National Network for Equitable Library Service

The Blunt Playwright won't tell you everything there is to know about playwriting. It won't even try. What it will do is examine process, structure, dialogue, and character; provide classic and contemporary scenes to study; outline clever exercises to strengthen writing skills; and so much more. Highly regarded and used in schools everywhere, this updated edition cements its place as one of the best resources for playwrights.

This is the one guide that anyone who writes-whether student, business person, or professional writer-should keep with them whenever they begin to write. Filled with professional tips and a wealth of instructive examples and prompts, this valuable, easy-to-use handbook can help solve any and all writing problems.

Although many programs can be described as innovative and cutting edge, one classic from radio's golden era was truly an experiment in what could be done with the medium from its first episode. The concept of Columbia Workshop, conceived by Irving Reis, was to try new innovations on radio. The program focused on both the cutting edge work of sound techs and producers as well as the ability of performers to push themselves in ways other shows did not require them to. Extreme attention was paid to every aspect of production.

An often-overlooked aspect of old time radio, overshadowed frequently by the stories told on the shows and the stars that performed them, was the fact that a crucial part of the medium was sound. Columbia Workshop not only paid attention to sound, but advanced how it was used on other programs then and now. Believing that 'production, not the play, was the thing', Irving Reis, the man behind the show, worked to make sure that Columbia Workshop was rich with music, sound, and innovative techniques setting it apart from other programs. Reis produced some cutting edge episodes.

Conceived originally as a program to push the boundaries of network radio, Columbia Workshop became a voice for writers and actors, a voice that America listened to. Columbia Workshop found its true stride in 1937 both as an innovator in radio production, but also in the quality of work it was producing. Columbia Workshop focused on turning quality scripts into quality episodes.

Every great author started out as a kid. Before the bestsellers, fan clubs, and beloved stories we know today, the world's most celebrated writers had regular-kid problems just like you. Sam Clemens (aka Mark Twain) loved to skip school and make mischief, with his best friend Tom of course! A young J. R. R. Tolkien was bitten by a huge tarantula - or as he called it, "a spider as big as a dragon." Toddler Zora Neale Hurston took her first steps when a wild hog entered her house and started chasing her!

The comprehensive biography of Stan Lee, father of Spider-Man and The Avengers, beloved comic book writer and editor, and former president and publisher of Marvel Comics, by Lee's colleague of over four decades. Stan Lee co-created Spider-Man! And Iron Man! And the Hulk! And the X-Men! And more than 500 other iconic characters! His name has appeared on more than a billion comic books, in 75 countries, in 25 languages. His superheroes have starred in multibillion-dollar grossing movies and TV series.

"A warm, generous and hilarious guide through the writer's world and its treacherous swamps."-Los Angeles Times. Advice on writing and on life from an acclaimed bestselling author: "Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead.

National Book Award-winning biographer Deirdre Bair explores her fifteen remarkable years in Paris with Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir, painting intimate new portraits of two literary giants and revealing secrets of the biographical art. In 1971 Deirdre Bair was a journalist and recently minted Ph.D. who managed to secure access to Nobel Prize-winning author Samuel Beckett. He agreed that she could write his biography despite never having written-or even read-a biography herself.

Trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth Reichl took the job (and the risk) of a lifetime when she entered the glamorous, high-stakes world of magazine publishing. Now, for the first time, she chronicles her groundbreaking tenure as editor in chief of Gourmet. "This is the rare case of an amazing writer living an amazing life."-Ann Patchett When Conde Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America's oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone's boss.