One Friday afternoon this past May, I received an email from Martha Collins. She asked me to consider a manuscript...
Views from the Loft
Founded nearly four decades ago by a group of young writers, the Loft has become our nation’s largest independent literary center. The dream animating its inception—to build a community of writers and readers—has borne remarkable fruit, and today the Loft’s community extends from its home in Minneapolis to writers and readers around the world.
Gathering the collected wisdom of that community—from practical tips and suggestions to ruminations on the mystery of the writing process—this invaluable book provides writers everywhere with the tools and inspiration they need to thrive. Invigorating, insightful, and illuminating throughout, this portable workshop is essential for writers of all levels.
Views from the Loft collects more than sixty essays, including those from luminaries including: Grace Paley on the writer’s responsibility in the world. Rick Bass on keeping your schedule open for the muse. Marilyn Chin on grandfathers, cowlicks, and shoe glue in first drafts of poems. Lewis Hyde on embracing the mythology of wholeness in nonfiction. Ted Kooser on fostering a poetic life. And Susan Straight on writing through clogged toilets, broken windows, and the other charms of single-motherhood.
ISBN:
978-1-57131-323-2 Publish Date:
07/29/2010
Pages:
368
Size:
5.5 × 8.5 × 0.94 in
Weight:
16.7 oz
Like this book? Sign up for occasional updates
Praise and Prizes
“Views from the Loft is packed with inspirational, useful, and thought-provoking essays on the craft of writing by some of the best writers around.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Views from the Loft is a local collection of essays that gets inside the minds and hearts of authors and poets alike. The all-star cast of writers, including Kate DiCamillo and Mark Doty, shares the trials and tribulations that paved the way to successful careers. Some passages are clinical, while others are inspirational, but each will motivate you to pick up a pen and write.”
MSP Magazine
“The life of a writer, like the Loft, is always a work in progress, and Views from the Loft will aid you as you grow toward your next chapter. . . . Whether you write poetry, memoir, or fiction, you’ll appreciate the energy of the distinct voices present here.”
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“The volume’s organization—separated into the categories of teaching, writing, critique, publication and writing for life—is meant to emulate the Loft’s workshop model, to provide burgeoning writers with the ‘tools and inspiration they need to thrive.’ Thrive? That’s a tall order. But delight in rummaging around in the advice, the grumbling, the erudition offered in these pages? For sure.”
The Oregonian
“Serious readers will enjoy getting an inside look at the processes and practices that help fill the empty page.”
Publishers Weekly
You Might Enjoy
Based on this book, we recommend you try…
Originally published as the state marked its sesquicentennial in 2008, this anthology suggests what residents of the state have known for some time: Minnesota has changed enormously since 1858. Rich, compelling, and often surprising, these pieces...
The Fulbright Triptych is widely considered a masterpiece of contemporary art: a striking family tableau that has quietly inspired, exhorted, and challenged its viewers for years. This collection of essays directly reflects the painting’...
Ojibwe tradition calls for fathers to walk their children through the world, sharing the ancient understanding “that we are all, animate and inanimate alike, living on the one pure breath with which the Creator gave life to the Universe.” In this...
In 2012, Sarah Ruhl was a distinguished author and playwright, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Max Ritvo was an exuberant, opinionated, and highly gifted poet in remission from pediatric cancer. Studded with poems and songs, their...
As a small boy in remote Alberta, the author was immersed in his Cree family’s history, passed down in the stories of his mother, Bertha. But after a series of tragic losses, Bertha turned wild and unstable, and their home life became chaotic....