9781787336025

Garth Greenwell

‘An irreverent, thought-provoking and ultimately inspiring book about making art’

Rumaan Alam

Elizabeth McCracken is the award-winning

‘Elizabeth McCracken is that rarest of combinations – a world-class writer and a world-class writing teacher’

Paul Harding

author of nine books including The Giant’s House (a National Book Award finalist), The Story Prize and longlisted for the

‘A comfort and a lifeline. I would encourage every writer to read it’

Rebecca Ivory

National Book Award) and The Hero of This Book (winner of the Wingate Prize). She has received grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National

‘A gift for writers, A Long Game is warm and bolstering, straight-talking, practical and tough’

Jessica Stanley

Endowment for the Arts, and she was chosen as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. She has served on the faculty

‘A cheering companion that makes writing a less lonely business’ Yiyun Li

These are some of the most popular nuggets of advice given to writers, universally agreed to be true. They are all pieces of writing advice that Elizabeth McCracken expertly and persuasively shoots down in A Long Game. McCracken has been writing for most of her life: bestselling novels, critically acclaimed short-story collections and a celebrated memoir. For over thirty-five years she has also taught creative writing, guiding students towards their own answers to the question of how to write fiction.

A Long Game

Thunderstruck & Other Stories (winner of

Elizabeth McCracken

‘Elizabeth McCracken is one of America’s finest writers’

Elizabeth McCracken

at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and taught at the University of Texas at Austin. Jacket photographs © iStock/Getty Images Design © gray318 Author photograph © Edward Carey

A Jonathan Cape book penguin.co.uk/vintage

I S B N 978-1-787-33602-5

90000 9

781787 336025

Write every day Pay attention to craft Show, don’t tell Write what you know Kill your darlings

A Long Game

How to Write Fiction

In A Long Game, she shares insights gleaned along the way, deconstructing received wisdom while playfully tackling the mysteries inherent to writing and creativity. Warm, witty and wise, and full of practical tips that are as entertaining as they are enabling, this book will lead any writer, at any stage of their career, back to the page. As much a book about the life of a working artist as it is a guide to thinking about fiction, A Long Game is a revelatory and indispensable resource, and the ideal companion to every writing life.

£14.99

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