Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy: Advice and Confessions on Writing, Love, and Cannibals

Author: Dinty W. Moore
Publisher: Random House USA Inc
Category: Creative Writing & Creative Writing Guides, Writing & Editing Guides, Semantics, Funny Books & Stories
Book Format: Hardcover

Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy,
I have a hot crush on the em dash. What does my need to stuff--while simultaneously fracturing--my sentences--with the meandering, the explanatory, the discursive, the perhaps not-entirely-necessary--say about me?
--Cheryl Strayed

Have you ever wished there were an advice columnist for writers, but one who didn't take things so damned seriously? This unique writing guide pairs questions sent in by top contemporary essayists with hilariously witty answers and essays from acclaimed author Dinty W. Moore. Phillip Lopate asks for advice on writing about your ex without sounding like an ass, Julianna Baggott worries that to be a great writer you must drink like a fish, and Roxane Gay asks whether it's kosher to write about writing.

Taking advantage of all the tools available to today's personal essayist--egregious puns, embarrassing anecdotes, and cocktail napkins--Professor Moore answers these questions, and more, demystifying the world of nonfiction once and for all. With a tip of the hat to history's most infamous essay--Montaigne's Of Cannibals--this book provides rollicking relief for writers in distress.

Table Of Contents
introduction 1

A Question from Phillip Lopate & “Of Old Girlfriends” 4

A Question from Cheryl Strayed & “Dash It All” 14

A Question from Julianna Baggott & “The Napkin Is the Message” 22

A Question from Judith Kitchen & “A Striped Essay” 44

A Question from Barrie Jean Borich & “Mr. Plimpton’s Revenge” 56

A Question from Lia Purpura & “Understanding Your Cauliflower” 70

A Question from Sue William Silverman & “How Tasty

Was My Little Frenchman” 78

A Question from B.J. Hollars & “Have You Learned

Your Lesson, Amigo?” 86

A Question from Diane Ackerman & “Of Bums” 100

A Question from Dinah Lenney & “Pulling Teeth, or Twenty

Reasons Why My Daughter's Turning Twenty Can't Come

Soon Enough” 106

A Question from Philip Graham & “How to Choose

an Appropriate Essay Topic” 116


A Question from Michael Martone & “Four Essential Tips for

Telling the Truth in Memoir and Securing That Blockbuster

Book Deal” 120

A Question from Patrick Madden & “The Actual Message Mike the Tree Guy Left on My Answering Machine the Evening I Arrived Home to Find that the Tree He Was Cutting Down When I Left

for Work That Morning Still Stood Tall in My Side Yard” 136

A Question from Steve Almond & “An Essay on the Inherent

Dangers of Memoir Writing” 140

A Question from Ander Monson & “Nelson Algren’s Shorts” 144

A Question from Brenda Miller & “Why I Trained My Dog to Post” 154

A Question from David Shields & “Beep! Beep!” 168

A Question from Roxane Gay & “Don’t Read This Essay” 174

A Question from Brian Doyle & “Clogged and Stupid and Weary” 182

A Question from Lee Gutkind 186

acknowledgments 191

about the author 193

index 195
About Dinty W. Moore
DINTY W. MOORE is a highly regarded essayist and author of numerous books, including The Mindful Writer, Crafting the Personal Essay, and the memoir Between Panic and Desire, winner of the Grub Street Nonfiction Book Prize. He has been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Gettysburg Review, Harper's, and Crazyhorse, among others. He also edits Brevity: The Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction and has served as coordinating editor for the annual anthology Best Creative Nonfiction. Moore currently teaches as director of Ohio University's BA, MA, and PhD in Creative Writing program.

(BK-9781607748090)

SKU BK-9781607748090
Barcode # 9781607748090
Brand Random House USA Inc
Artist / Author Dinty W. Moore
Shipping Weight 0.2600kg
Shipping Width 0.130m
Shipping Height 0.020m
Shipping Length 0.185m
Assembled Length 18.500m
Assembled Height 2.000m
Assembled Width 13.000m
Type Hardcover

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