The Writing Life: The Hopwood Lectures, Fifth Series (Vol. 4)

For those who live and breathe literature, these lectures from the University of Michigan's Hopwood series are akin to bracing, mountain-fresh air. Ten writers weigh in on the import of literature, both in their own lives and in general. Philip Levine describes a transcendent reading given by three poets to a nearly nonexistent audience. Geoffrey Wolff examines a writer's relationship with his characters. Louise Glück explores the fear that happiness will make one's work less meaningful. And Roger Rosenblatt delineates nine "antirules" of journalism. Rosenblatt claims that true understanding comes not from reading the news, but from reading history, poetry, and fiction. He believes in waiting a story out, paying attention to the stories people have forgotten, and investigating the peripheries of a story. Finally, Rosenblatt debunks the adage that one must write what one knows: "When I least understood a subject ... I was, strangely ... most accurate as an observer."