All sixteen pages of this quarterly newsletter are packed full of useful techniques, informed perspectives, and inspired nudges. In Writers Ask Issue 47, you'll hear from dozens of accomplished writers and writing teachers on these topics: Finding Your Material, Voice, Taboos and Secrets, Reviews and Awards, Moving On to the Next Piece. You'll also get two special Last Page Focus pieces: Skip How-to—Read and Be Curious, by Alyce Miller; Story v. Novel, by Antonya Nelson.

Everybody's lives are full and mysterious and unexpected. It's just a question of whether or not you're paying attention.—Amy Bloom, interviewed by Sarah Anne Johnson

My wife said something that was so wonderful. Toward the end of all this, when I finally did find the right way to write the story and I was very happy, I said, "Jessica, I'm just a quirky writer. I'm always going to write quirky books, and I guess that's just the way it's going to be." And she said, "Well, Mark, our quirks are all we have to offer."—Mark Salzman, interviewed by Linda B. Swanson-Davies

There are things you would like to be able to use and stories you would like to be able to tell, but you can't use them in nonfiction because there are emotions and feelings that you would never want anyone to recognize. Sometimes they go into your fiction. That's something writers do with their lives and their emotions—things you have learned that for one reason or another would not be particularly appropriate as journalism. You use it and you transform it.—Perri Klass, interviewed by Charlotte Templin

I—we—figured it would be my arty little book that would sell a few thousand copies and then limp with whatever dignity it could muster over to the remainders tables. Which indicates, I suppose, that since no one can possibly know how a novel will be received, we might as well just write whatever we want to write, and hope for the best.—Michael Cunningham, interviewed by Sarah Anne Johnson

A few Focus examples from earlier issues:

Monica Wood: Creating Context
K.L. Cook: A Family Theme, a Family Secret
Lee Martin: Deepening Character