LIBRARY NOTES
In this session we'll take the first chapter of Daniel Woodrell's novel
Winter's Bone, read it aloud one sentence or paragraph at a time, and hold each part up to the light.
Close reading is a slow, surprisingly exciting process. It reveals how a writer does the critical jobs of storytelling: creates conflict, ramps up tension, reveals and deepens character, establishes place and time, anchors a world in sensory detail, and moves the story forward. Through close reading we refine our ability to learn, as writers, the craft of fiction from the authors we admire.
Dylan Landis is the author of the novel in stories
Normal People Don't Live Like This, one of Newsday's Top Ten Books of 2009, and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
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