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.

David Foster Wallace—R.I.P.

Posted on September 19, 2008 by Peter Selgin

Like everyone else, I was shocked to learn of David Foster Wallace’s suicide last Friday, and of the unendurably long winter of depression that preceded it. Up to the moment when I heard the news on the radio Wallace had … Continue reading →

Posted in Dreaming on Paper, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Armadillo Syndrome

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Peter Selgin

If there’s one thing I can’t accuse my students of, it’s dishonesty. They are, to say the least, candid—refreshingly so—in part because I’ve asked them to be. And because I’ve assured them that in my classroom their honesty will never … Continue reading →

Posted in Dreaming on Paper, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

To See Again

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Peter Selgin

“I can’t fix a blank page,” bestselling author Nora Roberts has famously said, providing me with the best if not the only excuse I can imagine for those often frightening documents called “first drafts.” In Bird By Bird, her inspirational … Continue reading →

Posted in Dreaming on Paper, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

My Opinion

Posted on September 12, 2008 by Peter Selgin

In one of my classes yesterday we were discussing the “cheating” essays. I tried to generalize about their weakness (a mistake, probably, since whenever we generalize we almost always do so in error). Still, with no time to deal with … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment