Contents

About the Authors

Title Page

Copyright

JOE FASSLER Preface

AIMEE BENDER Light the Dark

SHERMAN ALEXIE Leaving the Reservation of the Mind

ELIZABETH GILBERT In Praise of Stubborn Gladness

STEPHEN KING You’ve Been Here Before

AMY TAN Pixel by Pixel

JUNOT DÍAZ A Friend of the Mind

WILLIAM GIBSON The Handshake

KHALED HOSSEINI Everything I Meant to Say

ANDRE DUBUS III Do Not Think, Dream

MARY GAITSKILL I Don’t Know You Anymore

MICHAEL CHABON To Infinity and Beyond

WALTER MOSLEY How I Awoke

JIM CRACE Stealing Plums and Counting Stones

EDWIDGE DANTICAT All Immigrants Are Artists

BILLY COLLINS Into the Deep Heart’s Core

KATHRYN HARRISON Please Stop Thinking

DAVID MITCHELL Neglect Everything Else

ROXANE GAY Dreaming in Drag

TOM PERROTTA Ordinary People

AYANA MATHIS Against Unreality

JIM SHEPARD No One Ever Changes

KARL OVE Knausgaard Lose Yourself

LESLIE JAMISON On Commonness

JONATHAN LETHEM Letting the Leopards In

JESSE BALL The Edge of Sense

ANGELA FLOURNOY A Place to Call My Own

LEV GROSSMAN Into the Wardrobe, into the Self

YIYUN LI Strangers on a Train

MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD Time Passes

JEFF TWEEDY Translating the Subconscious

NELL ZINK The Long Game

CHARLES SIMIC Lifting the Blanket

VIET THANH Nguyen Follow This Voice

EMMA DONOGHUE You and Me

CLAIRE MESSUD Words on Paper Will Outlast Us

JANE SMILEY Nobody Asked You to Write That Novel

JONATHAN FRANZEN My Favorite Curmudgeon

HANYA YANAGIHARA Writing for Right Now7

BEN MARCUS Recommended Dosage

MARK HADDON Music for Misfits

AZAR NAFISI Enough About Me

T. C. Boyle How Stories Say Goodbye

ETHAN CANIN Rehearsals for Death

EILEEN MYLES Happy Accidents

MARILYNNE ROBINSON The Brain Is Larger Than the Sea

NEIL GAIMAN Random Joy

Acknowledgments