From the Book - 1st Free Press hardcover ed.
Part I: people we encountered
"Why not say what happened?": remembering Miss Hardwick / Elizabeth Benedict
Imagining influence / Robert Boyers
Mentors in general, Peter Taylor in particular / John Casey
Life in books / Maud Casey
Annie Dillard and the writing life / Alexander Chee
Snow globe / Jonathan Safran Foer
When Julie met Deb / Julia Glass
Tiger and the pelican: mentors Elizabeth Hardwick and Janice Thaddeus / Mary Gordon
Only plump the pillows / Margot Livesey
Sontag's rules / Sigrid Nunez
In the absence of mentors/monsters: notes on writerly influences / Joyce Carol Oates
Scholars and the pornographer / Carolyn See
"But what I really love about this is this amazing game that you've invented": an appreciation of John Hawkes / Jim Shepard
Munro country / Cheryl Strayed
Mother country / Evelyn Toynton
Harold Brodkey / Edmund White.
Company / Michael Cunningham
Five million head of cattle / Samantha Hunt
On fat city / Denis Johnson
Mad hope and mavericks / ZZ Packer
Getting it. Deeply immersed. In awe. Learning. Reading Ms. McDermott. Appreciating beginnings. Still appreciating beginnings. Nailing it. / Anita Shreve
Paper mentors / Martha Southgate
Part III: times of our lives
Coming of age at bread loaf / Christopher Castellani
Please don't write / Neil Gordon
Storying / Dinaw Mengestu
Growing pains / Caryl Phillips
Iowa City, 1974 / Jane Smiley.
