How to Start Writing (and When to Stop): Advice for Writers (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780811229715)

In this witty "how-to" guide, Wislawa Szymborska has nothing but sympathy for the labors of would-be writers generally: "I myself started out with rotten poetry and stories," she confesses in this collection of pieces culled from the advice she gave--anonymously--for many years in the well-known Polish journal Literary Life.
She returns time and again to the mundane business of writing poetry properly, that is to say, painstakingly and sparingly. "I sigh to be a poet," Miss A. P. from Bialogard exclaims. "I groan to be an editor," Szymborska responds.
Szymborska stubbornly insists on poetry's "prosaic side" "Let's take the wings off and try writing on foot, shall we?" This delightful compilation, translated by the peerless Clare Cavanagh, will delight readers and writers alike.
Perhaps you could learn to love in prose.

Author: Wislawa Szymborska
ISBN-10: 0811229718
ISBN-13: 9780811229715
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Language: English
Published: 10/05/2021
Pages: 112
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.30lbs
Size: 7.80h x 5.20w x 0.39d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 08/30/2021