The Big Lie. Its what keeps many would-be writers away from their computers and sends many first-time writers away from their screens in despair. What is the big lie? The idea that writing cant be taught. The author debunks this idea in... Read More

“In the region of the unknown, Africa is absolute.” Since Victor Hugo made this comment in the 1880s, thousands of books have shed light on the Dark Continent. Most authors, including the popular recent trio of Alan Moorehead,... Read More

“I sometimes think only autobiography is literature,” Virginia Woolf wrote. While some may question whether memoirs qualify as great art, they are certainly popular these days. In her new book, memoirist Sue William Silverman, author... Read More

As individual as a fingerprint and more revealing than a pastoral confession handwriting is a window to the psyche that cannot be covered over. The author writes “…handwriting will tend to be more reliable revealing a person’s... Read More

By day poets masquerade as mere mortals: insurance clerks, teachers, librarians. But by night they prowl like panthers, seizing words on the run and crunching raw emotion. —Unattributed, The Times, 4 September 2006. Poetry: What is it?... Read More

It’s a truism that unsuccessful writers are more likely than successful ones to produce writer’s handbooks. Although failure may be more instructive than success, a high percentage of books such as these reside in the broader... Read More

Each year, 195,000 book titles make it into print. Authors are often disheartened when they discover the publicity machine they imagined, one that takes their title from obscurity to bestseller seemingly overnight, fails to materialize.... Read More

Some places have a life of their own, places that deeply touch people, becoming a piece of what defines them. For this author, San Francisco is such a place. His book is no travel guide, nor could it even be termed a travel book; it is a... Read More