Letters to a Young Writer
In our Letters to a Young Writer series, Narrative’s featured authors respond to comments and questions from younger authors reflecting on the nature of the writer’s work. We inaugurate this series with a correspondence between Dennis O’Reilly and T. Corghessan Boyle:
Features
T. Coraghessan Boyle is the author of twenty-two works of fiction, including The Tortilla Curtain, Drop City, When the Killing’s Done, and San Miguel (Viking, September 2012). Known for his exploration of the joys, sorrows, and misguided appetites of baby boomers, Boyle has been compared to Mark Twain for his mixture of humor and social insight. He has received many literary honors, including a National Book Award nomination for Drop City. He teaches in the English Department at the University of Southern California.
Dennis O’Reilly recently completed his first novel and is currently working on a collection of short stories. He works as a freelance writer in the Seattle area, where he lives with his wife and children.
Photograph by Derek Sparks.
Fall 2008
Reader Comments
- I shaved my beard off for lesser reasons: more acting roles...
- It's a razor-thin line Boyle walks. Even I -- a long,...
- Great feature. Can't wait to see who will be next....
- I like Boyle's non-patronizing stand and worldview. Writers should be as...
- After reading this, I admire T.C. Boyle in a different way...
- "I write to make sense of life in all its illogical,...
- . . .Within every great story are all the elements of...
