Mentors, Muses & Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives - Hardcover

These inspiring essays are written by some of the most brilliant literary figures today It is always interesting to read about the influences that make a person go down a particular path, and with these thirty writers, it is a most interesting journey and a great compilation for the literature lover. San Francisco Book Review
Irresistible ... these exceptionally animated essays feel as though the writers couldn t get the words down quickly enough. And what an array of experiences and voices. Booklist
Highly recommended. Library Journal
A mesmerizing book of essays by famous pens who themselves were once helped or hurt by established talents as they tried to climb their way up the literary ladder. [Mentors, Muses & Monsters] beautifully captures the experience of being a literary aspirant wide-eyed, enchanted by words, and eager for the tutelage of a mentor one who s already scaled the temple wall and emerged, shining, in a turret. Christian Science Monitor
This anthology is that rare gem, a collection whose whole is greater, even, than the sum of its parts. Where else could you read musings-about-muses, accompanied by juicy tales from deep inside the writing life, by 30 of the best minds of our generation, all between the covers of one book? San Francisco Chronicle
Michael Cunningham relates his discovery of Mrs. Dalloway, the happy result of failing to impress a girl during high school ... Joyce Carol Oates tells us that she had no mentor but books ... And in terrific essays on the New York Review of Books and the Iowa Writers Workshop, Neil Gordon and Jane Smiley give us a sense ... of how institutions conspire to turn ordinary human beings into award-winning authors. Bookforum
Every essay here from Benedict s own remembrance of Elizabeth Hardwick to Christopher Castellani s Coming of Age at Breadloaf is wise and full of heart. Chicago Tribune
Deliciously rich and illuminating ... Each writer shades in the nuances of character and experience that make his subject come to life, and each reads like a short story. Martha s Vineyard Times
A unique collection of essays about the infinite varieties of literary mentoring The Writer
Margot Livesey, Jane Smiley, Denis Johnson, ZZ Packer, and Jonathan Safran Foer are among the stellar cast that weighs in on good, bad, and ugly encounters with, and advice from, their influences. Elle
a treasure trove of a book: every essay is charged with a young person s determination to be a writer, persisting often through hardship, but gaining in assurance as one reads, and before the end confidently displaying real talent. A true satisfaction! Peter Pouncey, author of Rules for Old Men Waiting: A Nove
Writers work alone more often than not, but their heads are full of people: imagined, remembered, waiting to be born. The ingenious, grateful, and often moving essays in this book evoke a certain class of these people, the alliterating authorities of the title. Words like rescue, permission, save, changed, devastating appear in these pages, suggesting effects a good deal more immediate than anything called up by model or influence. Do writers really need rescuing and the rest? Read and see. This is a wonderful book about what writers have found necessary, not what they thought they might need. Michael Wood, author of The Road to Delphi and America in the Movies
Whatever justified, or deluded, fascination these writers have toward their teachers, and however much or little reciprocity is granted, they weave riveting tales of their own evolution, sometimes outstripping their mentors. Mopsy Strange Kennedy, The Improper Bostonian"

"These inspiring essays are written by some of the most brilliant literary figures today ... It is always interesting to read about the influences that make a person go down a particular path, and with these thirty writers, it is a most interesting journey and a great compilation for the literature lover." -- San Francisco Book Review

"Irresistible ... these exceptionally animated essays feel as though the writers couldn't get the words down quickly enough. And what an array of experiences and voices." -- Booklist

"Highly recommended." -- Library Journal

"A mesmerizing book of essays by famous pens who themselves were once helped--or hurt--by established talents as they tried to climb their way up the literary ladder. [Mentors, Muses & Monsters] beautifully captures the experience of being a literary aspirant--wide-eyed, enchanted by words, and eager for the tutelage of a mentor --one who's already scaled the temple wall and emerged, shining, in a turret." -- Christian Science Monitor

"This anthology is that rare gem, a collection whose whole is greater, even, than the sum of its parts. Where else could you read musings-about-muses, accompanied by juicy tales from deep inside the writing life, by 30 of the best minds of our generation, all between the covers of one book?" -- San Francisco Chronicle

"Michael Cunningham relates his discovery of Mrs. Dalloway, the happy result of failing to impress a girl during high school ... Joyce Carol Oates tells us that she had no mentor but books ... And in terrific essays on the New York Review of Books and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Neil Gordon and Jane Smiley give us a sense ... of how institutions conspire to turn ordinary human beings into award-winning authors." -- Bookforum

"Every essay here--from Benedict's own remembrance of Elizabeth Hardwick to Christopher Castellani's 'Coming of Age at Breadloaf'--is wise and full of heart." -- Chicago Tribune

"Deliciously rich and illuminating ... Each writer shades in the nuances of character and experience that make his subject come to life, and each reads like a short story." -- Martha's Vineyard Times

"A unique collection of essays about the infinite varieties of literary mentoring..." -- The Writer

"Margot Livesey, Jane Smiley, Denis Johnson, ZZ Packer, and Jonathan Safran Foer are among the stellar cast that weighs in on good, bad, and ugly encounters with, and advice from, their influences." -- Elle

..". a treasure trove of a book: every essay is charged with a young person's determination to be a writer, persisting often through hardship, but gaining in assurance as one reads, and before the end confidently displaying real talent. A true satisfaction!" -- Peter Pouncey, author of Rules for Old Men Waiting: A Nove

"Writers work alone more often than not, but their heads are full of people: imagined, remembered, waiting to be born. The ingenious, grateful, and often moving essays in this book evoke a certain class of these people, the alliterating authorities of the title. Words like 'rescue, ' 'permission, ' 'save, ' 'changed, ' 'devastating' appear in these pages, suggesting effects a good deal more immediate than anything called up by 'model' or 'influence.' Do writers really need rescuing and the rest? Read and see. This is a wonderful book about what writers have found necessary, not what they thought they might need." -- Michael Wood, author of The Road to Delphi and America in the Movies

"Whatever justified, or deluded, fascination these writers have toward their teachers, and however much or little reciprocity is granted, they weave riveting tales of their own evolution, sometimes outstripping their mentors." -- Mopsy Strange Kennedy, The Improper Bostonian

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.