cover image CONVERSATIONS WITH AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS

CONVERSATIONS WITH AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS

Sarah Anne Johnson, . . Univ. Press of New England, $55 (248pp) ISBN 978-1-58465-348-6

As the ever-expanding writers-on-writing genre demonstrates, writers are often remarkably wise and generous instructors. Here, Johnson, a fiction writer herself and program coordinator of the YMCA National Writer's Voice program, interviews 17 female scribes to create 17 miniature instruction books on craft. Elizabeth McCracken, Aimee Bender, Lois-Ann Yamanaka and others recount their tussles with blank pages, time management and flat characters. Asking the writers to discuss elements of their books, Johnson also delves into the more mysterious regions of the creative process (how you know when your novel is finished, for instance). The interviews are not always tightly or even logically organized, and Johnson routinely traces over the same ground, but the questions she poses provoke thoughtful responses from her subjects, who have plenty of insight into the work they do. We learn that, other than developing good listening skills, short story writer Amy Bloom (A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You ) sees no connection between her work as a therapist and her writing (writing, unlike being a therapist, "is a narcissistic event"). Novelist Sena Jeter Naslund (Ahab's Wife ) candidly reveals that she struggled with plot, character and theme. Ann Patchett (Bel Canto ) discusses her self-instructive practice of "plagiarizing" her favorite authors. Johnson was right to select so many subjects who teach in MFA programs: their enthusiasm for language and faith in the awesome power of revision will be encouraging to any writer at any stage of her career. B&w photos. (Jan. 30)