Writers on Writing: Conversations With Allen Mendenhall

As a lawyer, Allen Mendenhall asks questions. As a writer, he’s interested in the craft. Combine these two and you get this, a collection of writers discussing writing. Writers on Writing: Conversations with Allen Mendenhall is an anthology of penetrating interviews with prominent and diverse authors who discuss arts, literature, books, culture, life, and the writing process with Allen Mendenhall, editor of Southern Literary Review and associate dean at Faulkner University Thomas Goode Jones School of Law. Featuring the telling insights and sage advice of novelists, historians, poets, professors, philosophers, and more, Writers on Writing is not just an informative guide or a useful resource but a fount of inspiration. Readers will find in these pages authentic voices, frank exchanges, and unique perspectives on a wide variety of matters. Aspiring and established writers alike will learn from this book.

What others are saying about Writers on Writing

Anyone interested in the lives of present-day American writers, and particularly of writers who come from the South or take the South as their subject, will find the interviews compiled in Allen Mendenhall’s Writers on Writing an unalloyed pleasure. Mendenhall is the most gentle and conversational of interviewers, and his book consists of interview after interview with writers, famous and obscure alike, who are pleased to talk freely about their writing habits, their careers, and their ambitions. The result is a book that manages to be a serious romp, full of insight and full of fun.— Wilfred M. McClay, G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty, University of Oklahoma

Writers on Writing takes us on a delightful stroll through recent Southern literature, with Allen Mendenhall as our expert guide. A polymath who wears his learning well, Mendenhall poses questions both inviting and incisive. He encourages authors to take him—and therefore, us—into their confidence, providing valuable insights into dozens of books and the sensibilities that brought them into being.— Gilbert Allen, Professor Emeritus, Furman University

A better way to put John Gardner’s famous quote might be “Writing is the only religion I have.” The writers in this anthology demonstrate this kind of passion, intellectual curiosity, and devotion to the world of ideas, and all the ways in which a writer reorganizes a life to pursue a life in writing. This anthology of interviews gives the reader insight into how a writer thinks, whether it’s writing fiction, poetry, or pursuing academic work. These interviews are inspiring, engaging, and ought to be required reading for anyone who loves the written word.— Daren Dean, Department of English, Louisiana State University

The interviews in Writers on Writing are not formulaic Q&As, but organic conversations with a diverse group of writers, including numerous award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors. Mendenhall shows us more than the art and craft of these writers—a group that includes novelists, historians, memoirists, social commentators, essayists, poets, and writers of mystery, legal and crime thrillers, and literary criticism. He reveals their hearts.— Susan Cushman, editor of Southern Writers on Writing and A Second Blooming, author of the novel Cherry Bomb and the memoir Tangles and Plaques

This collection of writers on writing contains smart, perceptive interviews with diverse authors and offers unique and fascinating insights into the creative mind and processes. Each interview unearths delicious and precious nuggets that are as captivating as they are revelatory.— Nancy Dillingham, author of the poetry collections New Ground, Home, and Like Headlines

The interviews collected here reflect [a] sense of mutuality. Not that Allen Mendenhall himself ever becomes their subject, but repeatedly we find two people having genuine exchanges—for the benefit of any who might enjoy and learn from them later. Mendenhall’s friendship with some of these authors enlivens those interviews to a special degree, but here also are first encounters that result in reflective, valuable dialogue.— Robert West, Mississippi State University

Mendenhall … the editor of the Southern Literary Review, has long been drawn to interviews with creatives and artists—an interest that he’s fueled over the years by perusing the hallowed archives of the Paris Review. As an associate dean at the Jones School of Law at Faulkner University, it’s perhaps unsurprising that he’s also highly aware of the various ways in which “people respond differently to probing inquiry.” However, one never gets the sense that the 46 writers he interviews in this book are being put on the stand; on the contrary, Mendenhall’s lines of questioning are subtle, and he successfully fulfills his stated intention of letting “the writers do the talking.” This collection will familiarize readers with the approaches, techniques, and concerns of a diverse set of authors in a broad range of genres.— Kirkus Reviews

Writers on Writing: Conversations with Allen Mendenhall is a thoughtful, insightful, and intelligent book. In other words, it is much like its creator, Allen Mendenhall, who is an author, editor, avid reader, law school associate dean, lawyer, and, as illustrated in this book, an ace interviewer.  Writers on Writing is filled with interviews of modern authors, some famous and some not-so-famous. The eclectic collection of interviews in the book are not formulaic Q & A’s, but something deeper, more revealing, often quite personal, and endlessly fascinating. And that’s what makes the book such a source of discovery and delight.— Claire Hamner Matturro, award-winning author of Skinny-Dipping, Wildcat Wine, Bone Valley, Sweetheart Deal, and Trouble in Tallahassee

[E]ditor and interviewer Allen Mendenhall invites a wide selection of writers to engage in a contemplative exploration of a writer’s life: from the necessary perseverance during the writing process to the quirky development of characters, from the writer’s relation to community to his pull to imagination. This book offers serious, reflective voices and casual, warm tones as it showcases the various idiosyncratic personalities of the interviewees, as well as a wide range of topics related to writing and the authors’ published works.— Emily Kleinhenz, The Imaginative Conservative

Writers on Writing is a superb collection of interviews conducted by Allen Mendenhall with established Southern writers, as well as those new on the scene. … Allen Mendenhall’s Writers on Writing is an illuminating and pleasant read for those familiar with the Southern literary tradition as well as those coming upon it for the first time. There is, quite honestly, something for everyone.— Elizabeth Bittner, The University Bookman

Reviews of Writers on Writing

• here in Kirkus Reviews [PDF here],
• here in The Imaginative Conservative [PDF here],
• here in The University Bookman [PDF here,
• here in Compulsive Reader [PDF here],
• interviewed about the book here in Southern Literary Review [see PDF here],
• here by Philip L. Levin on “Meet the Authors” (aired on Cableone 1001, Universe 7, Ocean7 TV 7 WXVO Ocean Springs), and
• here on the WYAM TV51 show “Valley Happenings.”