By Hand

Fiction in Manuscript

The Early Drafts of Robert Olen Butler’s first novel were written on yellow legal pads while the author was commuting on the Long Island Railroad. Thirty years later, though he composes on a computer, Butler continues to make initial notes by hand, using Moleskine sketchbooks. Below are holographs from his first novel (1981) and from a recent one, Hell (2009).

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Narrative By Hand

Robert Olen Butler is the author of numerous novels and six short story collections, including A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize; Weegee Stories (Narrative Library, 2010); and A Small Hotel (Grove/Atlantic, 2011). Among his numerous other accolades are two National Magazine Awards in Fiction and the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His book on the creative process for fiction writers, From Where You Dream, is widely used in classrooms. Butler teaches creative writing at Florida State University.

Photograph by Hatcher McCord.

By Hand

Fiction in Manuscript

Narrative Backstage

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