Though born and raised in the United States, I recently found myself asking whether I'm an American writer. I concluded that, based on my approach to fiction and despite having been born here, I am absolutely not an American writer. American writers, with few exceptions, believe you need to get to the point. I'm not…
Paul West: February 23, 1930 – October 18, 2015
Thirty years ago, in the spring of 1985, I had the great fortune to find myself in Paul West’s English 412 class: Advanced Fiction Writing. I think it was likely one of the last times he taught undergraduate fiction at Penn State. Sadly, Paul experienced health problems that knocked him out of commission for the…
Author Donald Anderson Highlights This Week’s Word Patriots, Stellar Panel to Gather for Paul West Birthday Program
This week on Mark Seinfelt’s Word Patriots webcast, Donald Anderson joins Mark to discuss his forthcoming work, Gathering Noise from My Life: A Camouflaged Memoir. Anderson directs the creative writing program at the United States Air Force Academy. Since 1989, he’s been Editor of War, Literature & the Arts: an international journal of the humanities.…
Anastasopoulos and Milletti Talk Paul West on Word Patriots
The dynamic writing duo Dimitri Anastasopoulos and Christina Milletti join Mark Seinfelt this week to discuss the work of Paul West on Mark's Word Patriots program. Both Dimitri and Christina studied with West at Penn State in the 1990s. Dimitri is the author of the 2001 novel A Larger Sense of Harvey and Christina is…
Talking Paul West on Mark Seinfelt’s “Word Patriots”
I'm happy to have had the opportunity to join Mark Seinfelt and Jason Charnesky on Mark's "Word Patriots" program. In this installment, we discuss the early work of novelist Paul West. All three of us worked with West in the 80s and 90s, and listening to our exchange transports me back to the seminar table…
Ed Desautels' Maximum Fiction 