Mentors, Muses & Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives

Congratz on 2 Notable 3Ms Essays

2010-09-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

The latest Best American Essays 2010 is out today and 2 of the contributors to 3Ms have essays selected in the Notable Essay list, Maud Casey, "A Life in Books," and Cheryl Strayed, "Munro Country." Maud's wonderful essay about the influence of her writer parents (John Casey and Jane Barnes) first appeared in The Oxford American. Cheryl's essay on Alice Munro, which also won a Pushcart Prize, first appeared in The Missouri Review. Huge congratz to you both!

3Ms in Blue Hill, Maine

2010-07-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, two wonderful writers - Heidi Julavits and Ayelet Waldman - joined me to talk about mentors, muses and influences, at the Blue Hill LIbrary, in Blue Hill, Maine. In the audience were Bill Henderson, editor and publisher of Pushcart Prizes, which awarded prizes to two of our essays, and novelist Rafael Yglesias, author of the acclaimed A Happy Marriage.

Heidi and Ayelet told stories of their own literary influences (Heidi: a "very, very, very, very famous writer" who read the ms. of her novel and excoriated it and helped her in the process; Ayelet: Tobias Wolff, who said she didn't need to attend graduate school in writing and that her first non-mystery novel was "great"), and both had fascinating comments on the effect of motherhood on writing (profound and positive), and the clued us in on how their writer spouses (Ben Marcus, Michael Chabon) influence their work (ditto).

Thanks to all for a terrific evening. One of the book's pleasures is that the conversation about influence keeps going and growing.

Books, Nooks, Everything Apple, Kindles & Your Laptop

2010-06-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

The question this summer isn't what to read but how to read it. So many devices, so little time.

Some shortcuts and tips on where to find 3Ms beyond your local bookstore:

For those sans Kindle, you can download Kindle software for free on Amazon.

* Buy the Kindle edition and/or download Kindle software for free onto your computer:

* Buy the ebook for the Nook and many other ebook devices.

* Download 3Ms onto your iPad through the iPad bookstore. It's $11.99.

Email me if you have difficulties with any of these programs: info@elizabethbenedict.com. And thanks for clicking through.

2 Essays Win Pushcart Prizes

2010-05-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

Sigrid Nunez's essay on Susan Sontag, "Sontag's Rules," and Cheryl Strayed's essay on Alice Munro, "Munro Country," were both selected for Pushcart Prizes for 2011, after appearing first in Tin House and the Missouri Review, respectively. Both essays are scheduled to appear in the annual Pushcart Prize anthology this fall.

3Ms reunion in Santa Monica

2010-04-01T08:57:00.001-07:00

Carolyn See, whose smashing 3Ms essay, "The Scholars and the Pornographer," first appeared on The Rumpus, was one of my mentors, though I didn't write about her in the book. She has been a model for me of literary generosity, good humor, and taking the long view. In Santa Monica earlier this week, we had lunch at Michael's, whose wonderful garden you get a sense of in these photos

Writers and Their Influences at UVa

2010-03-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

Alice Randall joined the 3Ms last night for a panel at the Virginia Festival of the Book, along with contributors John Casey and Maud Casey. Our conversation will soon be available on the book festival website . I'll let you know when it appears. Thanks for checking in.

March 18-U Va Festival of the Book

2010-03-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

Mentors, Muses & Monsters writers John Casey and Maud Casey will join me and author Alice Randall (The Wind Done Gone, Rebel Yell) on Thursday, March 18, at 8pm, for a panel on writers and their influences, on the opening night of this wonderful book festival held every year at UVa, in Charlottesville. John Casey is a professor in the graduate creative writing program and Maud Casey grew up in Charlottesville. Here's information on our event (tickets required) at the Festival and here's info about the Festival itself.

