“A good story, just like a good sentence, does more than one job at once. That's what literature is: a story that does more than tell a story, a story that manages to reflect in some way the multilayered texture of life itself.” WayDoeStoriesJobsLiteratureSentencesManageTextureGood Story Author:Karen Thompson Walker
“A story demanded to be written, and that is why I have not answered your letter before: a wrong-headed story, that would come blundering like a moth on my window, and stare in with small red eyes, and I the last writer in the world to manage such a subject. One should have more self-control. One should be able to say, Go away. You have come to the wrong inkstand, there is nothing for you here. But I am so weakminded that I cannot even say, Come next week.” WorldShouldSelfStoriesEyeAbleLastsNextWrittenWeekSubjectsRedWindowLettersShould HaveManageStaringGoing AwaySelf ControlNext WeekMothsRed Eye Book:Letters Source: Letters
“The world of counterterrorism is like that old jigsaw puzzle in the back of the closet: Its many missing pieces and extra parts jumbled in from other puzzles make it almost impossible to assemble. But in Ghost, Fred Burton manages to join together enough pieces to give us a discerning look at that world. This is a story, told in human terms, that will help make sense of the great puzzle of our times.” WorldGivingHumansLooksEnoughHelpingStoriesTogetherTermPiecesImpossibleMissingGhostManageMake SenseOur TimeExtrasClosetsPuzzlesDiscerningJigsawJigsaw PuzzlesMissing Piece Author:Eric L. Haney
“The novella is at once the most elegant and demanding form: a writer must balance the looseness of a novel with the concision of a short story, a feat that only the bravest and most talented of us can manage. In Brazil, Jesse Lee Kercheval proves, yet again, that she is exactly the right writer for the job. A wild American picaresque, Brazil snaps along briskly, yet feels full-fleshed, and brims with a sly wit and grace.” FeelsStoriesJobsFormNovelGraceBalanceProveWitManageShort StoryElegantSnapsBrazilFeatsSlyLoosenessPicaresque Author:Lauren Groff