By Nava Atlas | On January 5, 2015 | Updated September 16, 2022 | Comments (2)
Eudora Welty (1909 – 2001) was just as avid a reader as she was a writer. It isn’t hard to see how reading thoughtfully can make one a better thinker and writer.
Welty won numerous awards for her writing, among them, a Pulitzer Prize (for The Optimist’s Daughter, 1973 — which many critics considered her best novel), an American Book Award, National Medal for Literature, and The Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was a six-time winner of the O. Henry Award for Short Stories.
Welty dispensed gentle wisdom on the subject of how being a good writer is intertwined with the love of reading. Here are several of her ideas on the art of reading gathered from her nonfiction books, notably On Writing and One Writer’s Beginnings. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On January 3, 2015 | Updated September 16, 2022 | Comments (0)
From her disapproving mother and wayward husband to her snooty society friends, Edith Wharton (1862-1937) lived in a social milieu that reinforced her deep insecurity and sense of non-belonging, both as a woman and as a writer.
Her first tentative steps into the literary world, the place she most longed to be, met with steady acceptance and success that took her by surprise. It took quite some doing before Wharton believed she was worthy of it.
The publication of Wharton’s first collection of fictional short stories, The Greater Inclination, seemed to turn the tide as she finally accepted herself as a professional writer and not a dilettante. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On December 29, 2014 | Updated June 5, 2024 | Comments (0)
For Anaïs Nin, writing was essential as breathing. This need inspired her multi-volume The Diary of Anaïs Nin series. What started as a voyage of self-discovery eventually transcended the personal into the universal.
Her diaries became a touchstones for a generation of women (and Nin became a feminist icon), not merely one woman’s private quest for identity and meaning.
By the standards of today’s confessional media, Nin’s frank writings may no longer seem as revolutionary as they did just a generation ago. In the final volume of the Diary (Volume Seven, 1966 –1974), she delighted in sharing snippets from the countless letters of gratitude she received from women everywhere, in all walks of life: Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On December 26, 2014 | Updated August 21, 2026 | Comments (2)
Charlotte Brontëwas fiercely protective of the work and reputations of her literary sisters, Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë, both of whom tragically young of consumption (tuberculosis).
By default, she became the guardian of her sisters’ literary legacy. Following is Charlotte Brontë’s preface to Wuthering Heights, Emily’s only published novel.
The sisters first published their works under pseudonyms, thinking that their work would be more readily accepted for publication and general acceptance. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On December 25, 2014 | Updated August 22, 2026 | Comments (0)
In The Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell, Charlotte Brontë pays homage to her sisters, telling the story of how she, Emily, and Anne found their paths to becoming published authors.
This was no simple feat for women of their time, particularly those who had no money, status, or contacts.
Written in 1850, after both Emily and Anne had already died tragically young, Charlotte explains their pseudonyms as the “Bells.” She was Currer, Emily was Ellis, and Anne was Acton. She, like her sisters, believed that using ambiguous names would make it easier to interest publishers in their works. Read More→
Categories: 
Comments: