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Creation and the erotic spirit
The extraordinary poet Stanley Kunitz wrote that the essence of creativity is the erotic spirit, a point he made at age 100. The life force powered by lust—or sorrow at ...
Hungry polar bears and a 50-year story
Polar bears came into George Divoky’s camp on a barren Arctic Island last summer and devoured a colony of black guillemots he had studied there for 50 years. He didn’t ...
Here are writers I have worked with, and why
All the cliched images of writers have something in common—the tough guy with a manual typewriter and a glass of whiskey, the willowy girl perched at a window with a ...
How a brilliant writer can break the rules and get away with it
I saved Werner Herzog’s memoir for a year, until I would have time on vacation to thoroughly enjoy the madness, humor, weird asides, extraordinary feats, the complete, willful lack of ...
The political gamble behind Lisa Murkowski’s book
Now we find out if the gamble paid off. When I began working with Senator Lisa Murkowski on her new book, Far From Home, I told her I would be ...
Why Lisa Murkowski’s book took 5 years to write
Working with Senator Lisa Murkowski at home in New Jersey. (Rights reserved, no reuse without permission.) My collaboration with Senator Lisa Murkowski began in her office in the Hart Senate ...
Learning to see again
I looked at my wife across the table and suddenly saw how beautiful she is, as if seeing her for the first time. And then, halfway through that spark of ...
How to write clicky headlines (and how I learned)
Newsrooms had changed when I went back, in some ways for the worse. But for all I disliked about internet journalism, I learned rapidly. The internet gives instant feedback. That’s ...
Charles Wohlforth has written many of his own books, has ghost-written others, and helps many writers find their own way into print. Learn how to work with Charles.
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