Writers Tricks of the Trade Vol. 5, Issue 4

PRESS “CONTROL” THEN CLICK “BUY” TO PURCHASE THE BOOK TONI MORRISON BUY Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford February 18, 1931) is an American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon and Beloved. She was also commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner first performed in 2005. She won won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for Beloved and the Nobel Prize in 1993. On May 29, 2012, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Morrison serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. She once gave a wonderful definition of what an editor could be, and it applies to agents as well. “Good editors are really the third eye. Cool. Dispassionate. They don’t love you or your work; for me that is what is valuable—not compliments. BUY BUY JULY-AUGUST 2015 Sometimes it’s uncanny; the editor puts his or her finger on exactly the place the writer knows is weak but just couldn’t do any better at the time. Or perhaps the writer thought it might fly, but wasn’t sure. Good editors identify that place and sometimes make suggestions. Some suggestions are not useful because you can’t explain everything to an editor about what you are trying to do.” Original cover of Pulitzer Prize winning novel “Beloved” "In order to be as free as I possibly can, in my own imagination, I can't take positions that are closed. Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it, to open doors, sometimes, not even closing the book -leaving the endings open for reinterpretation, revisitation, a little ambiguity." PAGE 14 WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE

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