The Creative Writer's Survival Guide ─ Advice from an Unrepentant Novelist

Beginning with "The Writer's Wonderland---Or: A Warning" and ending with "You've Published a Book---Now What?" The Creative Writer's Survival Guide is a must-read for creative-writing students and teachers, conference participants, and aspiring writers of every stamp. Directed primarily at fiction writers but suitable for writers of all genres, John McNally's guide is a comprehensive, take-no-prisoners blunt, highly idiosyncratic, and delightfully subjective take on the writing life.

"I write this blurb in distress because for years I've been stealing John McNally's sharp insights into writing and publishing and passing them off as my own. Now this generous so-and-so is sharing his vast experience as a writer and editor with everyone. Worse yet, this book, despite its instructional value, is irresistibly, un-put-downably readable."---Timothy Schaffert, author, Devils in the Sugar Shop

"This has got to be the most comprehensive nuts-and-bolts how-to that has ever been written about writing. McNally has answered every one---every one!---of the questions that always come up in a Q&A session when the writer's impulse is to talk about Art and the audience wants to know: how do I get to be you? I look forward to having this book in hand. It's a fine addition to the evergrowing literature of creative writing, and it covers everything."---Janet Burroway, author, Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft and Bridge of Sand

John McNally is the author of three novels, After the Workshop, The Book of Ralph, and America's Report Card, and two story collections, Troublemakers (lowa, 2000) and Ghosts of Chicago. He has edited six anthologies, including Humor Me: An Anthology of Humor by Writers of Color (lowa, 2002), and his fiction, book reviews, and essays have appeared in more than a hundred publications. A native of Chicago's southwest side, he is an associate professor of English at Wake Forest University.