Stephen King reviews Carol Sklenicka’s new biography of Raymond Carver and shudders at Carver’s poisonous relationship with Gordon Lish, editor and self-appointed Svengali: “in 1973, when my first novel was accepted for publication, I was in similar straits: young, endlessly drunk, trying to support a wife and two children, writing at night, hoping for a break. The break came, but until reading Sklenicka’s book, I thought it was the $2,500 advance Doubleday paid for Carrie. Now I realize it may have been not winding up with Gordon Lish as my editor.”
Junot Diaz does a lot of writing in the bathroom. Edwidge Danticat starts with a collage. Russell Banks can only write nonfiction on a computer — fiction he does longhand. All part of How to Write a Great Novel.
