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Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut’s Powerful 1973 Letter to the Man Burning his Books

Shawn Usher beautifully sets the context in Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience: Since first being published in 1967— and despite being considered …

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Advice to Writers: A Compendium of Quotes, Anecdotes, and Writerly Wisdom

In response to Ernest Hemingway on Writing a reader passed along a pointer to Advice to Writers, “a compendium of quotes, anecdotes, and writerly wisdom from a dazzling array of literary lights.” Jon …

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The three types of specialist 

The success of any revolution requires, as Kurt Vonnegut writes in Bluebeard, three types of specialists. Slazinger claims to have learned from history that most people cannot open their minds to new …

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Kurt Vonnegut: How To Write With Style

Kurt Vonnegut on writing with style. Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you’re writing. If you …

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Kurt Vonnegut at the Writers’ Workshop

A former student writes an essay on what Kurt Vonnegut was like as a teacher at the Writers’ Workshop: He told us in workshop classes, “You’re in the entertainment business.” He impressed this …

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Kurt Vonnegut: The Shapes of Stories

In this short lecture, Kurt Vonnegut explains the different shapes that stories can take using a chalkboard. Now let me give you a marketing tip. The people who can afford to buy books and magazines …

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