Writers Sing Praises of Their Mentors

2010-02-15T10:05:00.001-08:00

The March issue of The Writer has a long, generous review of Mentors, Muses & Monsters. There's no link directly to the review, but it examines contributions by John Casey, Alexander Chee, Michael Cunningham and Anita Shreve, and concludes by describing 3Ms as "a unique collection of essays about the infinite varieties of literary mentoring. To this reviewer's knowledge, [Benedict's] is the first book to do so - and it does it very well." Thank you to reviewer Chuck Leddy, who is a contributing editor at The Writer.

A Night of Mentors, Muses, Teachers & Students

2010-02-04T18:47:00.001-08:00

Mentors, Muses and Monsters visited Upstate New York on Wednesday, February 3. Contributors Robert Boyers and Alexander Chee joined me at East Line Books in Clifton Park, NY, about halfway between Albany and Saratoga Springs, for a reading and discussion. The audience was full of our students - from Skidmore, where Robert teaches, Amherst, where Alex teachers, and the Albany area, where I taught several years ago at the NY State Writers Institute at SUNY-Albany. In fact, Robyn Ringler, owner of the store, was in that class. Thanks to Robyn for the invitation and to everyone who braved the cold to come see us.

Photos by Peg Boyers

The Envelope Please: The Winner and Finalists

2010-01-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all who participated in the Christmas Story Contest, announced originally on Huffington Post.

The winner is Kendra Korte, an ex-pat American living in the UK. Her piece, "Waiting at Westminister" appears at the end of this post. She'll receive a copy of Mentors, Muses & Monsters.

The 6 finalists are listed here, and the openings paragraphs of their pieces follow.

Because of technical difficulties - that I didn't understand until a few minutes ago - I will not be able to post PDF files of the finalists (this system does not allow it), and space does not allow me to publish all the pieces on this blog in their entirety. As a last resort, I've come up with a way for you to get a flavor for the pieces, and a way to read them all.

Please read the openings, and email me for the complete package of finalists. I'm preparing the emails to send out right now.
ebenedict@earthlink.net. I'm sorry for the screw-up. I was certain I'd be able to post PDFs on this blog, but it seems that I can't.

1. "Christmas" by Lai Lee Chau

In my head is the pitch-perfect New England Christmas fantasy of my
childhood, complete with a gently twinkling and fragrant Christmas
tree standing by the warm and bright fireplace, and family gathered
around opening presents, crowded close to keep the chill at bay while
the snow falls silently outside on the pine trees. Bing Crosby or
Frank Sinatra is singing. It is a fantasy that was inspired by learning
the words to Christmas carols in elementary school, studying the
tranquil scenes in the red box of assorted 100 Christmas cards, and
visits to my uncleʼs house in Massachusetts suburbia during
Christmas breaks, where for a brief moments I could pretend to be
my America-born cousins, who lived the all-American lives where
such Christmases were possible. Pictures of me from that time had
me and my sisters standing in front of the rustic wooden fence ringing
their front yard, knee deep in an expanse of pure, clean snow. Such
a life seemed far away for a girl growing up in an apartment building
in Washington Heights who wanted these things to be her familyʼs
traditions but which were not.

2. "View Finder" by Ida Chavira

Grandma Mary sits on the chair watched through the lens of my Nikon Life Touch. I zoom in to snap a picture of the guest of honor. She sits with a carnation corsage pinned on the matching sweater of her dark green dress - the one with gray and pink stripes on the hem. She barely smiles, just to be polite. Her cane leans against the sofa. One hand clenches a stiff, double strapped, black purse that holds a handkerchief, Avon lipstick, last month’s phone bill and Kleenex. Her other long fingers, that rolled tortillas every morning, now squeeze and suffocate the skin inside her palm.

3. "That Christmas Spirit" by Paul Genader

The old homestead was sold off long ago now. I haven't been by the place and don't intend to go. Business brought me back to the area and I just came up the hill for the view. There was a nice view from the house when I was a kid, but the trees grew over time and the view just isn't what it used to be. Nothing is what it used to be. The view a little further up the hill is still worthy, though. It's a clear night and the panorama looks as good as ever.

