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Reviewers are curs and their opinions are not to be taken seriously.

Writing is a subversive activity that exempts you from the rules.

It was the sixties, and I was in
college and incredibly restless.

He was making some green by ripping his own heart out.

Betrayal was written on my face, in my eyes, and I knew it.

If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.

Vultures liked to perch on the austere ledge outside my window.

She transfigured into a swallow in flight, or a hippo in the rainy season.

If a friend’s family is persecuted, call Sinn Fein on that number.

He left the Meijer in the dark of the April evening and drove to the Embassy.

When his father was out cold he tied him up, roping his arms to his sides.

The author reads her story, a finalist in the Winter 2013 Story Contest.

In three years he had made her forget that blindness meant not seeing.

The night was clear, a fat kingfish moon in the sky with stars.

The bank had stated that emphatically. They had to sell and sell now. It was as if Hank had aged twice as fast, and he couldn’t stand that truth.

My father was neither kind nor strong in his bruising.

We loaded the packs and started down, into the bluing of dusk.

When we’re all together like this it feels like hope is a possibility.

Creating so many mail merges, loading ink, unjamming paper.

I saw Baryshnikov twice. Heard Pavarotti, Marsalis, and Ma.

Here’s a first, he said, some nutbag wants to dig the grave himself.

The story doesn’t begin until the van breaks down, I always say.

“And if you ever tell anybody what I’m about to tell you, I’ll deny it.”

“I’m looking for a Mr. Miller,” he said. “I was told I might find him here.”

“Why don’t you call yourself Butterfly?” he said. “A pretty thing like you.”

Handwritten drafts of “Byzantium,” “Easter, 1916,” and other poems.

The handwritten first draft pages of Robert Olen Butler's first novel.

Liza Donnelly

The notebooks reveal insertions, deletions, queries, and corrections.

Words and sketches from Gail Godwin’s upcoming novel Flora.