Write Away Essays:

by David Benjamin   “So shall the world go on,/ To good malignant, to bad men benign,/ Under her own weight groaning.”  ― John Milton, Paradise Lost   MADISON, Wis.—Walt Disney has said that a movie’s only as good as its villain. He illustrated this precept with the Evil Queen in Snow White and Cruella……

by David Benjamin   “I feel naked without a Hi-Liter in my pocket.”  — David Benjamin   MADISON, Wis.—What would you underline? In ninth grade, when I started buying books—instead of depending solely on the public library—I fell almost instinctively into the habit of underlining paragraphs, sentences, passages, even single words that tickled my fancy.……

by David Benjamin   “I just like the idea of trying to write for all those versions of me out there, wherever they are.” —Sherman Alexie “The good writer seems to be writing about himself (but never is) but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself, and all……

Every spring, the Robert M. Schuster Short Prose Awards at La Follette High School in Madison afford me the opportunity to read young writers’ work and to examine how these kids’ see and depict their world, compared to how, why and what I wrote when I was their age.   PARIS— I was a teenage……

by David Benjamin   MADISON, Wis.— Since I was never admitted—nor did I seek admission—to a prestigious university creative-writing program, I don’t know if the students in these curricula are taught much about digging. I learned to dig, rather, as a newspaper reporter and editor. None of my bosses in journalism gave me digging instructions,……

by David Benjamin   MADISON, Wis.—A question readers often ask is, “Where do you get your ideas?” The short, smartass answer is “My head.” The candid response is hard to express because inspiration varies from story to story, book to book. What I’ve learned, for sure, however, is that you can’t fashion a good yarn……

The choice between writing “realism” or venturing into science-fiction and fantasy is often irrevocable, unless the writer can somehow follow the unique example of Franz Kafka.   by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis.—Every fiction writer, often subconsciously, decides early in life whether to base his or her stories in the “real” world or to venture instead……

by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis.—Almost every male who grew up between—roughly—1960 and 1990 knows which cinema hero carried, tucked into a slim side-holster so as not to disturb the line of his suit, a Walther PPK.  As I thought about James Bond’s favorite pistol, I got curious about it and opened my Standard Catalog of……

There is a Jekyll & Hyde quality in the nature of a professional writer. In person, the writer seems not writerly at all. He or she can seem quiet, unassuming, even withdrawn. But to be effective, a good writer subsumes all self-doubt, conceals misgivings from the reader and writes with controlled aggression.   by David……

by David Benjamin   “There’s a holdup in the Bronx, Brooklyn’s broken out in fights, “There’s a traffic jam in Harlem that’s backed up to Jackson Heights, “There’s a scout troop short a child, Khrushchev’s due at Idlewild! “Car 54, where are you?”   MADISON, Wis.—Occasionally, to test my memory, I try singing to myself……