4. "A No 'L' Tantrum" by Jennie Heckscher

They were opening the third round of stocking stuffers when someone suggested mimosas. Eager to keep the Christmas morning peace, everyone heartily agreed, and Henry hoisted himself up to fetch a bottle of Krug.

“Get out the new champagne glasses, Henry,” Martha called shrilly after her husband. She glanced around the room, carefully surveying her grown daughter and step-children, triumphant in her role as supreme family leader. Her daughter Sarah and her step-sons, Charlie and Will, had come for Christmas at long last. Dismally unaware of the depth of persuasion it took
Will to get his wife Jenna to come along with Ally, their two-year old daughter, Martha thought of what she could tell her friends at bridge club next week about their Christmas surrounded by adoring family.

5. "Christmas Presents" by M.J. Rose

I'm Jewish but we celebrated Christmas growing up. My dad was in the toy business, and to a man in the toy business, December 25th is a holy day no matter who you pray to the rest of the year.

Imagine: it's Christmas and your dad is the EVP at one of the top three
toy companies in New York City. Imagine the sight under the tree. Nah
. . . double that. Practically all of FAO Schwarz was under our tree (the
tree, by the way, was five feet tall, plastic, pink and decorated with
pink and silver ornaments.)

6. "Snowflake Kisses, a Day Before" by Zaina Sukkarieh

The phone is beeping again.

My sister catches my eyes through the long blades of the green grass, and raises her eyebrow. Her forehead wrinkled, her blue eyes blazing as fiercely as the sky. She huffs angrily. “Thank God!” she mouths.

Lying on her stomach with her elbows deep in the grass, she sinks
her head back into the pillow of clovers and watches a lady beetle
balance on a long flimsy fern. I roll onto my back and pluck at a single
dandelion. Holding it up to the sun and shielding my eyes I let out a
long exasperated sigh, and watch the seeds dwindle and fall like
snowflakes. I close my eyes, the seeds gently flutter down onto my
face and I wonder if this is what it feels like to be kissed by a
snowflake."
____________________

As you can see, these are wonderful beginnings, and wonderful pieces. Please email me for the complete set:
ebenedict@earthlink.net

The Winner:

"Waiting at Westminster" by Kendra Korte

Bit chilly out here, isn’t it? It’s a little bit ridiculous that we have to be here so early but, I suppose, what else are you going to do on Christmas Eve? When do they open the doors, do you know? I am looking forward to getting inside and sitting down a bit. It wouldn’t even be so bad out here if we’d just be moving a bit or something, but no, two hours standing in a line. I hear that the line started forming at the door about eight or so – not that it’s not an important service of course, but it doesn’t start until 11:30! If I’m going to be waiting for so long, I hope I at least get a good seat.

You here by yourself, too, then? Where are you from? I’m from the US, too - Minnesota. I always wanted to come to London, and my daughter’s spending Christmas with her in-laws this year, so I decided that it would be a retirement present to myself. Yeah, I retired this fall. What do you do? Oh, that must be nice, living here like that. Do you get back home often? Didn’t you want to go back for Christmas?

Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to - Do you miss your family a lot? Sorry, that’s a silly question, of course you do. It must be hard to be so far away for so long. But I bet you’ve made lots of friends here, at work and at your school there. Do you live alone or do you share a place or what? Four of you? That’s a nice number – just enough so that you don’t get lonely, not so many that you don’t have some privacy. Are you good friends, then? Didn’t they want to come along to this? Oh, dear, you must be so lonely without them. Is it far, where you live? I hear the Tube will be shut down for Christmas by the time this service is over. Will you have far to go to get home? I’m staying in Bloomsbury, so it’ll be a ways to walk but I’ll be fine, I’m sure. It’s already so quiet. It’s like the city itself is ready for Christmas. Even here. There must be hundreds of people waiting right now, but here we are chatting just as easily as if we were alone.

