Writers and Writings

19. To Read Like a Saint | Talking about spiritual reading with Jessica Hooten Wilson

She calls it reading iconically. Which is to say, Jessica Hooten Wilson approaches literature like an icon, an object that itself can be beautiful but points toward something else. That’s what she writes about in The Scandal of Holiness, it’s really what she’s been writing about for years, and that’s what we talked about for today’s conversation.

18. Yes, You Can Live More than One Life | Talking about the reading lives we live with Arnold Weinstein

From the introduction of his new book: “We enter the bookstore, see all the books arrayed there, and think: so many books, so little time; but the truth goes the other way: books do not take time, they give time. They enable us to see the dimensions of life, a gift and a vision that are unavailable to us as we live day to day.” And that’s what we’re talking about today.

17. A Most Iconic Writing Tool | Talking about a the life and times of the typewriter with Martyn Lyons

Maybe, when you fantasize about your writing life, you picture a quill pen and scrolling parchment. But probably not. More than likely, you think about the machine that still stars in almost every novel and film about writers: the typewriter. In a new book, historian Martyn Lyons looks at the relatively short life of the typewriter and how its most famous users approached their work on the famed machines.

16. Read a Lot, Work Hard | Talking about reading and writing with Karen Swallow Prior

Romanticism gave the writing world its share of luminaries. Poe, Dickinson, Wadsworth. But despite its good reads, the movement also left us some poor assumptions about the nature of writing itself. You know, ideas about those uncontrollable moods of inspiration that end in a great novel. The reality of writing is a lot more, well, unromantic. And simpler.

15. The Point of Magazine Making | Talking about editing and magazines (and editing magazines) with The Point’s Jon Baskin

I like them. I work on them, and I read them. Because there’s a certain magic to the way a magazine is more than just words or just pictures. It’s not just an aesthetic: a magazine can host a whole conversation, bringing ideas big and small, conflicting and complementary into view. That’s what good magazines do. Good magazines like The Point. But it’s not easy. Just ask the magazine’s founding editor.