multi-editor discussion of reasons to accept (or reject) a particular piece? Or need some perspective on what to do with a piece that has been rejected (and how to understand/interpret the rejection itself)? If so, click on over to this new post on the decision process on The Missouri Review's blog. At the very least, it will remind you how very subjective the editorial process can be. Some days, we sure do need to be reminded.

Web Tools

My new job is in the City University of New York (CUNY) Central Office, so I'm spending a lot of time right now becoming better acquainted with the University's many components, including the new Graduate School of Journalism. Exploring its Web site yesterday, I found a nifty set of Web Tools assembled. I thought I'd share this wealth with all of you!

Room with a View

I haven't taken any photographs yet in/of my new abode, but my sister thoughtfully brought her camera on her inaugural visit last week. Here's one perspective (there are only two windows, so...). I have to say I probably prefer the evening views, with what seems an infinite number of lights twinkling away in the city night.

Monday Morning Market Listings

Today's markets (and jobs), bright and early before I head off to my first day in my own new post.

Tin House is now reading for its general-themed Summer Reading issue. "As always, we are looking for inventive and engaging fiction, poetry, essays, and features....Our deadline to receive work is March 21. However, issues fill up quickly, so please don't wait until the deadline to submit." Pays: $50-$200+. Check the guidelines here.

Cup of Comfort volume seeks "personal stories for publication in an anthology for and about single mothers. We want slice-of-life stories that read like good fiction and both entertain and move readers. Any topic and any "voice" goes, as long as the author tells an authentic and compelling story. Stories can be poignant, humorous, or both, and must be original, positive, and true." Pays: $100/published piece; $500 for "grand prize" winner. Deadline: March 20, 2007. Read the updated announcement here. (NOTE: Practicing Writing previously announced this call; the deadline appears to have been extended.)

Have some expertise on California government and politics? Policy Today is looking for freelancers to write for the California edition of its magazine. "Articles range from 400-500 words on specific policy issues viewed through the lens of each issue's overarching theme. Articles may be assigned individually or for several at a time." Pays: $75-$100/article. Read the full job posting here.

Notes in the Margin, a free e-newsletter "for freelance writers and editors, and the folks who hire them," is currently accepting articles and reviews. Read Kristen King's post on the AbsoluteWrite.com discussion board, and follow the guidelines from there. Pays: $10-$15; accepts reprints ("Reprint payment is determined on an individual basis").

An online "extreme adventure" news site is looking for an American language editor "to polish International content...add catchy banners and occasionally do own, short stories." Pays: $20/hour (appears to be looking for writers to work two morning hours, M-F). Check announcement here.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is looking for a part-time Film Publications Writer/Coordinator. Pays: $17-$19/hour (14.5 hours/week). Check the full announcement at hireCulture.org

Another part-time opportunity, this one in Tracy, California: "Inside Magazines, publisher of San Joaquin Magazine, the premier lifestyle publication for the Central Valley, is in need of a qualified assistant magazine editor to help grow the company." Pays: $12.50/hour. Check the job posting here.

And still another part-time magazine job (Portland, Oregon): Bitch magazine, which has a tagline of "Feminist Response to Pop Culture," is looking for a Managing Editor. The magazine "is relocating to Portland from the San Francisco Bay Area in late February, and the Managing Editor will join a small, highly collaborative staff of four full-time and several part-time employees. The ideal candidate is someone who’s already familiar with the magazine and can bring their sharp-eyed and pop culture–savvy smarts to the position." Pays: $13/hour (job requires "roughly" 15 hours/week).Check details here. (Even if you don't want to apply for this particular job, you may want to check the magazine's Writers' Guidelines (payments range between $10-$100) and notes on upcoming issues/themes.)

Freelance science writer/reporter sought for The Infinite Mind, the weekly national public radio program "covering the art and science of the human mind." Seems to require a Cambridge, Massachusetts, location. Check the job posting here.

Attention, Alaska writers! The Rasmuson Foundation's individual artist awards programs (for Project Awards, Artist Fellowships, and Distinguished Artist) have an application deadline of March 1, 2007. No application fees indicated. More information/guidelines here.