How much longer do you think it’ll be before they start letting people in? Can you see Big Ben from where you are? I feel like we’ve been standing here for ages. It’s only been forty-five minutes? Really? Well, I still hope they start letting people in soon. Services in Westminster Abbey, after all – I want to be able to at least look around me before it all starts. I came in on a tour yesterday to see the tombs and things, but there’s so many people, aren’t there? You almost feel run through on a conveyor belt or something, at least I sure did. I’d like to find out more about some of those people, too – some of the prime ministers or politicians or something. I know about the kings of course, but some of the others must have been pretty important to be buried in there. Where do you think they’ll let us sit? It would be nice to be in Poet’s Corner or something, look around at all those familiar names and all that.

So why’d you decide to come here, then? I mean, if you live here, there’s probably lots of places you could go for services. Yeah, you’re right, it is a special place. Something so old, with so much history, you can almost feel the presence of the past, can’t you, while you’re in there? At least that’s what I’m hoping. It was so crowded yesterday, like I said, but I usually find that as part of a service even the most crowded place becomes holy. Something about the community, about everyone doing it together, about knowing that all over the world people are doing the same thing. People need connections, you know, and that’s what this does for us. At least once a year, we come together. Easter may be more important from a Christian point of view, but Christmas is more important for us as people. Even when we’re alone, like you are and like I am now, we still need people at Christmastime. No matter what you believe, this is the time to be with people.

Oh, don’t be bitter, dear. You’re not alone. You’re here, aren’t you? If you were really alone at Christmas, really alone and not just lonely, you’d be back at that shared house of yours, sitting in the dark by yourself, instead of shivering out here in a line of hundreds of people trying to get into a thousand-year-old church. You’re just lonely, not alone. Not that you don’t have reason to be, mind you, being away from your family for the first time, and all your housemates going off without you and all that that you said earlier. But there’s a difference between being alone and being lonely and you, my dear, are not alone. At least for tonight, anyway.

Oh, don’t cry, dear. It’s too cold. Your face will freeze. That’s better, isn’t it? Now, I know that we only met half an hour ago, and we won’t meet again after tonight, but for tonight, anyway, for this service, we’ll have each other, right? Someone to chat to while the organ is playing and all those choirboys are coming in. The shepherds and kings and all gathered together to mark the birth, so we will too. It’s a shared experience, you know? And you need someone to share it with, or you wouldn’t be here.

Did I see movement up there? Oh, good we’re finally getting to go in. Not before time, either. I can hardly feel my fingers. It’ll be good to sit down for a bit, too. Don’t your feet hurt with heels that high? Just like my daughter, she wears heels like that all the time. I can’t do it, myself.

Yes, there’s two of us. We’re together. Merry Christmas.

-- Kendra Korte is an American ex-pat in the UK. She writes about books at mendramarie.wordpress.com.

Results of Xmas Contest to be Posted Later Today

2010-01-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

I hope to post the winner and finalists of the Christmas Story Contest later today. Stay tuned.

Win a Free Copy of 3Ms

2009-12-23T10:17:00.000-08:00

Write a piece - fiction or nonfiction - set at Christmas time. It needn't be about Christmas, about Christians, or in any way pro-Christmas. For details, see my latest Huff Po piece, "Don't Get an MFA-Write a Story, Win a Prize."

The Improper Bostonian Weighs in

2009-12-15T08:45:00.000-08:00

"Whatever justified, or deluded, fascination these writers have toward their teachers, and however much or little reciprocity is granted, they weave riveting tales of their own evolution, sometimes outstripping their mentors." - Mopsy Strange Kennedy, issue dated Nov. 18, 2009.

Talking & Signing Books B&N Dec. 7

2009-12-11T22:26:00.000-08:00

Photos by Nick Wheeler

Thanks to 3M contributors & B&N

2009-12-11T06:01:00.000-08:00

EB, Mary Gordon, Lily Tuck, Sigrid Nunez

photo by Carol Goldberg

Listen In & Come See Us

2009-12-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

Click to listen to us on Leonard Lopate's Show 93.9FM, Mon. 12/7, talking with Elizabeth Benedict, Sigrid Nunez on Susan Sontag, Lily Tuck on Gordon Lish.

