Joyce Carol Oates is an artist ideally suited to answer essential questions about what makes a story striking, a novel come alive, a writer an artist as well as a craftsman. In The Faith of a Writer she provides valuable lessons on how language, ideas, and experience are assembled to create art. Discussing those subjects most important to the narrative craft, Oates touches on topics such as inspiration, memory, self-criticism, and "the unique power of the unconscious." On a more personal note, she pays homage to those she calls her "significant predecessors," and discusses the importance of reading in the life of a writer. Oates also speaks of childhood inspirations, offers advice to young writers, and discusses the wildly varying states of mind of a writer at work.
