Amitava Kumar's Every Day I Write the Book is for academic writers what Annie Dillard's The Writing Life and Stephen King's On Writing are for creative writers. Alongside Kumar's interviews with an array of scholars whose distinct writing offers inspiring examples for students and academics alike, the book's pages are full of practical advice about everything from how to write criticism to making use of a kitchen timer. Communication, engagement, honesty: these are the aims and sources of good writing. Storytelling, attention to organization, solid work habits: these are its tools. Kumar's own voice is present in his essays about the writing process and in his perceptive and witty observations on the academic world. A writing manual as well as a manifesto, Every Day I Write the Book will interest and guide aspiring writers everywhere.
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Every Day I Write the Book: Notes on Style
Amitava Kumar's Every Day I Write the Book is for academic writers what Annie Dillard's The Writing Life and Stephen King's On Writing are for creative writers. Alongside Kumar's interviews with an array of scholars whose distinct writing offers inspiring examples for students and academics alike, the book's pages are full of practical advice about everything from how to write criticism to making use of a kitchen timer. Communication, engagement, honesty: these are the aims and sources of good writing. Storytelling, attention to organization, solid work habits: these are its tools. Kumar's own voice is present in his essays about the writing process and in his perceptive and witty observations on the academic world. A writing manual as well as a manifesto, Every Day I Write the Book will interest and guide aspiring writers everywhere.
Amitava Kumar's Every Day I Write the Book is for academic writers what Annie Dillard's The Writing Life and Stephen King's On Writing are for creative writers. Alongside Kumar's interviews with an array of scholars whose distinct writing offers inspiring examples for students and academics alike, the book's pages are full of practical advice about everything from how to write criticism to making use of a kitchen timer. Communication, engagement, honesty: these are the aims and sources of good writing. Storytelling, attention to organization, solid work habits: these are its tools. Kumar's own voice is present in his essays about the writing process and in his perceptive and witty observations on the academic world. A writing manual as well as a manifesto, Every Day I Write the Book will interest and guide aspiring writers everywhere.
Amitava Kumar is Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English at Vassar College and the author of numerous books, including Lunch with a Bigot; A Matter of Rats; and Nobody Does the Right Thing, all also published by Duke University Press; and most recently, Immigrant, Montana: A Novel.
Table of Contents
Introduction. The 90-Day Book 1 Part I. Self-Help Misery 5 Good Sentences 6 Read No Secondary Literature 7 Read Junk 9 Failure 10 Running 12 Sleep 15 Kitchen Timer 16 Self-Help 17 Part II. Writing a Book: A Brief History Rules of Writing 23 In Memory of 24 Out of Place 26 Eyes on the Ground 28 The End of the Line 30 Creative Criticism 31 How to Throw Your Body 36 I'm Feeling Myself 38 Creative Writing 39 Part III. Credos Declarations of Independence 47 In Praise of Nonfiction 54 There Is No Single Way 56 How Proust Can Ruin Your Life 57 Reality Hunger 58 Depend on Your Dumbness 60 Blackness (Unmitigated) 62 Rage on the Page 63 On Training 68 Part IV. Form Light Years 71 Neither/Nor 72 Criticism by Other Means 75 Paranoid Theory 77 Erotic Style 80 I Blame the Topic Sentence 82 The Sound of the Fury 83 In Defense of the Fragment 86 Kids 88 Part V. Academic Interest Diana Studies 91 Examined Life 95 Occupy Writing 96 Academic Sentence 98 Dissertation Blah 100 Your Job Is to Know a Lot 102 Terminology 103 Anti-Anti Jargon 104 Monograph 107 Part VI. Style But Life 111 Sugared Violets 112 Voice 113 Wikileaks Manual of Style 117 Detecting Style 118 Strunk and White 120 A Clean English Sentence 122 Trade 126 Recommendation Letter 128 Part VII. Exercises Bad Writing 137 Prompt 139 Post-Its 141 Revising 142 Editing 144 Performing It 146 Rituals 149 For Graduate Students 152 Not Writing 161 Part VIII. The Groves of Academe Academe 165 Stoner 167 Common Sense 169 Titles 170 Campus Criticism 172 Farther Away 176 Accountability 177 Tenure Files 179 Journals 182 Part IX. Materials Photographs, etc. 187 "Who's Got the Address?" (a Collaboration with Teju Cole) 190 Acknowledgments 197 Appendix A. Ten Rules of Writing 201 Appendix B. PEN Ten Interview 207 Notes 211 Index 231
“Every Day I Write the Book is a persuasive instance of the sort of rare nonfiction performance Amitava Kumar invokes within its pages; he at once defines and exemplifies a vital modern nonfiction tradition. Full of pragmatic analyses and recommendations, this enthralling, important book will prove to be compelling and useful across many audiences.”
Sven Birkerts
“Amitava Kumar's Every Day I Write the Book compels a cluster of adjectives—eclectic, ruminative, associative, probing, and personal—all of which, taken together, only begin to describe this unique writing sensibility. Turning the pages we find ourselves riding shotgun through the reading and writing life of a true cosmopolitan intellectual. Kumar instructs and inspires, running on all cylinders.”