Later the same day. Panel: Benedict, Mary Gordon, Sigrid Nunez, Lily Tuck. Barnes & Noble. 150 E. 86th St. 7PM.

The News from Lake Wobegon

2009-12-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

A rave in the San Francisco Chronicle. And "A Day in the Life of...." well, me, on Cynthia Newberry Martin's lovely literary blog, Catching Days.

2009-11-25T07:27:00.001-08:00

Mentors, Muses & Monsters at Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, Nov. 23
Elizabeth Benedict, Lily Tuck, Alexander Chee, Martha Southgate, Mary Gordon

Martha's Vineyard Likes Us

2009-11-22T20:38:00.001-08:00

Book reviewer Brooks Robards, in the Martha's Vineyard Times, loves Mentors, Muses & Monsters. She writes: "The essays are not simply worshipful tributes to literary lions. Each writer shades in the nuances of character and experience that make his subject come to life, and each reads like a short story. ... For the reader aspiring to sharpen his own craft, gem after gem emerges from this book's pages.

"The patterns among writers and influences emerge regardless of the order in which the essays are read, and I confess I haven't finished reading all the essays. In truth, I am reluctant to complete it, so deliciously rich and illuminating have I found each offering. I suspect any writer or serious reader will feel the same way."

Do Writers Need Mentors?

2009-11-20T15:45:00.001-08:00

Your thoughts?

Teasers for Monday's Panel-Nov. 23-Brooklyn

2009-11-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

Monday Nov. 23 @ 7.30pm
Greenlight Bookstore
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
718 246-0200
Elizabeth Benedict, Alexander Chee, Mary Gordon, Martha Southgate, and Lily Tuck

From Alexander Chee's essay on Annie Dillard:
“If I’ve done my job, she said in the last class, you won’t be happy with anything you write for the next ten years. It’s not because you won’t be writing well, but because I’ve raised your standards for yourself. Don’t compare yourselves to each other. Compare yourself to Colette, or Henry James, or Edith Wharton.”

From Mary Gordon's essay on Elizabeth Hardwick & Janice Thaddeus:
“This is how I think of them: the tiger and the pelican: Lizzie the tiger, brilliant, careless, destructive, and exciting, crashing through the underbrush heedless of the damage in her wake. And Jan the pelican. In medieval iconography and legend, the pelican plucks her own breast and feeds her young with her own life’s blood. My gratitude to them both is complex and contradictory…”

From Martha Southgate's essay on Harriet the Spy:
“When I first read Louise Fitzhugh’s novel [Harriet the Spy], I had no interest in being a writer. I wanted to be a psychologist – or failing that, Jermaine Jackson’s wife. But now I know that there are only a few books that have influenced me as much as this one did, that have, in a sense, mentored me into being the writer I am…. My mentors have been the books I’ve obsessed over and had crushes on.”

Lily Tuck's essay on Gordon Lish:
“’Tuck, Tuck’ – for some reason, Gordon [Lish] calls us all by our last names, he also is in the habit of repeating it – “don’t strain for a trope. Keep the object term as close to the subject term as you can manage without producing a tautology. Listen to this,’ he says, giving an example from a story he likes, ‘Quiet as a church.’
“I, too, am quiet.”

Elizabeth Benedict is the editor and moderator. It will not be a quiet night. Please join us.

We're on our way to Brooklyn & Greenlight Bookstore

2009-11-15T20:13:00.000-08:00

The next stop on the 3M book tour is the just-opened and much celebrated new idie, Greenlight Bookstore, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, where we'll put on a panel on Monday, Nov. 23, with Alexander Chee (on Annie Dillard), Mary Gordon (on Elizabeth Hardiwck and Janice Thaddeus), Martha Southgate (on HARRIET THE SPY), Lily Tuck (on Gordon Lish), moderated by EB. It's at 7.30. Please join us. Bookstore phone is 718 246-0200.

