Please join MWPA and PRINT: A Bookstore for a conversation between Debra Spark and Bonnie Friedman on the art and craft of writing. Spark’s And Then Something Happened: Essays on Fiction Writing was published in August, and Friedman’s national bestseller Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer's Life was re-released earlier this summer. Spark’s book tackles the thorniest aspects of literary fiction craft: plot, humor, research, scope, and more in nuanced essays, full of examples, anecdotes, and analysis of writers' approaches to crafting stories and novels. Friedman’s book has been called one of the “essential books for writing” by the Center for Fiction and one of the “best books for writers” by Poets & Writers.
To RSVP and receive the Zoom link for this online conversation and to order copies of the books, please visit PRINT: A Bookstore.
Debra Spark is the author of five books of fiction, including Unknown Caller, The Pretty Girl, and Good for the Jews. Other books include Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing and the recently reissued novel Coconuts for the Saint. A graduate of Yale and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she is a professor at Colby College and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Spark lives with her husband and son in North Yarmouth, Maine.
Bonnie Friedman is the author of the widely anthologized Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer’s Life. She is also the author of The Thief of Happiness: The Story of an Extraordinary Psychotherapy and Surrendering Oz: A Life in Essays. Her work has appeared in The Best American Movie Writing, The Best Buddhist Writing, The Best Writing on Writing, the Best Spiritual Writing, and The Best of O., the Oprah Magazine. She teaches creative writing at the University of North Texas.