Mentors, Muses & Monsters

by Benedict, Elizabeth

• ISBN13: 9781438443508
• ISBN10: 1438443501
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

In the rich, impassioned essays collected here, thirty of today's brightest literary lights address the question of mentorship and influence, exploring those times in their development as writers when a special person, a beloved book, or a certain job gave them the courage to take a bold chance on their own gifts. For Jane Smiley, the turning point was the support of her fellow classmates-not her teachers-at the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop. For Jonathan Safran Foer, it was a brief encounter with Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. For Michael Cunningham, it was an illicit cigarette break with a tough-talking teenage girl at Hollywood High who challenged him to read Virginia Woolf. And for Elizabeth Benedict, inspiration came after writing an essay about her Barnard mentor, Elizabeth Hardwick, after she died in 2007.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Benedict, a graduate of Barnard College, is the author of five novels, including Almost, The Practice of Deceit, and the National Book Award Finalist Slow Dancing, as well as The Joy of Writing Sex: A Guide for Fiction Writers. A widely published essayist and journalist, she has taught fiction and nonfiction writing at Princeton University, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Columbia University, Swarthmore College, and the New York State Summer Writers Institute.

Table of Contents

Preface to Paperback Edition	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
People We Encountered	p. 7
"Why Not Say What Happened?": Remembering Miss Hardwick	p. 9
Imagining Influence	p. 17
Fathers	p. 27
Mentors in General, Peter Taylor in Particular	p. 39
A Life in Books	p. 50
Annie Dillard and the Writing Life	p. 59
The Snow Globe	p. 70
When Julie Met Deb …	p. 76
The Tiger and the Pelican: Mentors Elizabeth Hardwick and Janice Thaddeus	p. 88
The Moment	p. 98
Only Plump the Pillows	p. 107
Sontag's Rules	p. 114
In the Absence of Mentors/Monsters: Notes on Writerly Influences	p. 128
The Scholars and the Pornographer	p. 138
"But What I Really Love About This Is This Amazing Game That You've Invented": An Appreciation of John Hawkes	p. 147
Munro Country	p. 153
Mother Country	p. 163
The Seducer	p. 169
Harold Brodkey	p. 180
Books We Read	p. 191
Company	p. 193
Five Million Head of Cattle	p. 200
On Fat City	p. 205
Mad Hope and Mavericks	p. 208
Getting it. Deeply immersed. In awe. Learning. Reading Ms. McDermott. Appreciating beginnings. Still appreciating beginnings. Nailing it.	p. 213
Paper Mentors	p. 220
Times of Our Lives	p. 227
Coming of Age at Bread Loaf	p. 229
Please Don't Write	p. 238
Starving	p. 251
Growing Pains	p. 256
Iowa City, 1974	p. 261
Acknowledgments	p. 268
Author Biographies	p. 269
Permissions	p. 276
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