I'll be blogging about our extravaganza at the Brattle Theatre on Dec. 1, for Cynthia Newberry Martin's lovely literary blog, Catching Days, for a column she runs every month called "How We Spend Our Days." I'm honored she invited me to write about the Cambridge event, and look forward to pulling my thoughts and impressions together.

Thanks for checking in.

The Book Tour is Underway

2009-11-12T18:55:00.000-08:00

Contributors John Casey and Maud Casey joined me on November 9, in Washington DC, for the kick-off panel, at the DC Public Library in Chevy Chase, DC. They're the only father-daughter set in the book, and it was fascinating to see how they interact as players in the family business.

Friday November 13, is a very different sort of panel at the Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA, at 6pm. I'll be talking to contributors Jay Cantor (on Bernard Malamud), Chris Castellani (on Bread Loaf), Julia Glass (on her editor at Pantheon), Margot Livesey (on her adopted father), and Jim Shepard (on John Hawkes). Stay tuned for more.

If you'll be in Brooklyn on Monday, Nov. 23, please join us at the brand new Greenlight Bookstore- Mary Gordon, Lily Tuck, Martha Southgate, Alex Chee, and me.

If you'll be on the Upper East Side - 86th and Lex - on Dec. 7, please come to Barnes and Noble to hear hear Mary Gordon (on Elizabeth Hardwick), Sigrid Nunez (on Susan Sontag), Lily Tuck (on Gordon Lish), and me, asking questions.

A Rave in the Christian Science Monitor

2009-11-03T05:51:00.000-08:00

"Mesmerizing book of essays by famous pens ... beautifully captures the experience of being a literary aspirant..." And an on-line interview with the editor. Read and listen here

Pub date's today & Huff Po too

2009-10-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

Pub date means that the book should be for sale in 3-D bookstores and on-line. For the occasion, I did a slight revision of the introduction to the book for Huffington Post, which you can read by clicking right here.

"The Scholars and the Pornographer" - Really

2009-10-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

Carolyn See's English professor from England and her father - who turned to writing hardcore porn at the age of 70 and cranked out 73 books before he died - are the subjects of her remarkable essay, which The Rumpus has brought to you on-line right here. Impossible to read without laughing out loud and crying.

Editor's Choice - Chicago Tribune

2009-10-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

It concludes: "Every one of the essays here ... is wise and full of heart."
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/printers-row/

Elle Likes Us

2009-10-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

3Ms is in good company in the November Elle, appearing with Philip Roth's new novel and a Louisa May Alcott biography.

Alexander Chee's essay on studying at Wesleyan with Annie Dillard caused something of a sensation when it appeared on The Morning News three days ago and then on Facebook. When you read it, you'll see why.

Samantha Hunt's amazing piece on Breece DJ Pancake just came out in the print edition of Poets & Writers.

A Rave in Booklist-Just Out

2009-10-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

To die for, from Booklist 11/1/09:

"Even when writing teacher Benedict is writing fiction, she’s writing about writing—her novel Almost (2001) is about a best-selling novelist. So the subject of this irresistible anthology was a natural for her. People become writers by virtue of literary inspiration, be it a book, a place, or a mentor, so why not invite writers to write essays about their literary influences? The response was overwhelming and avid. Benedict reports, “I seemed to have hit a nerve.” What’s more, these exceptionally animated essays feel as though the writers couldn’t get the words down quickly enough. And what an array of experiences and voices. Mary Gordon remembers Elizabeth Hardwick. Sigrid Nunez shares vivid memories of Susan Sontag. Joyce Carol Oates ponders the “singular” book of her childhood, Alice in Wonderland. Carolyn See portrays her father, who at age 69 began writing hard-core pornography. Julia Glass, Dinaw Mengestu, Caryl Phillips, Jane Smiley, Jonathan Safran Foer––all share profound and moving tales of transformation that encapsulate the entire collective experience of literature, a living force tapped into, handed down, cherished."

Oprah and AARP Like the 3Ms

2009-10-12T08:03:00.000-07:00

There's a spread about the book in the November issue of Oprah's magazine, "O", (p. 148) and a review in the November/December issue of AARP.

And ... Maud Casey's essay, about the influence of her writer parents, "A Life in Books," is in the current issue of the Oxford American (paper, not on-line), and a reader sent me this comment about the book yesterday, "I just wanted to say I'm adoring your anthology, content-wise a triumph! There are other books out there like this, but here the quality is so much higher than usual.... I think writing instructors should start ordering paperback versions for their workshops. It's that varied and rich.

Later today I'll post information about the book tour-events in Washington, DC, Cambridge, MA, New York City, and Charlottesville, at the Virginia Festival of the Book.

More Sneak Peaks at Mentors, Muses & Monsters

2009-10-01T06:45:00.001-07:00

It's usually bad form to brag about a book, but in the case of "Mentors, Muses & Monsters," I'm not so shy: 29 of the 30 essays are written by someone other than me, and, well, they're really, really good. So good that a bunch of them, as you can see, have been reprinted in other publications and one, Edmund White's piece on Harold Brodkey, appears in White's latest memoir, just reviewed in the New York Times.

Arnon Grunberg's splendid essay, "The Moment" debuted in August in "N+1", and you can wait to read it in the book, or you can take a look here.

Sneak Previews of 3M Essays

2009-09-18T22:58:00.000-07:00

Check out Jim Shepard's piece on studying writing with John Hawkes on The Rumpus, Sigrid Nunez's essay on Susan Sontag in Tin House, Evelyn Toynton's piece on her mother in the American Scholar, and Joyce Carol Oates' essay, "Notes on Writerly Influences: In the Absence of Mentors and Muses" in Narrative Magazine.

Cheryl Strayed's essay on Alice Munro appears in the Summer issue of the Missouri Review.

Margot Livesey's piece on the influence of her adopted father, a Scottish school teacher, appears soon in The Normal School

Some essays are only available in the print version - All are available in the book on Oct. 27.

About the Book - From S&S

2009-08-20T05:05:00.001-07:00

For Denis Johnson, it was Leonard Gardner's cult favorite Fat City; for Jonathan Safran Foer, it was a brief encounter with Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai; Mary Gordon's mentors were two Barnard professors, writers Elizabeth Hardwick and Janice Thaddeus, whose lessons could not have been more different. In Mentors, Muses & Monsters, edited and with a contribution by Elizabeth Benedict, author of the National Book Award finalist Slow Dancing, thirty of today's brightest literary lights turn their attention to the question of mentorship and influence, exploring the people, events, and books that have transformed their lives. The result is an astonishing collection of stirring, insightful, and sometimes funny personal essays.

In her communications with contributors, Benedict noticed a longing to thank the people who had changed their lives, and to acknowledge them the best way a storyteller can, by revealing the intricacies of their connection. These writers look back to when something powerful happened to them at an unpredictable age, a moment when a role model saw potential in them, or when they came to understand they possessed literary talent themselves. As most of these encounters occurred when the writers were young -- unsure of who they were or what they could accomplish -- several pieces radiate a poignant tenderness, and almost all of them express enduring gratitude.

When Joyce Carol Oates describes her public-rivalry-turned-wary-professional-acquaintanceship with Donald Barthelme, we are privy to the fascinating sight of one of today's most important writers being directly, personally affected by another influential writer. When Sigrid Nunez reveals what it was like to be Susan Sontag's protégé, we get a glimpse into the private life and working philosophy of a formidable public intellectual. And when Jane Smiley describes her first year at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974, she offers an intimate portrait of a literary milieu of enduring significance for American literature.

Rich, thought-provoking, and often impassioned, these pieces illuminate not only the anxiety but the necessity of influence -- and also the treasures it yields. By revealing themselves as young men and women in search of direction and meaning, these artists explore the endlessly varied paths to creative awakening and literary acclaim.

Free Press, October 2009
eBook, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1-4391-2785-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-2785-8

The Book is Coming Soon

2009-08-01T22:17:00.000-07:00