Frank McCourt overcame a childhood of oppressive poverty—and a lifelong fear of writing about it—going on to compose the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes and its sequel, Tis.
September/October 1999
Features
Looking Forward to the Past: A Profile of Frank McCourt
An interview with the author of Angela's Ashes.
A Thinking Life: A Conversation With Pete Hamill
A profile of the author of A Drinking Life.
The Truth and Consequences of Creative Nonfiction
Surveying the Boundaries: An Inquiry Into Creative Nonfiction
Defining the genre.
Tell Tale: Some Reflections on Disclosure
On creative nonfiction.
Fiction vs. Nonfiction: Wherein Lies the Truth?
Sometimes fiction can bring a writer closer to the truth.
News and Trends
Life After Ingram/Barnes & Noble Deal Folds
Barnes & Noble withdraws bid to buy distributor.
Seneca Review Promotes Lyric Essay
On creative nonfiction.
The New Yorker Establishes $10,000 Awards
A new series of literary awards.
Verse Editors Launch Press
A new small press.
The Practical Writer
How to Read Rejection: An Editor's Advice
Advice from the Atlantic Monthly editor.
A Writer's Counsel: E-rights and Author Agreements
Legal advice concerning digital rights.
Amy Holman's Tough-Love Guide to Publishing: Simultaneous Submissions, Yea or Nay?
Do simultaneous submissions speed the publication process or hinder it?
The Literary Life
Yeets and Kates: The Poetics of Pronunciation
If pronunciation is going to be saved anywhere, it will be in poetry, where the sound has something to do with the meaning of what is written, even in the loosest way.
Metromania: The Problems Poets Are Trying to Solve
On poetry's fractured audience.