Friday Find

There's a useful new resource online for those "who report on religion in the mainstream media": ReligionStylebook.org. So when you can't find what you're looking for in the AP Stylebook (or anywhere else), you might give this new guide (provided by the Religion Newswriters Association) a try.

Telling True Stories: An Interview with Wendy Call

(This interview originally appeared in The Practicing Writer, February-March 2007.)

TELLING TRUE STORIES: An Interview with Wendy Call
by Erika Dreifus

Many of our practicing writers have heard me mention the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism, which I've had the privilege to attend for the past two years. Now, I'm delighted to present an interview with Wendy Call, co-editor (with Mark Kramer) of Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, which is based on Conference sessions.

Wendy Call is a freelance writer and editor, currently writer-in-residence at Richard Hugo House, Seattle's literary center. Excerpts from her narrative nonfiction book-in-progress, No Word for Welcome, have won awards from the Blue Mountain Center, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Hedgebrook, and Wesleyan Writers Conference. Grants from Artist Trust, Institute of Current World Affairs, Oberlin College Alumni Association, and the Seattle CityArtist Program have supported the reporting, research, and writing of No Word for Welcome, about rural, southern Mexico.

Wendy's nonfiction has appeared in English, Spanish and French in more than 20 magazines and literary journals, including Blue Mesa Review, Chain, NACLA Report on the Americas, Revista: The Harvard Review of Latin America, and VIVA NY/The Daily News, as well as in several anthologies. Wendy became a full-time writer and editor in 2000, after devoting a decade to work for social change organizations in Seattle and Boston.

Recently Wendy responded to a series of questions from Practicing Writer editor, Erika Dreifus.

Erika Dreifus (ED): Wendy, how would you define "narrative nonfiction"? In your view, how does it overlap with (or differ from) "creative nonfiction"?

Wendy Call (WC): In the preface to Telling True Stories, my co-editor Mark Kramer and I sidestepped this question, which is nearly always asked. We wrote, "The genre of telling true stories goes by many names," then listed seven different terms - including "narrative nonfiction" and "creative nonfiction."

I don't think there are clear differences between the two, though writers who attach one or other label to their work seem to fall into slightly different categories. Narrative nonfiction writers tend to maintain allegiance to journalistic ethics - valuing factual accuracy above all else - and tend to write about subjects and people outside of their own lives and experience. Creative nonfiction writers tend to follow a slightly different path. Some come to literary nonfiction writing from poetry or fiction; their work tends to have a more fully developed first-person narrator.

Mark likes to tell his students, "Do whatever you want, just make sure you tell the reader what you are doing." I agree. If you are going to change subjects' names or collapse time or reorder events, and still label your work any variety of nonfiction, make sure your readers understand that.

ED: Telling True Stories is a guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. Please tell us a bit about the work of the Nieman Foundation.

WC: The Nieman Foundation's primary mission is to provide one-year, mid-career fellowships at Harvard University for journalists from all over the world. The history of the foundation is an interesting one; you can read about it at the Nieman Web site.

Telling True Stories is based on sessions offered at the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism, hosted annually by the Nieman Foundation from 2001 to 2006. (The next conference is scheduled for March 2008). Mark founded the conference at Boston University in the late 1990s and moved it to Harvard University in 2001.

ED: How did you become involved with the Nieman Foundation, and with this book project in particular?

WC: My connection to the Nieman Foundation is limited to the anthology; I'm a full-time freelancer. In early 2000 I transitioned from full-time grassroots organizing to full-time writing and editing. (I used to write in my spare time, now that's when I do my activist work.) I was preparing for a two-year fellowship in southern Mexico, to write a narrative nonfiction series about how rural, indigenous communities were adapting to the huge changes brought by economic globalization. I'd never taken a writing class before, and thought I should do that before heading off to Mexico. I attended a half-day National Writers Union workshop led by Mark Kramer, and then I signed up for a literary journalism graduate course he taught at Boston University. It took two full years reporting and writing in southern Mexico for me to understand what Mark had tried to teach us about immersion journalism. He read what I wrote, and after I returned to the United States, he approached me with the idea of crafting an anthology from the workshops and lectures offered at his Narrative Journalism Conference. Four years later, Telling True Stories has finally come into the world.

