Reading for writers

Do you want to study under the great teachers? Inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert, some reading recommendations from Emma Gannon, Musa Okwonga & Bec Evans.

I'm back from a week teaching writing with coaching at The Hurst in deepest Shropshire. It was an amazing full-circle moment as I returned to Arvon , the place my own writing journey began .

What goes on inside an Arvon course is magical, unique and subject to the Las Vegas Rule.*

While I won’t break the rule, there is something I can share - a writing tip that is mostly free and available to many of us. And that is to read.

The great teachers

We might not have access to writing teachers, coaches and mentors. We might not be able to pay for writing courses and retreats. But we can still learn, as Elizabeth Gilbert wrote in Big Magic :

“Do you want to study under the great teachers? Is that it? Well, you can find them anywhere. They live on the shelves of your library; they live on the walls of museums; they live in the recordings made decades ago. Your teachers don’t even need to be alive to educate you masterfully. No living writer has ever taught me more about plotting and characterisation than Charles Dickens has taught me - and needless to say I never met him during office hours to discuss it. All I had to do in order to learn from Dickens was to spend years privately studying his novels like they were holy scripture, and then to practice like the devil on my own.” - Elizabeth Gilbert,

My co-tutor Musa Okwonga and I shared readings every day in the workshops. We discussed and learned from writers on the page; their craft and practice inspired us to write. Whenever someone asked a question, we offered advice, but also suggested books to read.

Our guest writer on Wednesday, the creative multi-hyphenate @Emma Gannon , describes herself on her Substack as: “a total bookworm, obsessed” so books came up in conversation and recommendations were generously offered.

?? See Emma’s Note about her visit...

Reading recommendations from last week

Many books were recommended across the week. As we were studying life writing, memoir, essays and personal stories were front of mind. If you ask me today what books I recommend, it will be different to last week and will change again for tomorrow. Likewise, I am sure that Musa and Emma will offer different books by the time you read this.

Before I get to some selected recommendations, I urge you to check out In The End, It Was All About Love and One of Them by Musa Okwonga and The Success Myth and Olive by Emma Gannon.

Here are a few book recs related to life writing and the practice of writing - and indeed living.

From me, Bec Evans

• The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
• The Outrun by Amy Liptrot
• Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Awaeke Emezi
• Write it all Down by Cathy Rentzenbrink
• Your Story Matters by Nikesh Shukla

From Musa Okwonga

• Every Day Is For The Thief by Teju Cole
• Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth by Warsan Shire
• The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
• Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

From Emma Gannon

• Knife by Salman Rushdie
• The Instant by Amy Liptrot
• Steering by Starlight by Martha Beck
• The Practice by Seth Godin

What books do you recommend?

What book would you recommend to a writer? Are there any that have inspired you to start writing or helped you get the words down? Which writers do you return to again and again? I’d love to hear.

But also, if you don’t read, that’s OK. I once heard a podcast with bestselling author Adam Kay where he admitted not being a reader. Yes, you can learn so much from reading but it’s not for everyone. No judgement. OK, some judgement.

Footnote

*This comes from the phrase ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.’ It’s probably the only way a writing retreat is like Vegas in offering a protected space - everything that is discussed will not leave the retreat, in this case, playwright John Osborne’s former home and grounds at The Hurst . Or perhaps writing retreats are more like casinos than you think. You’ll have to go to one to find out :)