Ebook: Letters to a Young Writer

From the bestselling author of the National Book Award winner Let the Great World Spin comes a lesson in how to be a writer--and so much more than that.
Intriguing and inspirational, this book is a call to look outward rather than inward. McCann asks his readers to constantly push the boundaries of experience, to see empathy and wonder in the stories we craft and hear.

A paean to the power of language, both by argument and by example, Letters to a Young Writer is fierce and honest in its testament to the bruises delivered by writing as both a profession and a calling. It charges aspiring writers to learn the rules and even break them.

These fifty-two essays are ultimately a profound challenge to a new generation to bring truth and light to a dark world through their art.

"A warm, open-hearted paean to the joys of writing" —Sunday Times

"Excellent ... This slim volume cannot fail as a pick-me-up" —Observer

"Practical writing advice meets a heartfelt love song to creativity" —Irish Times

"An intensely literary writer ... His prose thrums with echoes of Beckett, Yeats and Joyce" —Sunday Times

"A writer of power and subtlety" —New York Times

"A very gifted, charming writer" —Guardian

"McCann's writing is elegant and ironic" —The Times

"A supremely talented writer" —Sunday Times

"Practical writing advice meets heartfelt love song to creativity" —Irish Times 'Books to Look Out for in 2017

"There is beauty to the language and precision, grace notes that return to mind time and again to transport you. McCann's books feel universal. Now the 52-year-old Dublin-born New York-naturalised bestseller . is letting some of his secrets out . A guide to putting words on the page and a celebration of language, a call to look out, not in" —Big Issue in Scotland

Colum McCann, originally from Dublin, Ireland, is the author of five novels and two collections of stories and has won numerous international literary awards for his writing. His film Everything in This Country Must was nominated for a short-film Oscar in 2005. Zoli, Dancer and This Side of Brightness were international bestsellers and his latest novel, Let the Great World Spin, won the 2009 National Book Award. His fiction has been published in twenty-seven languages. Colum McCann lives in New York.