Living With a Writer

Living With A Writer brings together a group of prestigious contributors to discuss the writing lives of contemporary poets, novelists, critics, dramatists, editors and collaborators. What are the practical considerations of being a writer? What are the household dynamics? How do the circumstances contribute to the work? What does it tell us about the creative process? The book features pieces from well-known authors and partners in famous literary relationships, including John Bayley, Amanda Craig, Nadine Gordimer, Ann Thwaite, Paul Theroux and John Updike.

CATHERINE AIRD Author of detective fiction BRIAN W. ALDISS Novelist/ science-fiction author FRANCES H. BACHELDER Poet and novelist JOHN BAYLEY Husband of the late Iris Murdoch; Warton Professor of English Emeritus, Oxford University and novelist JAMES J. BERG Associate Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System, USA ANNE BERNAYS Teaches at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard University; novelist MALCOLM BRADBURY Formerly Professor of American Studies, University of East Anglia, UK; novelist JUDY CARVER Daughter of William Golding; novelist MARY ANN CAWS Distinguished Professor of English, French and Comparative Literature, Graduate School of the City University of New York, USA; writer and biographer GEORGE HOWE COLT Novelist and former journalist AMANDA CRAIG Novelist and Journalist for The Sunday Times, The Times, The New Statesman, and The Independent MARGARET DRABBLE Novelist BETTY FUSSELL Author of biographies and memoirs NADINE GORDIMER Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature; Novelist and Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Vice President of PEN International and a Goodwill Ambassaor of UNDP JOHN HALPERIN Centennial Professor of English, Vanderbilt University and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; biographer MICHAEL HOLROYD Novelist JUSTIN KAPLAN Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1966; novelist and biographer JEFFREY MEYERS Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; biographer EDMUND MORRIS Winner of Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award in 1980, Member of the Modern Library Editorial Board and writer in residence at the University of Chicago; biographer HERSHEL PARKER Associate General Editor of the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of the Writings of Herman Melville; biographer ROB ROLLISON Retired from the University of South Australia; currently researching and writing on modern poets and their politics KATHLEEN SYMONS Wife of Julian Symons, writer ANN THWAITE Author of children’s books and biographies; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature PAUL THEROUX Novelist DAVID UPDIKE Associate Professor of English, Roxbury Community College, Boston, USA; author of children’s books and novelist JOHN UPDIKE Winner of the Pulitzer Prize; novelist LAUREL YOUNG Currently completing PhD in Literature, Vanderbilt University