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Cover art of George Plimpton's The Writer's Chapbook

Why I Reread The Writer’s Chapbook

I love The Writer’s Chapbook. Compiled by the late, great George Plimpton from the Paris Review’s Writers at Work series, this volume is a collection of wisdom from 20th Century writers about anything and everything literary, from first efforts to children’s books, from sex to writers’ colonies (which often go hand-in-hand).  The section on technique…

Cover art for Ploughshares edition edited by Lorrie Moore

Reflections on Lorrie Moore

We’re pleased to present the second reader review following our weekly Free Ploughshares contest. Today, reader Lynette D’Amico will be looking at our Fall 1998 issue, guest edited by Lorrie Moore. Ploughshares Fall 1998 Fiction Issue, guest-edited by Lorrie Moore.Featuring work by Mona Simpson, Charles Baxter, and Gish Jen.247 pages.$10.95.   Above Ground In 1998…

A stone engraving of Geoffrey Chaucer's head surrounded by a wreath

Better Late

According to my medievalist spouse, Geoffrey Chaucer entered into the prime of his literary career, which has spanned the intervening five centuries, around the age of 40.  Presumably he was writing some things before that, and we can quibble about whether to count as major The Book of the Duchess (medievalist spouse:  “are you mad? …

Cover art for Daniel Orozco's Orientation

Orientation

Orientation Daniel Orozco Faber & Faber, May 2011 176 pages $23.00 In The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work,) a book of essays and photos, Alain de Botton attempts an “exploration of the joys and perils of the modern workplace, beautifully evoking what other people get up to all day—and night—to make the frenzied contemporary world…

Cover art of Dilruba Ahmed's Dhaka Dust

Dhaka Dust

Dhaka Dust Dilruba Ahmed Graywolf Press, June 2011 88 pages $15.00 “Can’t occupy the same space at the same time,” begins the title poem of Dhaka Dust, Dilruba Ahmed’s impressive debut collection. And yet Ahmed’s work, situated across the Midwestern United States, Bangladesh, and Europe, often occupies more than one space at the same time;…

A closeup photograph of dew drops on a green leaf.

Occupational Hazard

I started writing “Occupational Hazard” eight  years ago, out at the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts. I had a bedroom/studio in an old house, former officer’s quarters, and I found myself sleepy all the time. It was so quiet, there—a break from my Tenderloin apartment in the city—and it was much easier to take…