On January 1, 1984, Robert “Peanut” Griffin, a petty criminal on trial for murder, broke out of a Mississippi courthouse jail and, during a standoff between him and my father on the courthouse roof, threatened to kill my pregnant mother, my unborn sister, and me, two years old at the time.

Country of Under is my first published book, but the first book I worked on, in different forms for seven years, was a memoir. That memoir revolved around my relationship with my father, a pilot who became a quadriplegic in an accident when I was ten, a year after my parents divorced, and his years…

Confession: I’ve never played an instrument. Was never held hostage by a purse-lipped piano tyrant. Never regaled the quad with the thick-skulled tabs of “Smoke on the Water” or “You Really Got Me.” Never even had the devilish pleasure of driving my parents insane with atonal bleats from a school-issued recorder. 

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their process for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Nicole M. Wolverton writes about A Misfortune of Lake Monsters from CamCat Books.

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their process for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Mindy Friddle writes about Her Best Self from Regal House Publishing.

My research process goes in reverse. I write, that is, before I know anything. During those initial stages, I stay studiously far away from real research on the things I’m writing about. 

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their process for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, William Walsh writes about The Poets from Erratum Press. + Samuel Taylor Coleridge identified four kinds of readers:  I am all four kinds of reader, and, I suppose, all four kinds…

I was in the car on a road trip with my husband in 2014 when we heard a story about children with past life memories on National Public Radio. The story centered on a research program at the University of Virginia and the work of neuroscientist who explored the phenomena of young children with past…

It’s shocking how long ago I began writing my novel Waiting for Al Gore. I am not patient, persistent, persevering, or any of those commendable qualities ascribed to authors who doggedly toil away, draft after plodding draft, year after year. 

In September, 1992, my un-girlfriend and I tramped our way slowly down a trail from Resurrection Pass in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. We were caked in gray ash, the result of a nearby volcano blowing its lid two nights before while we were in our tent. The mountains around us were shrouded in vapors. A dense,…