Woman of Letters

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July 2025

The good guy always wins. Because he's so good. That's why he wins.
The people of this village could not remember a time before the law.
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Naomi Kanakia
4
This pulp fiction journal had sleazy covers and a low circulation. But it still produced an iconic character.
For the past week, I’ve been reading a set of stories, written by Robert E.
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Naomi Kanakia
51
Samuel Richardson Prize deadline is July 31 + open thread
The rules for the contest are here, but the summary is that entries to the Samuel Richardson Prize should be longer than 40,000 words, and they…
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Naomi Kanakia
14
This genre has no name, so I just call it ‘regular non-fiction books’
If you read my interview a few weeks ago with Irina Dumitrescu, a prolific book reviewer and literary essayist, then you know that the nonfiction world…
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Naomi Kanakia
16
This literary genre was dropped from the canon. But maybe it had something to offer.
Recently I introduced a friend to Dwight MacDonald’s 1960 essay “Masscult and Midcult”, and she was beyond horrified by the snobby tone.
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Naomi Kanakia
36
It might be integrity, or it might be cowardice
Andi had a very strong opinion about a particular issue.
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Naomi Kanakia
19
A creative-writing degree can be quite useful
For as long as I’ve been online, I’ve heard writers asking, "Should I get a Master of the Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing?"
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Naomi Kanakia
96
How to write a creepy guy for an audience of women
I’m friends with a fair number of guys who’re writing novels about angry losers.
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Naomi Kanakia
76
Back when short stories were popular, they were also bad...but in a good way.
Every year Penguin Random House publishes an anthology called The O.
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Naomi Kanakia
75

June 2025

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