No Failure, Only Practice

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a good summer so far. I’ve got a couple of quick pieces of housekeeping before we get to this month’s craft essay: First, thanks to everyone who already sent in your typo stories and anecdotes for my next nonfiction book, Typo. I haven’t had a chance to reply to everyone yet, so if I haven’t gotten to you, my thanks is incoming.

Hello friends! I hope your summer is off to a good start! I’m just back from travels to Spain, Portugal, Greece, and the tiniest bit of the UK, and am now slowly sliding back into my writing practice.

Hello friends! Before we get to this month’s craft essay, I’ve got two bits of good personal news: First, I’m thrilled to share that my new novel Penitent will be published in 2028 by Doubleday, with Thomas Gebremedhin editing! Thanks as always to my agent Kirby Kim for his wise advice and for finding my book its best possible home.

I returned home yesterday evening from a week spent in Baltimore at the AWP Conference, where (if you haven’t been) 10,000 or so writers and writing teachers gather annually to talk writing and reading, eat and drink literally everything in the city, shout ourselves hoarse, and go to innumerable late night off-site events in cafes and bars, each of which features thirty geniuses reading for seven minutes apiece, plus one bad actor who reads for fifteen.

Hello friends! A little business before we dive into this month’s craft essay: First, my review of the novel Eradication by Jonathan Miles appeared in this past weekend’s New York Times Book Review. It’s an excellent novel and a fine addition to the fast-growing genre of climate fiction. Check out the review and give the book a look.

Hello friends! Happy New Year! Before we get started, a quick reminder that my “Revision, Rewriting, and Re-Visioning Writing Retreat” on the Greek island of Zakynthos still has slots available! If you’ve got a novel or memoir you’re working on and will be ready to revise or rewrite next summer, this might be a great fit for you.

Hello friends! A few bits of news before I get to this month’s craft essay: First, next month will bring the year’s final live Zoom lecture for paid subscribers! It’s been such a pleasure hosting these, and I look forward to continuing to do so in 2026. We’ve picked earlier topics by poll, and every time the runner-up has been a talk on the book publishing process, which I know has disappointed some readers.

Hello friends! This month, I’m excited to share a guest craft essay by Amber Sparks, long-time friend and one of my favorite writers, whose highly anticipated debut novel Happy People Don’t Live Here is out today from Liveright. Here’s the jacket copy for Happy People Don’t Live Here: Just past the edge of summer, Alice and her daughter, Fern, arrive at the Pine Lake Apartments―a former sanatorium occupied by an ensemble of peculiar neighbors and a smattering of ghosts.

Hello friends! A few bits of news before I get to this month’s craft essay: First, the ASU Worldbuilding Initiative returns this Wednesday with "Cones and Caution: The Precarity of Signaling the Future"! Among other topics, we’ll discuss: How might the meaning of language or symbols change over time? Is it even possible to exactly express ourselves across great spans of time?

Hello friends, I’m writing today to invite you to join me next summer for a unique writing retreat themed around “Revision, Rewriting, and Re-Visioning,” to be held on the Greek island of Zakynthos from June 6-13, 2026! I’m partnering for this retreat with Uptrek, an organization known for successfully putting on artists’ retreats all over Europe. My retreat is limited to just 16 participants, but I wanted to give the first chance to register to subscribers to this newsletter.