Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their process for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Valerie Werder writes about Thieves from Fence. + December 22, 2016 — I receive a hardcover journal from a coworker at a holiday party Secret Santa. She’s the exhibitions coordinator; I’m…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their process for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Rebecca Turkewitz writes about Here In The Night from Black Lawrence Press. + I’ve long been fascinated by the myriad ways local lore and ghost stories reflect and reinforce a community’s…

Novel Research in 3 Images Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their process for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Aaron Jacobs writes about Time Will Break the World from Run Amok Books. + 1. My novel, Time Will Break the World, is inspired by the…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their process for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Terese Svoboda writes about Dog On Fire from University of Nebraska Press. + Looking Under the Rug: An Essay on Researching Dog on Fire My new novel Dog on Fire is…

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their process for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Catherine Gammon writes about The Martyrs, The Lovers from 55 Fathoms Publishing. + 1 When I first researched the life and work of Petra Kelly, I was preparing to write a…

For every page of a writer’s work that makes its way into the light, there must be hundreds that remain hidden, mythic, gnarled roots in the darkness. 

I learned I was a nonbeliever at age six or seven. I think the experience must be common: one observes a certain lack of feeling. It was summer, dull bright morning, my sisters and I hanging on a mossy tree. I told them what had passed through my mind.

As someone who often writes historical fiction, I’m used to doing traditional research.

I don’t remember why I started running in the Pine Barrens. Yes, I was sick of the few trails in the city and, yes, I needed something to quell the unending anxiety that came with being alive in the summer of 2020, but there were other more convenient trails, ones that weren’t out-of-state, I never…

My novel ping pongs on vibes. Told from five different points of view, it’s about the potential sale of a property in the Catskills over the summer of 2014, but really, the plot is a dime store jar for a potpourri of obsession: predation, desire, faith, inherited trauma, motherhood, the circle jerk of life and…

I started a zine in the summer of 1996; it was called Eventide, because I thought that sounded appropriately melancholy. When it began, it was largely focused on music; I was inspired pretty heavily by the zines Rumpshaker, Trustkill, and Anti-Matter.

Our Research Notes series invites authors to describe their process for a recent book, with “research” defined as broadly as they like. This week, Chris Cander writes about A Gracious Neighbor from Little A. + I’d never heard of the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Susan Glaspell until my daughter, Sasha shared one of her short stories…