Letters to a Young Writer

Bloomsbury presents Letters to a Young Writer written and read by Colum McCann.
From the National Book Award-winning, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Let the Great World Spin and Transatlantic comes a passionate and practical book of advice, as essential for budding writers as Stephen King's On Writing
'A warm, open-hearted paean to the joys of writing' Sunday Times
'Excellent ... cannot fail as a pick-me-up' Observer
I hope there is something here for any young writer - or any older writer, for that matter - who happens to be looking for a teacher to come along, a teacher who, in the end, can really teach nothing at all but fire.
From the critically acclaimed Colum McCann, author of the National Book Award winner Let the Great World Spin, comes a paean to the power of language, and a direct address to the artistic, professional and philosophical concerns that challenge and sometimes torment an author.
Comprising fifty-two short prose pieces, Letters to a Young Writer ranges from practical matters of authorship, such as finding an agent, the pros and cons of creative writing degrees and handling bad reviews, through to the more joyous and celebratory, as McCann elucidates the pleasures to be found in truthful writing, for: 'the best writing makes us glad that we are - however briefly - alive.'
Emphatic and empathetic, pragmatic and profound, this is an essential companion to any author's journey - and a deeply personal work from one of our greatest literary voices.

Colum McCann-s seven novels and three collections of short stories have been published in over forty languages and received some of the world-s most prestigious literary awards and honours, including the National Book Award for his novel Let the Great World Spin in 2009. His novel TransAtlantic was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013, and his most recent novel, Apeirogon, also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, is an international bestseller on four continents. colummccann.com