Writers' stories

In 1965 the eminent American science-fiction writer John W Campbell wrote an essay titled The Barbarians Within. In it, he recommended that "the barbarian" - and it was clear he meant African Americans - be injected with cocaine and heroin in order to be kept under control. It was a plan that, he said, "has the advantage ...  Read more

A simple Twitter post helped debut author B.B. Alston land a three-book deal and a film option at Universal Pictures for his middle grade fantasy series. Last fall, the aspiring author had been living in South Carolina and working on the manuscript for Amari and the Night Brothers before heading into a biomedical science program in preparation for medical school.

When I was a 29-year-old freshman at Portland State, I was lucky enough to work with Pulitzer Prize-finalist Craig Lesley. He gave me some advice that has always stuck with me: write about work. Or more specifically: figure out what your characters do for work and show them working.

Author Terry Deary has a pretty good idea of why his Horrible Histories series is so popular.

"The problem with non-fiction books is they're written by experts who wouldn't know a child if it jumped up and bit them on the kneecap," he says.  Read more

After Angie Thomas requested that she not be tagged into negative reviews of her books on social media, she has received a torrent of abuse.