Writer's block

When I was 14 I shaved my head, stayed in a room alone for three days, and then dipped in the cool morning waters of the Ganges. It was all part of a common Indian ritual, a rite of passage between childhood and adolescence. The alone-in-a-room-for-three-days part was meant to be a time for contemplation and meditation, but I took it as an opportunity to read David Copperfield cover to cover.  Read more

While I was planning my current novel and annotating that plan, I asked myself a series of questions in the annotations. I know I'm not the only one to make notes on a draft in the form of questions, but until recently I wasn't aware that I was creating problems for myself by not categorizing the questions.

Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other, which recently won the Booker Prize, is out now from Grove Atlantic. We asked her about writers' block, her favorite books, and more.

For almost two years after my first book was published, I did not write a single new thing-not an essay, a story, a chapter, an ode, an elegy, nor even a monostich.

Most writers when they are interviewed are waiting patiently and hopefully for the interview to end, particularly if it is on stage or TV. They/we will say virtually anything to speed the process along, out of a fear of boring a restless audience.  Read more