Typing With LEGO

I can’t imagine any typewriter lover — whether you use one or just admire them, as I do — not delighting in the new LEGO product, a very elegant, and realistic-looking, typewriter. So realistic, in fact, that once the 2,079-piece model is constructed, the typebars rise when you push the keys and the carriage moves […]

Why We Read

One of the best books on nonfiction writing is by a fiction writer: Stephen King. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is indispensable because of its economy and common sense. King is best known for writing horror, suspense, fantasy, and crime, but that’s beside the point. He has elevated whatever he does to a […]

What is Creative Nonfiction?

A friend, who is not in the journalism or publishing fields, recently asked me “what is creative nonfiction?” Since I’m part of the faculty of the University of King’s College’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction, I should know. But it can be a tricky term to define. The nonfiction part refers to telling true stories, not […]

Looks Sharp!

Years ago I started using mechanical pencils for convenience, but even good ones don’t compare to a Palomino Blackwing. So, I was tempted to switch back when I saw this Hovel pencil sharpener, made by Maker’s Cabinet. (I’ll admit, the $84 price tag gave me significant pause.)

Pitching Real Life

The Literary Review of Canada is an excellent, unsung publication. (I strongly suggest you buy it or subscribe.) For those of us who love essay-style book reviews (The New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, etc) the LRC, under the direction of editor-in-chief Kyle Wyatt, delivers in a […]

How Do You Write?

How do you write? Like this… Or like this…?

Mary Norris on Blackwings

Longtime New Yorker proofreader Mary Norris is a pencil enthusiast. She especially loves the elite Blackwing (“Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed”). In a New Yorker essay, she wrote: “Every pencil is a sandwich. All these years, I have been wondering how the lead got inside the pencil. It turns out that pencils are made […]

The Street Art of Wrdsmth

Wrdsmth is an Los Angeles-based graffiti artist who starts with a stylized typewriter image and adds to it some text, sometimes amusing, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes Hallmark-worthy. He’s from Cleveland, worked as an advertising copywriter in Chicago, and moved to LA to pursue other writing ambitions. He has now written screenplays and had a novel published. […]

The Talking Typewriter

Published in 1940, The Talking Typewriter is a totally charming story about how Johnny “Hunt-and-Pecker” Hopkins wants to write a novel. So he learns how to type from his imaginary friend, Mr. Asterisk. Written by Margaret Pratt with wonderful illustrations by Tibor Gergely.

Who Wrote the Best Ghostwritten Book?

These days, I make my living as a teacher and a ghostwriter of books. Ghostwriting is a mysterious occupation. Since discretion is one of its chief virtues, I can rarely name my clients. And one of the most important roles of a ghostwriter is to express the words of another person as they would have […]