Amazon.com Review
There are a lot of compendia of writing advice around. The Writer's Home Companion strikes a deeper chord than many because its editor, Joan Bolker--who's also a psychologist--used to teach writers at Harvard as well as counsel them. Hence, many of these essays get inside the writer's head and heart: Anne Tyler recounts her "distractibility," Gail Godwin and Bolker herself examine those internal "watchers" that keep us from our best work, poet Patsy Cumming shares a terrific system for getting started, and manuscript reproductions from the likes of George Bernard Shaw and Henry James show us the struggles aren't ours alone.
From Library Journal
Bolker (World's Best Writing Advice, Holt, 1996), a seasoned writing professor and clinical psychologist, has compiled 29 essays and exercises by famous writers and writing teachers such as Ernest Hemingway, Anne Tyler, Rita Dove, and Peter Elbow. The pieces are arranged for quick reference according to subjects, such as preparation, beginning, revision, poetry, voice, audience, and practice. Bolker includes three of her own pieces, focusing on subjectivity and voice. Other essays in this sampler stress the writing process rather than the product. From B.F. Skinner's advice in "How To Discover What You Have To Say" to Keat's revision of "To Autumn," this eclectic anthology forms a useful handbook for beginner through professional writers. Although nearly half these works have been previously published, their collection as a whole is a worthwhile purchase.?Cathy Sabol, Northern Virginia Community Coll., Herndon, Va.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"It is usually instructive, often inspiring, and always interesting to learn how other writers work. "-San Antonio Express-News
About the Author
Joan Bolker, Ed.D., has taught and counseled writers at Harvard, where she cofounded the Writing Center; at University of Massachusetts, Boston, where she began The Language Place; and at Wellesley, Brandeis, and M.I.T., where she was a psyco-therapist and writing consultant. She has coached the authors of more than one hundred doctoral dissertations and is currently a clinical psychologist who works with many writers in her private practice. She is the author of Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day.
