Marsha NathansonLife as fictionIrwin Shaw once likened writing to the contact sport of football. The effort can be exhausting, the goal unreached, and you are hurt on…Jun 26, 2018Jun 26, 2018
Marsha NathansonA storyteller of small-town life“When I was a boy in Kansas, my mother had a boarding house. There were three women school teachers living in the house. I was four years…May 29, 2018May 29, 2018
Marsha NathansonTwo cousins from BrooklynOne hundred thirteen years ago, first cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee were born nine months and five blocks apart in Brooklyn, New…Apr 3, 2018Apr 3, 2018
Marsha NathansonHe was a newspaperman who wrote noirThe Postman Always Rings Twice shocked readers in the 1930s with its language of sex and violence. James M. Cain’s noir novel tells the…Feb 14, 2018Feb 14, 2018
Marsha NathansonFiction was her trade, cooking her passionLaurie Colwin, best remembered for her food essays in Gourmet magazine, was a fiction writer and passionate home cook. Since her sudden…Jan 18, 2018Jan 18, 2018
Marsha NathansonRest in peace: why obits are worth readingI like to read obits. Like a good biography, obituaries expand my view of the world and introduce me to people I otherwise would never get…Dec 6, 2017Dec 6, 2017
Marsha NathansonPurveyor of detailBefore he invented tough-talking private eye Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler was a freelance journalist and government worker. He picked…Oct 30, 2017Oct 30, 2017
Marsha NathansonWrite what you seeIn the late 1940s, Alice Steinbach was a student in Miss Dennis’s ninth grade creative writing class at Western High School, in Baltimore…Oct 10, 2017Oct 10, 2017
Marsha NathansonLessons from a playwrightA New York playwright shares insights from his writing life.Oct 5, 2017Oct 5, 2017
Marsha NathansonDashiell Hammett“Shoo her in, darling,” said Spade. “Shoo her in.” The Maltese FalconOct 2, 2017Oct 2, 2017