Authors on Writing

Drawing on some 3, 000 published interviews with contemporary authors, Authors on Writing: Metaphors and Intellectual Labor reveals new ways of conceiving of writing as intellectual labor. Authors' metaphorical stories about composing highlight not interior worlds but socially situated cultures of composing and apparatuses of authorship. Through an original method of interpreting metaphorical stories, Tomlinson argues that writing is both an individual activity and a collective practice, a solitary activity that depends upon rich, sustained, and complex social networks, institutions, and beliefs. This new book draws upon interviews with writers including: Seamus Heaney, Roald Dahl, Samuel Beckett, Bret Easton Ellis, John Fowles, Allen Ginsburg, Alice Walker and Gore Vidal.

Acknowledgements Introduction PART I: METAPHOR AND CULTURES OF COMPOSING Composing and Metaphoricity Multiple Truths and Metaphorical Models Metaphorics of Embodied Labor Metaphorics of Discursive Sociality PART II: THE APPARATUS OF AUTHORSHIP Authorship and Intellectual Labor Authorship in an Economy of Promotion Writing in Earthquake County Appendix: Sources, Selection, Classification of Metaphors Critical References Interview References