Bookworm

Yellow Bay Writer's Workshop Bill Kitteredge and Annick Smicth, the founding directors of the Yellow Bay Writer's Workshop in Montana, tell about what goes on at one of the most spirited summer writing workshops in America.

Mark Doty Heaven's Coast, Atlantis (Harper Collins) Poet Mark Doty's memoir is an expression of grief over his lover's death. How do prose and poetry compare as vehicles for emotion?

Who Owns the West? William Kittredge, the big-hearted, grouchy guru of the literary non-fiction movement, talks about the American West and good writing.

Atticus Ron Hansen has written a noir novel with theological underpinnings. Is the moral novelist a moral man?

David Foster Wallace has written the ultimate mega-meta novel, a 1078-page whopper. The surprise is that this mind-stunner may capture the imagination of a new generation of readers.

Pollen Adventures in cyberspace. A first--Bookworm goes sci.fi. with the author of Vurt! Is there a boundary between science fiction and literature?

Human Wishes After an analysis of the role that pleasure and pain play in his poetry, our poet laureate discusses contemporary literary criticism.

Good Benito; Einstein's Dreams Lightman discusses loneliness: the curse of the scientist and the rest of us, as well.

The Law of Enclosures A discussion about the strategies of structure--how Peck disassembles chronology to tell the story of an unhappy marriage.

Mr. Ives' Christmas Oscar Hijuelos on the difficulty of writing a contemporary tale of faith.