The Millions Interview

Everything is Political: An Interview with Ben Fountain

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I felt like I had to earn the right to write this book, and the only way I could do that was by working very hard to imagine myself into the soldier's experience, and hopefully write it correctly.
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In Person

If It’s Free, Take It: 2012 World Book Night

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It was going to be just me, a box of books, and Pico Boulevard. I was kind of scared.
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The Millions Interview

Paradise Regained: An Interview with Lauren Groff

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I am in love with the gorgeous, elastic, leaping human brain that shuffles and connects disparate pieces of the world into a coherent story.
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Ask the Writing Teacher

Ask the Writing Teacher: The MFA Debate

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If you decide not to apply to MFA programs, it can't be because you fear getting rejected.
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Essays

Finding Inspiration: A Homework Assignment

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A novel-in-progress must have its aesthetic seductions (the shifting perspective, maybe, or the challenge of covering fifty years in ten pages, or the delight of a brilliant but unlikeable narrator), as well as some je ne sais quoi magic. You must remain inspired. How else to justify the slog?
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Lists

Man-Eaters and Murderers: Vile Women in Fiction

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True villains are a hoot, everyone knows that.
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Year in Reading

A Year in Reading: Edan Lepucki

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I present to you two writers of fiction that rearranged my brain, origamied my heart into a better heart: a bigger and stranger and certainly weirder one, more equipped to face life. Oh, life! I haven't slept in ages!
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Lists Notable Articles The Future of the Book

Reasons Not to Self-Publish in 2011-2012: A List

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You see, Reader, I still don't plan on self-publishing my first novel, though I don't deny the positive aspects of that choice.
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The Future of the Book

Do it Yourself: Self-Published Authors Take Matters Into Their Own Hands

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Self-publishing won't replace traditional publishing, but it might supplement and influence it.
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The Millions Interview

A Love of Books: An Independent Bookseller is Born

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All along I said I wanted a community-focused bookstore, and that has really come to fruition so much sooner than I’d expected. I think the bonds with the community are going to just get stronger the longer we’re here.
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Curiosities

Nouvella Press Launches First Author

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Staff Picks

Staff Pick: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

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Let me get this out of the way: I hate running. I never enjoyed it: it hurt, it was boring, and I always worried about getting a sunburn.
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Essays Notable Articles

Shutting the Drawer: What Happens When a Book Doesn’t Sell?

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The truth is, my novel isn't selling, and it probably won't. There, I've said it. Eventually, a writer must accept rejection, accept the death of her first true darling, and move on. Can I face that sobering reality? Can I put my first book into the drawer, and shut it?
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Essays

Following the Moon: Plot and the Novels of Tana French

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Beyond the world of storytelling, plot is defined as a secret scheme to reach a specific end. Or it's a parcel of land. Or it means to mark a graph, chart, or map: the plotting shows us what has changed; our ship is headed this way. To a writer (me) interested in (obsessed with?) plot-making, all of these are significant definitions.
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The Millions Interview

The Millions Interview: Kate Christensen

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"If I do know some of men’s innermost secrets, it’s only because I share them. Men can be curmudgeons, horndogs, misanthropes, selfish, rebellious, crafty, mischievous, and so forth and still be loved – boys will be boys, their foibles and faults can be charming and funny -- but girls are another story entirely."
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Essays

Lighting the Way: On Mentoring and Being Mentored

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I am thankful for each of my mentors and what they've offered me at different points in my life as a writer. I don't want to imagine what I might not have attempted, creatively and professionally, were it not for their support and enthusiasm, their benevolent shadows.
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Lists

The Perils of Reading Pregnant

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People's protective urges extend beyond the body of the mother-to-be, and into her reading life. If literature is clogged with unhappy marriages, it's certainly also darkened with dead babies and the complex melancholy of mothers.
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Curiosities

McSweeney’s Issue Release Party

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