Poets & Writers

The Time Is Now

Suggested Reading: Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different (Grand Central Publishing, January 2020) by Chuck Palahniuk

Best-selling novelist Chuck Palahniuk takes readers behind the scenes of the writing life in this blend of memoir and guidebook filled with practical advice, anecdotes, and the kind of insights readers might expect from the author of , , and . In a chapter titled “Establishing Your Authority,” for example, he writes: “To create a story in which the reader never thinks to criticize the characters, kill the mother or father before the first page.” At its heart is a tribute to those who taught Palahniuk himself, including novelist Tom Spanbauer, whose unconventional writing workshop in Portland, Oregon, the author credits with having provided an essential space to improve his writing.

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EDITOR’S Note
WHEN I WAS TEN YEARS OLD I LEARNED A HARD LESSON ABOUT trust—and the value of hard work and the power of humility, but mostly trust—that has endured over the years, solidifying into a kind of fence post in the center of my mind that I’ve held on to d

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