Book description
A long-awaited new book on personal writing from Phillip Lopate—celebrated essayist, the director of Columbia University’s nonfiction program, and editor of The Art of the Personal Essay.
Distinguished author Phillip Lopate, editor of the celebrated anthology The Art of the Personal Essay, is universally acclaimed as “one of our best…
Why read it?
2 authors picked To Show and to Tell as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
No frills, this book. Just good stuff. Chapters on the state of nonfiction today and on the ways to end an essay. Essential talk about “the ethics of writing about others” and “the necessity of turning oneself into a character.” Thoughts on the lyric essay and on research as it applies to nonfiction. Lopate blazed many a trail for teachers and writers of nonfiction. He is perennially relevant.
From Beth's list on The best books for truth wranglers.
Phillip Lopate is widely recognized as the national champion of the personal essay. He published an anthology in 1994 that’s credited with reviving respect for the form and has written several acclaimed essay collections himself. He’s a serious scholar and an irreverent artist, and that winning mix comes through in this set of brief, engaging, insightful pieces on the nature and craft of creative nonfiction. New memoirists are often encouraged to make their writing rich in descriptive detail and scenes, and steer away from too much philosophizing: as William Gass once put it, treating ideas “like a cockroach in the…
From Helena's list on The best books to read if you're thinking of writing a memoir.
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