The Writer’s Center presents a FREE virtual chat about the craft of fiction! We’re joined by novelist, poet, and screenwriter Lisa Zeidner to talk about her new book, Who Says?: Mastering Point of View in Fiction. Lisa will be in conversation with Zach Powers, novelist and Director of Communications at The Writer’s Center.
RSVP below, and you’ll receive an email on or before February 11 with instructions for joining the chat via our video conferencing platform, Zoom. FREE and open to the public, all times Eastern. Limited space.
We encourage you to order a copy of the book from your local, independent bookseller or from Bookshop.org.
Lisa Zeidner is the author of five novels, most recently Love Bomb, and two books of poems, one of which won the Brittingham Prize in poetry. She is also a screenwriter and the author of the craft book Who Says? Mastering Point of View in Fiction. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, Salon, and other publications. She teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers–Camden and lives in Cherry Hill, NJ.
About the Book
A thorough, illuminating, and entertaining guide to crafting point of view, a fiction writer’s most essential choice.
Who is telling the story to whom affects everything about a work of fiction, from the style and tone to the progression of its plot. Using hundreds of examples from both classic and contemporary fiction, novelist and longtime MFA professor Lisa Zeidner reveals how even seemingly unrelated issues―like what makes a rich description, how much characters need to “grow and change” to engage us, and what distinguishes literary and commercial fiction―are ultimately tied to point of view.
Who Says? is divided into chapters that explore different points of view, from omniscient and first person to second person and child narrators, and offers an original way to reread well-known authors and reconsider our own work. Engaging and accessible, Who Says? presents any practicing writer with a new system for choosing a point of view, experimenting with how those choices affect the narrative, and applying these ideas to revision.
“Lisa Zeidner’s Who Says? is as captivating as it is instructive, an enormously useful craft book that is also, miraculously, a page-turner. Witnessing how Zeidner constructs her own erudite and hilarious point of view is a class in itself. An essential resource for teachers and students, writers and readers.” —Karen Russell, author of Orange World and Other Stories