Diane Ackerman

How did you become a writer?

It seems to have chosen me. I've been writing for as long as I can remember, making up poems and stories when I was little.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Pablo Neruda, Dylan Thomas, Wallace Stevens, Loren Eisely, Lewis Thomas.

When and where do you write?

Mainly in my bay window, looking out at a big old magnolia tree and a cottage garden.

What are you working on now?

Columns for the NYT on “nature and human nature.”

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Sure, everyone has. Usually not for long though, because I've tried to make a living through the sweat of my pen, and deadlines will cure you of writer's block fast.

What’s your advice to new writers?

My best advice is to young writers is: follow your curiosity and passion. What fascinates you will probably fascinate others. But, even if it doesn’t, you will have devoted your life to what you love. Also, try to invent your confidence. When you’re trying something new, insecurity and stage fright come with the territory. Many wonderful writers (and other artists) have been plagued by insecurity throughout their professional lives. How could it be otherwise? By its nature, art involves risk. It’s not easy, but sometimes one just has to invent one’s confidence.

Poet, essayist, and naturalist, Diane Ackerman is the author of two dozen highly acclaimed works of nonfiction and poetry, including A Natural History of the Senses and The Zookeeper's Wife -- books beloved by millions of readers all over the world. Her most recent book, One Hundred Names for Love, has been described by Booklist as: "A gorgeously engrossing, affecting, sweetly funny, and mind-opening love story of crisis, determination, creativity, and repair." It was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Circle Critics Award.

Jeanne Ray

How did you become a writer?

I always wanted to be a writer, but my parents were Depression era folks, and they wanted me to do something I could always get a job doing. Because I am a caretaker type person, it didn’t sound like a bad idea to me, and I became a nurse. I loved nursing, though I continued to write as a hobby. And I read all the time. I never expected to publish, nor did I try. When I was sixty and about to retire, I became highly motivated to write, and I wrote a novel, Julie and Romeo, about two aging persons who fall deeply in love. They are from warring families in a small town, and they must deal with all the anger that erupts from their families. That book was highly successful, and other novels followed. 

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.)

My creative writing teachers always loved me, but it was reading that led the way for me. Dickens, Evelyn Waugh, and Graham Greene always, and my daughter, Ann Patchett, now.

When and where do you write?

I wrote my first book at night, because I was working days and I didn’t want anyone to know I was writing. Now I write anytime, anywhere. My computer is in the kitchen, because that is still where I feel most comfortable.

What are you working on now?

Right now, nothing. Clean up from the last book. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

No.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Read everything you can, and read critically. Figure out as you go what moves you and what doesn’t, and how the writer created those moods.

Bio: Born San Diego, California. Attended California schools, including St Vincent’s College of Nursing and LA State College. Married and had two daughters. Moved to Nashville, TN when I was thirty-three. Married again, divorced again. Married for the final time in 1991. It was after this that I began writing and really “found” myself. Darrell Ray and my daughters have been my mentors. Books are Julie and Romeo, Step-Ball-Change, Eat Cake, Julie and Romeo Get Lucky, and Calling Invisible Women.

Witold Rybczynski

How did you become a writer?

Thirty-four years ago I was approached by a book editor who had read an essay of mine in CoEvolution Quarterly and asked if I would be interested in expanding it into a book. I said sure. The result was Paper Heroes. I found I liked writing, that is, long periods of solitude, digging in libraries, research. I have written a book roughly every two or three years since, as well as innumerable articles, essays, and book reviews.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I am a non-fiction writer, so probably that sort of writing has had the most influence. I admire V.S. Naipaul, Paul Theroux, Jonathan Raban, Tracy Kidder—especially their language and clarity. Also historians: John Keegan, Simon Schama, Fernand Braudel, Niall Ferguson. Among art critics, Robert Hughes. For fun I read and re-read Ross Macdonald, Alan Furst, Charles McCarry, Philip Kerr, and John Le Carré—I don’t know if they count as an influence or not. Probably something seeps in.

When and where do you write?

I write pretty much every morning, from seven till noon. Occasionally I take holidays, but I consider writing like exercise—I have to do it regularly.

What are you working on now?

I’m finishing a book that contains everything I know about architecture after fifty years of studying it, looking at it, building it, critiquing it, and writing about it. That’s not the subtitle, but it could be.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Sometimes dead-ends and major re-writes, but no blocks. I often have trouble with titles, they either come immediately or very slowly. As I get older it’s gets harder to pin down a subject for the next book. Increasingly, I feel I have said all I want to say.

What’s your advice to new writers?

I learned the most about writing from listening to my editors, both book and magazine. They taught me how to edit myself, which is the most valuable skill a writer can have. Rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite some more. The writing can always be clearer, shorter, more to the point. And Churchill, a very good writer, was right: “Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.”

Bio: Born in 1943 in Edinburgh, Scotland, grew up in England and Canada, now lives with his wife Shirley in Philadelphia. Studied architecture and taught at McGill University in Montreal and the University of Pennsylvania, where he is professor emeritus. Author of fifteen books, including Home, The Most Beautiful House in the World (a NYT bestseller), A Clearing in the Distance (which won the J. Anthony Lukas Prize), and Makeshift Metropolis. His latest book is The Biography of a Building. Has written for The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and the New York Review of Books. Writes a regular blog on his website, www.witoldrybczynski.com.