From the New York Times bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Let the Great World Spin and Transatlantic comes a passionate and practical book of advice, as essential for budding writers as Stephen King's On Writing
In January 2016, Colum McCann began giving weekly advice to budding writers on his blog - short, impassioned pieces that resonate and provoke, encourage and inspire. Comprising fifty-two such missives, Letters to a Young Writer addresses the mental, professional, artistic and philosophical concerns that challenge and sometimes torment an author.
Advising on practical matters such as finding an agent, the pros and cons of creative writing degrees and handling bad reviews, McCann also celebrates the moral need that truthful writing fulfills, for- 'the best writing makes us glad that we are - however briefly - alive.' Stressing the importance of both failure and self-belief, he meditates on the trials of the writer's life- fear of the white page, rejection and professional envy. From first lines to final pages, he discusses structure and narrative technique, urging writers to experiment with perspective and to 'step out of your skin.'
Written in emphatic and empathetic prose, pragmatic and profound, Letters to a Young Writer will stand alongside books like Stephen King's On Writing, as a new bible essential to any author's journey. Both a helpful guide and a heartfelt love-song to the adventure of writing, it is a lyrical, deeply personal work from one of our greatest literary voices.
