Writers on Writing: More Collected Essays from the New York Times Volume 2, 2003
Published in 2003, this volume collects 46 essays by writers both famous and obscure who responded to an invitation from the New York Times to write about their writing. The results are fascinating and in their variety, they illustrate how diverse and universal is the impulse to get our thoughts, feelings, and stories down on paper. A fine introduction by Jane Smiley serves as a good overview of the volume: “a collection of temptations yielded to, a collection of secrets divulged in spite of what might happen….They were asked to give something away that perhaps they had never given away before, some item of craft of privacy or self-doubt to be read over breakfast and digested along with the bagels and bad news.” From Diane Ackermann and Margaret Atwood to Donald Westlake and Edmund White, these are delicious and delightful glimpses into the writer’s world. I highly recommend dipping into this book for anyone who loves to read or write or who even contemplates those wonderful immersions.