ED: I can't imagine any reader going through this book and not learning a number of valuable lessons for his/her writing. I'm thinking, for my own purposes, of David Halberstam's revelation of "the best question a reporter can ask a source" (it's "Who else should I see?"). I'm thinking of Bruce DeSilva's points on endings. I'm thinking of Adam Hochschild's emphasis on "travel [writing] as discovery" and his suggestions to broaden newspaper travel coverage. Please tell us about some lessons you may have learned from the contributors to this book in the process of working on it.

WC: In a sense, every lesson in Telling True Stories is a favorite of mine, because Mark and I culled the 95 pieces in the anthology from more than 350 conference sessions. I edited 600,000 transcribed words down to 110,000 published ones.

Some of the lessons I found most stimulating are those from other fields of inquiry:

--Tom French suggests that narrative writers read graphic novels to understand story sequence, giving the excellent advice: "To learn about sequencing, study jokes." (p. 143)

--Malcolm Gladwell describes how psychologists distinguish between samples and signatures - using this distinction to show that watching a subject's behavior might be instructive, and might not. (p. 74)

--Alma Guillermoprieto, who began her career as a dancer, explains, "While out reporting, I stage a little theater in my mind. Before choreographers begin rehearsals, they choose a group of dancers. By the end of the first rehearsal, one dancer will stand out. As a reporter, I do the same sort of casting. By the end of the first week I have my leading cast selected." (p. 157)

--Poet-photographer Emily Hiestand offers the pointed advice: Take an art class. (p. 200)

--Historian Jill Lepore warns against the pitfall of presentism - one that often entraps journalists and other nonfiction writers. (p. 86)

--Filmmaker Stanley Nelson shows the importance of fostering the reader's sense of discovery. (p. 130)

I even learned a few "life" lessons from this book. My favorite is the "seven-of-ten rule" from Jacqui Banaszynski, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, editor, and professor. Jacqui says: "Of the ten things you most want from a boss, life partner, job, or house, you will get seven if you are smart and lucky, and work at it. Don't lament the missing three, because here's the deal: You can change your job or your partner or your house to get the other three things, but you still won't have more than seven." (p. 223)

ED: The book includes an extensive list of "Suggested Readings." There's also a (much shorter) list of "Web Sites and Internet Resources." Please tell us about a few readings and/or online resources you've found to be most useful with your own work, and how they've been helpful to you.

WC: The "Suggested Readings" is heavily slanted toward the writers that have most inspired me. It's not an accident that the list of literary works is three times as long as the one of books about craft and theory. Even as the co-editor of a craft anthology, I must admit that I find how-to books far less instructive than great literature. Recently, reading the work of Sandra Cisneros, Adam Hochschild, and Michael Ondaatje has helped me solve problems in my own writing.

The Nieman Conference Web site has links to the writing of nearly all 52 volume contributors. Read their work! (From www.nieman.harvard.edu, go to the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, then the speakers' biographies under "Narrative Conferences.")

As much as I love brick-and-mortar libraries, the Web is an increasingly good place for great writing. There are some wonderful online magazines. Two that inspire me to go out into the world and write about it are Terrain: A Journal of Built and Natural Environments and (no longer updated, but excellent) SixBillion.

For general writing resources, Practicing Writer's list of resource links is a great place to start!

ED: Thanks, Wendy! Anything else you'd like to share?

WC: We will be posting information on how writers, editors, writing coaches, and professors use Telling True Stories at Nieman's Narrative Digest. Check www.narrativedigest.org for updates. We are planning readings with contributors in Cambridge and Seattle. Anyone interested in hosting another reading should let me (wendycall[at]yahoo[dot]com) know.

For any readers in the Seattle area: This spring, I'll be teaching creative writing classes based on Telling True Stories at Seattle Central Community College and Richard Hugo House as well as giving several readings from my own writing. Drop me a line if you would like to know more.

Telling True Stories: A Writers' Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University
Edited by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call
Plume, 317 pages.
Paper, $15.00 ($18.50 CAN)

Copyright (c) 2007 Erika Dreifus