The 'bite sized pieces' approach

“Families are endlessly fascinating. We all have one, and they have a great impact on who we are and what we do - Freudian as that is.” – Susan Minot

Born on Dec. 7, 1956, Minot is a multi-talented artist in a variety of genres having written novels, short stories, poetry, plays and movie scripts.

Minot's first book, Monkeys, won the 1987 Prix Femina Étranger in France and was published in a dozen countries. Her other books, all published internationally, include the best sellers Rapture and Thirty Girls and an award-winning poetry collection, Poems 4 A.M.      Also well known for her short stories, she won the prestigious Pushcart Prize for her story Hiding and has had works included several times in “The Best American Short Stories,” and the Pen/O Henry Prize Stories.

 

A graduate of Brown University (where she studied both writing and painting) and Columbia (for her Master’s in Fine Art), she has been both an editor and a professor alongside her writing career.  While writers can sometimes be overwhelmed by the task lying ahead of them, Minot espouses the “bite-sized” pieces approach.

“I remember when I was in graduate school and someone in workshop would say, 'I'm going to bring in a chapter of my novel.’  The thought that someone could think they'd write a whole long thing... I could only see twelve pages ahead. But then I realized that if you could see twelve more after that, you can start.”

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