There’s a certain kind of personal essay that, for a long time, everybody seemed to hate. These essays were mostly written by women. They came off as unseemly, the writer’s judgment as flawed. They ...

This Q&A first appeared in Write at the Edge, a newsletter from Mallary Tenore Tarpley featuring tips and best practices for seasoned and amateur writers who want to hone their craft. Subscribe to ...

A mark of a good writer, whether fiction, essay, or poetry, is the ability to unflinchingly illuminate the emotional issues that people often try to suppress. An exemplar is Phillip Lopate, long ...

Before I pioneered writing personal essays about quitting things, people simply quit things and maybe told their friends and family about it. They didn’t quit things as fodder for an overlong essay ...