Books Archives - Meghan Ward

Should You Get a PhD in Creative Writing?

Photo by Wrote courtesy of Creative Commons

At AWP in February, one of the best panels I attended was titled “What’s a PhD in Creative Writing Worth?” The conclusions I drew after hearing each panelist speak were:

A) You should only get a PhD in Creative Writing if you plan to teach and […]

What Are Your All-Time Favorite Books?

As a young adult, I always enjoyed scouring people’s bookshelves to see what they liked to read and to get ideas for new books to devour. Today, with so many people reading e-books, bookshelves are beginning to disappear. Last year, I moved the last of my books to the basement and filled my living […]

Why Do You Write?

Lately I’ve been thinking about how I can steer my three-year-old daughter toward a career in engineering. She has a knack for putting things together, and oh how much I’d rather she became an engineer like her father than a writer like her mother. (I read, by the way, that the way to do […]

The Literary Canon—What Books Should Be Required Reading?

Last week, a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto presented this dilemma: She had a Latino American high school student in one of her classes who didn’t feel he was prepared for college because he felt that his high school reading list was dominated by Latino and African American writers and that he […]

How to Avoid Becoming a Self-Publishing Failure

An essay that ran in Salon two weeks ago titled “I’m a self-publishing failure” recounts how one writer, John Winters, spent countless hours and dollars promoting his book online only to sell a handful of copies. Where did John go wrong? How can you avoid becoming a self-publishing failure?

1. First of all, start […]

10 Things Authors Should Know About GoodReads

I had the pleasure to meet Patrick Brown, Director of Community at GoodReads, when he came to lunch at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto today. Brown spoke about the GoodReads Author Program and offered these tips for authors on GoodReads.

1. GoodReads has a free Author Program.

You can use it to post videos and […]

How to Write Kick-Ass Character Descriptions

I’m guilty of it, too: The description of a new character who has just entered your story as having “big brown eyes and frizzy black hair” or “ginger hair that cascaded down her shoulders and eyes the color of jade.” No matter how creative you get, describing a person according to his or her hair […]

Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women

This week I had the privilege of interviewing Ayesha Mattu, co-editor of the anthology Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women and Zahra Noorbakhsh, one of the contributors to the anthology, about Love, InshAllah and the success it has seen since it debuted in February of this year. After being featured in […]

Do Not Disturb

I’m on a private writing retreat this week—private meaning just me, my laptop, a lot of Coke Zero, and my manuscript. Oh, and Siri. I use Siri to send text messages while driving more than anything else. I rarely ask her where I can find a yoga studio or a place to eat because […]

Author Interview: Melanie Gideon

Today, I am honored to share with you an interview with the bestselling author of The Slippery Year, Melanie Gideon. Gideon’s debut novel, Wife 22, is out TODAY, and the best way I can describe it is Bridget Jones for the Facebook generation. Gideon will be reading tonight at A Great Good Place for […]

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