NOTE: The other two reviews that appear in this section are reviewing a DIFFERENT collection of essays called "Writers On Writing." LibraryThing has incorrectly linked this 1991 collection with the 2002 Collection from the NY Times imprint "Times Books." Please note this! (I'm trying to get LibraryThing to correct this.)

This oldish (1991) collection of essays from writers and poets is very hit-and-miss. For me, a writer less interested in poetry, I found myself getting bogged down in the poetry analysis/methodology pieces. (Though one of the essays directs specifically that writers of prose SHOULD be reading poetry for the purposes of considering word economy, and so I just might have to reconsider.) And even several of the prose-related essays got bogged down in literary ephemera that seemed like it had less to do with writing. But a few of the essays hit home -- especially a fun one on prolificacy, which was good for a chuckle and also made me feel like a slug for not pouring out novels at the rate of Balzac and Dickens. I would only recommend this collection to the hardest-core writer, one who has already slogged through the more common how-to books (Carol Bly, John Gardner, Janet Burroway, Anne Lamott, etc.). ( )