The writer and novelist Stephen Marche discusses his new book, the sixth in the Field Notes series, On Writing and Failure: Or, the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer (Biblioasis, 2023), and more, with Joseph Planta.

On Writing and Failure: Or, the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer by Stephen Marche (Biblioasis, 2023). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: On Writing and Failure

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Stephen Marche joins me again. He is the author of the sixth title of the Field Notes series from Biblioasis, On Writing and Failure: Or, the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer. It provides marvelous insight into that which a writer endures. Failure is something that a writer it seems has to relearn regularly. And this book provides examples from the author’s own writing career, as well as various insights into how writers have kept on going. No level of success seems to cure this idea of failure that plagues all sorts of writers. Stephen also provides a number of anecdotes, a collection of rejections from writers going back to Ovid, to Dostoevsky, to James Joyce, to Melville, and more. I’ll ask Stephen why it seems he is fascinated by the idea of failure, and remembering the failure of others. He looks too at the relationship between suffering and creativity. He points to David Foster Wallace among others who have had to suffer be it through mental illness or addiction or both, for their work. I’ll ask Stephen about writer’s block and how writers seem to contend with it, or not. It’s not all that bad. Stephen Marche is a novelist, essayist, and cultural commentator. He is the author of a half a dozen books, including the work of fiction, Shining at the Bottom of the Sea, which he was first on this program with in 2007 when it was published. He has written for sundry publications including the New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Walrus, and Esquire, where he was a columnist for a number of years. The website for more is at www.stephenmarche.com. He joined me from Toronto earlier this week. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Stephen Marche; Mr. Marche, good morning.

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