Author Archives: Peter Selgin

About Peter Selgin

Peter Selgin is the author of Drowning Lessons, winner of the 2007 Flannery O’Connor Award for Fiction, Life Goes to the Movies, a novel, two books on the craft of fiction, and several children’s books. His memoir, Confessions of a Left-Handed Man, was short-listed for the William Saroyan International Prize. His latest novel, The Water Master, won the William Faulkner Society Prize, selected by Random House Senior Editor Will Murphy. His work has won the Missouri Review Editors’ Prize, the Dana Award, six Best American Essay notable essay citations, and two selections for the Best American series. A second memoir, The Inventors, is forthcoming from Hawthorne Books in April of 2016. He teaches at Antioch University’s MFA program and is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Georgia College & State University.

How the Vest was Won

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Peter Selgin

“The king hath yesterday declared his revolution of setting a fashion for clothes which he will never alter. It will be a vest. I know not well how, but it is to teach nobility thrift and it will do good.”–Pepys … Continue reading →

Posted in Dreaming on Paper, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Great American Diner

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Peter Selgin

Of the American diner Henry Miller wrote, “Everything is at its worst in this type of eating place.” We must allow Henry his verve, but need not accede to his accuracy. For if everything is at its worst at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Dreaming on Paper, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Cheever’s Basement

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Peter Selgin

I heard or was told by someone not long ago that John Cheever wrote the bulk of his short stories in the boiler room of a midtown office building, where he had contrived to set up a little office for … Continue reading →

Posted in Dreaming on Paper, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Count on a Murderer for a Fancy Prose Style

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Peter Selgin

The plot of Lolita, to the extent that one exists, is about the contest between poetry and prose, between style and substance. Hear me out on this. I’ll focus first on the book’s style, specifically those moments where author Nabokov, … Continue reading →

Posted in Dreaming on Paper, Uncategorized | Leave a comment