Grief and Reading

The New York Times Book Review published my essay on reading–or, rather, on ceasing to read–as my parents became increasingly ill and then passed away in 2014. … Read more

New Page After Page Workshops July 25-26, 2015

Offered in a beautiful apartment in Greenwich Village, with inspiring views of the city, our workshops are productive, focused, and lively. We’re writers (15+ books between us). And we’re passionate, committed teachers, eager to pass along what we’ve learned (combined, 40+ years of writing, editing, publishing, and teaching). Our co-taught classes are intimate and personal. During… … Read more

A private workshop intensive in NYC: Summer 2014

FLASH FICTION & MICRO-MEMOIR: a one-day writing intensive Heather Sellers and Dylan Landis, Instructors Saturday, July 26, 10 am – 5 pm Greenwich Village, New York Flash fiction and micro-memoir are powerful, shapely narratives—in 750 words or fewer. In a workshop with intensive one-on-one feedback, hone your ability to compress, to focus, and to write… … Read more

Private Workshop Intensives in NYC, Spring 2014

I. CREATIVE FOCUS: A one-day intensive for memoir and fiction writers waitlisted! Saturday May 10, 2014 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. in a private Greenwich Village home $300

Improve the quality and depth of your work by learning how to practice creative focus.  Discover how writers harness the power of the unconscious and

… … Read more

Throwing stones

This post appeared on Andrew’s Book Club during Short Story Month–May, 2011. I’m reposting (with revision) in June because that’s how slowly this blog moves.

FIRST get your character up a tree. Then throw stones at him.

Who said that first? I’ve been repeating it for years. I’d tattoo it up one arm… … Read more

Love Medicine: some lessons on linked stories

I wrote my own book of linked stories by accident. It started with one story about a girl named Leah, age 11. It was my first short story and took four months to write (not enough time, as it turned out), and took place in the basement of her building in New York City. When… … Read more

People in trouble

My friend Natalie Baszile and I are studying Away, a novel of such narrative thrust that only on reread, pen in one hand and phone in the other, are we starting to understand how complex it is, how many things Amy Bloom is doing at once. We’re not going at this systematically, just passionately. Natalie… … Read more

sainted, salient, saliva, sallied, sally

Why am I intoxicated today by a 17-page alphabetized list titled “Words That Should Not Be Used in Fiction, a Selection” (and is exactly what it sounds like)?
L Label, labia, labile, labored, laconic, lair, lambent, lame, language, lapel, lapels, largely, largess, lash, lashed, latter, laud…
Oh, stop nodding off. Could it be that the… … Read more

Risks and excuses (and more dog therapy)

This is what I know about myself: the safest thing I can do is take a risk, while the riskiest thing for me is to play it safe.
–from Poet Mom, the blog of poet January Gill O’Neil, author of Underlife Perversely, when I am several months into writing a story, or several years into… … Read more