Write 'for the art of it'

“I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.    Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something.” – Ann Patchett

She received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002 for her novel Bel Canto.  Patchett's other novels include her well-known and award-winning The Magician's Assistant, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.   The Orange Prize is one of Great Britain’s most prestigious writing awards and is given annually to a female author of any nationality (she is American).

The daughter of novelist Jeanne Ray and longtime L.A. police officer Frank Patchett, she was born on this date in 1963 and was first published 

in the prestigious Paris Review when she was just 20 years 

old.  After working for Seventeen magazine for 9 years, she began her creative writing career with the novel  The Patron Saint of Liars, which had modest sales but hit it big as a movie adaptation.

Also the editor of a short story collection (for other aspiring writers), she opened her own bookstore in her hometown of Nashville, Tenn., when other stores were closing down and leaving few outlets for writers’ work.  In 2012 she was named by Time magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World." 

“I don't write for an audience,” Patchett said when asked that question.  “I don't think whether my book will sell, (and) I definitely don't try selling it before I finish writing it.”

 

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