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'Famous Writers School:' Lessons for the Teacher
Steven Carter wrote <em>I Was Howard Hughes</em> and has a new book, <em>Famous Writers School: A Novel</em>, out this month. He currently teaches as an assistant English professor at Georgetown College in Kentucky.
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Steven Carter's new book, Famous Writers School: A Novel may show that anyone can write but it also shows, through the fumbling of the protagonist, that not everyone can, or should, teach.
With the recent outpouring of writers' workshops and online writing communities, anyone can be a writer. Author Steven Carter has addressed this issue in his newest book Famous Writers School: A Novel.
Carter's book follows the founder and teacher of the school, protagonist Wendell Newton -- who, through his bumbling interactions with students, shows that while anyone may be able to write, not everyone should teach.
The school, a correspondence course advertised in the back of literary magazines, is made up of a few novice authors -- including a crime fiction-writing John Deere sales representative whose excerpts make up a good deal of Carter's novel.
There's also some good writer's block advice, for example, pretending that you're writing to a friend or pressuring characters. However, Wendell Newton offers an even more unusual piece of advice -- stealing names from obituaries.
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