writers – News Stories About writers - Page 4

Oprah Picks
Short Story
Collection
for Book Club

Sep 19, 2009 8:15 AM CDT

Oprah Picks Short Story Collection for Book Club

Nigerian author writes about African children

(Newser) - Oprah Winfrey has blessed the book world's eternal underdog: the short story. Publishing's surest hitmaker yesterday picked Uwem Akpan's debut collection, Say You're One Of Them, guaranteeing sales generally unthinkable for short stories beyond works by Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever and other giants of the art form. Akpan, 38, is...

Boozing Author/Mom
Hits the Wagon

Aug 16, 2009 1:07 PM CDT

Boozing Author/Mom Hits the Wagon

(Newser) - Stefanie Wilder-Taylor made a name for herself penning light-hearted accounts of life as a hard-drinking mom, so her blog readers were shocked when she announced that she was laying off the sauce, the New York Times reports. Drinking-while-parenting “was a way to express that we’re still fun people,...

Behind Mad Men Are...Women

Aug 7, 2009 2:21 PM CDT

Behind Mad Men Are...Women

Women directed five of this season's 13 episodes

(Newser) - The misogynists who populate Mad Men's character ranks might make you think otherwise, but seven of the show's nine writers are women—a rarity in Hollywood, where 80% of primetime programs in 2007-08 had no female writers. “A lot of people think women can only do women shows,”...

LBJ Biographer
Aims for Eternity

glossies

Feb 8, 2009 6:56 PM CST

LBJ Biographer Aims for Eternity

Tireless writer published average of one book every ten years

(Newser) - Lyndon Johnson's biographer takes his work seriously—so much so, he didn't cover LBJ's presidency for 30 years, Newsweek reports. Rising from the tabloid world in the 1960s, Robert Caro first wrote a painstaking biography of New York mogul Robert Moses. Next came a volume on LBJ's youth; Caro even...

One Month, 50K Words: Writers Race to Finish Novels

Nov 27, 2008 9:53 AM CST

One Month, 50K Words: Writers Race to Finish Novels

National Novel Writing Month gives creative types an unrelenting deadline

(Newser) - Aspiring novelists are packing coffee shops in the Twin Cities and elsewhere as the frenzy of National Novel Writing Month heats up, Minnesota Public Radio reports. Founded roughly a decade ago, “Nanowrimo” challenges writers to conquer procrastination and get 50,000 words down during November. The emphasis, say the...

To Blurb or Not to Blurb

OPINION

Sep 24, 2008 3:40 PM CDT

To Blurb or Not to Blurb

William Leith defends endorsements

(Newser) - Despite a reputation for being over the top, book blurbs are more meaningful than not, writes William Leith in the Guardian. The blurber, as a rule, cannot expect endorsement in return, but he "is flattered to be asked, and wants to score a tiny ad for himself on the...