Staying visible along your writing path

“I never write to disappear and escape. The truth is exactly the opposite. Most people strike me as escaping and disappearing in one way or another - into their jobs, their daily routines, their delusions about themselves and others.” – Steven Millhauser

Born in New York City on this date in 1943, Millhauser won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for his novel Martin Dressler.   In 2012 won The Story Prize for his book We Others.  That prize is given annually for the previous year’s outstanding collection of short fiction.

While he has had several successful novels, he has earned even more accolades for his numerous short stories.           One of his best known, Eisenheim the Illusionist, was made into the critically acclaimed 2006 film The Illusionist.         

                         
A resident of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where he teaches writing at Skidmore, one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges, Millhauser has this advice about the writing process:  “When a story or part of a story comes to me, I turn it over in my mind a long time before starting to write. I might make notes or take long drives or who knows what. By the time I give myself permission to write, I know certain things, though not everything. I know where the story is headed, and I know certain crucial points along the way.”

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