A thought on Jonah Lehrer’s new book, redemption, and writing
So Jonah Lehrer has a new book coming out, and there’s some snark around it. Lehrer has admitted that he cut corners, self-plagiarized, and made stuff up, but lots
On the experience of shopping a book proposal
Following my piece on agents and why you want one, a brief note on shopping a proposal. Rejection is inevitable. You know those stories about how Catcher in
Why you, first-time author, need a literary agent
I had a long call today with a friend who’s just finished a book and wanted some advice about literary agents. I’ve gotten this question a couple times,
Journeyman + 20
Twenty years ago I published an essay on the psychological and practical aspects of leaving academia. I had recently moved from U.C. Davis to Chicago and a job at Encyclopedia
Nom nom Om: The rise of bite-sized wisdom
"We each have two lives,” a wise person once said, “and the second begins when we realise we have only one.” I can’t tell you which wise person,
Where I Write: Authors show that all writing spaces are pretty similar
This evening while trying to figure out what in the world Periscope is and whether I should use it to promote REST, I came across Where I Write
“by the end its writer feels both entitled to a place in its field and unfit for any other type of work”
Rebecca Schuman writes in Slate about UC Irvine’s new program to get graduate students out in five years, and sees an important benefit: a climb down from the idea of
In London
I’m in London for a few days, doing some research for Rest. We’re staying at the Hotel Russell, which overlooks Russell Square in Bloomsbury. I’ve passed by it
A brief rant in favor of literary agents, or at least my agent
In the New Republic Stephen Akey has a piece complaining about how literary agents choose who to represent. "Everyone’s trying to make a buck and literary agencies can
“words so quickly dressed up in the costume of print”
Lewis Lapham on how he writes: I didn’t enlist the help of a computer because words so quickly dressed up in the costume of print can pretend to