Ive assumed it is Lara Crippa, as credited in the post.

Glad you enjoyed. I saw a review of Jonah Lehrer's book in The New Scientist... it's out later this month...looks good.

Well, that's interesting ... the way we choose to reveal our lives and the way we work seems always to be changing.

Yes, and Hockney has so much to say about process in art that makes sense in terms of writing

Thanks! Glad you like it!

Kellie, thanks for this. I seem to be having an extended holiday from WU, nose buried deep in the new novel I'm working on ... Yes, which books to keep, which to pass on? I've just got a Kindle which solves the problem in part but now I think: do I want the physical book or the kindle edition?

Yes, Mavis - that rush to publish the first collection is to be avoided. It's a tough one though, I think many poets send out a manuscript too early. It's a hard one to judge.

Your last point is well made - commercial pressure - certainly with UK publishers. Let's hope the success of the likes of Strout, Vann and Egan will make them think they're missing a trick! Thanks for reminding me to check out Jennifer Egan. I'm still catching up after my trip to the States, but I found an interview with her on Radio 4's Open Book, she says interesting things about writing, I plucked a quote from that and have just posted it as the new quote of the week from Egan. The link to the interview should still be live. Are some writers better in the short form? I'm not sure that has to be so. I'm thoroughly enjoying Colm Toibin's new collection, The Empty Family, each one seems to pack a novel in a few pages, and yet he's had most success with novels.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll look out for the Jennifer Egan. I think this form is really interesting. Been thinking about it a lot since reading David Shield's 'Reality Hunger' - his challenge to novelists - too in thrall to 'plot'. Both Elizabeth strout and, by the sounds of it, Jennifer Egan, are exploring parts of the whole, perhaps with more 'authenticity' so that the cumulative whole feels more rich. Is dramatic story form more convincing over the short form than the longer form of the novel, in terms of the reader feeling in the presence of a lived life rather than a cardboard cut-out? Life is messy and episodically dramatic. Perhaps we readers engage quickly with intensely and authentically rendered incidents and don't mind filling in gaps between? So linked short stories feel more a reflection of the lived life than the novel? I'm still thinking about this, what do you think?

Re: [Words Unlimited] Jane submitted a comment to Weekly Writing Workshop Prompt No 4 Nearly out of oranges, the only fruit ...