Synopses & Reviews
Wallace Stegner founded the acclaimed Stanford Writing Program-a program whose alumni include such literary luminaries as Larry McMurtry, Robert Stone, and Raymond Carver. Here Lynn Stegner brings together eight of Stegner's previously uncollected essays-including four never-before-published pieces -on writing fiction and teaching creative writing. In this unique collection he addresses every aspect of fiction writing-from the writer's vision to his or her audience, from the use of symbolism to swear words, from the mystery of the creative process to the recognizable truth it seeks finally to reveal. His insights will benefit anyone interested in writing fiction or exploring ideas about fiction's role in the broader culture.
Review
Graceful, generous, passionate, and prolific that was the late writer Wallace Stegner, who taught many people what it meant to care deeply about writing and wilderness and honesty." Barry Lopez
Review
"Stegner (191393) is not especially concerned here with how to write but rather with what to get at when writing: 'an artifact, something shaped and created and capable of communicating whatever wisdom it has arrived at.'...You write what you are, asserts Stegner, one of those truths no artist escapes." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Though there is practical advice here, these pieces don't provide blueprints for building a work of fiction but rather a shopping list of the tools a good writer needs in her toolbox: patience, humility, and character. It's all stated so epigrammatically that readers who underline are advised to start with a fresh pen. What lingers is a refreshingly classic (to call it old-fashioned would imply we don't need it) sense of the writer as a well-rounded individual." Keir Graff, Booklist
About the Author
Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) was the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the National Book Award-winning The Spectator Bird and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angle of Repose. He received the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times for his lifetime literary achievement.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Fiction: A Lens on Life
Creative Writing
On the Teaching of Creative Writing
To a Young Writer
Goodbye to All T__t!
The Writer's Audience
A Note on Technique
"Goin' to Town": An Object Lesson