A few people have asked me how I write so well. At first, I couldn't really articulate it. I'd read a dozen books on writing, but I never could recall any of their discrete rules. So I started to trace my own thought process as I began to write a new piece. What follows is…

I have the good fortune of being in a fiction writing workshop where I recently submitted the first chapter of my novel. Because it was so well-received, I got a massive boost of confidence in my writing. I was surprised to see that so many of the students were engaging with my fiction so readily…

I happen to be taking a poetry workshop in which I am the oldest student. Being probably four to five years their senior, I am naturally a little patronizing in my view of them. But it surprised me how many of the young ladies—including a conservative Muslim girl—openly expressed a deep yearning for sensuality. One…

In my writing, I have always strived for attention to detail and realism. With my novel, I take inspiration from my own life and others', as well as surrounding historical context. For example, I recently thought to use the demolition of the Sands Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City as inspiration for a major part…

In this recent month's issue of Poets & Writers, author Eleanor Henderson writes about the use of backstory in her article entitled 'I Wasn't Born Yesterday'. Summarily, she argues that while "Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O' Connor, and JD Salinger all wrote deeply involving stories without backstage access to their characters' histories," well-written backstory is quite…