National Network for Equitable Library Service

Writing is, and always will be, an act defined by failure. The best plan is to just get used to it. Failure is a topic discussed in every creative writing department in the world, but this is the book every beginning writer should have on their shelf to prepare them—which is to say, to console them in their misery. Less a guide to writing and more a guide to how to simply keep on going, On Writing and Failure: Or, On the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer describes the defining role played by rejection in literary endeavors and contemplates failure as the essence of the writer’s life. Along with his own history of rejection, Marche offers an historical framework—from Ovid’s exile and Dostoevsky’s mock execution to more contemporary tribulations—through which to consider rejection, and addresses the impact of the widespread decline of humanism on the twenty-first century writing life.