Read one of the essays:
"The Secret Story" |
“K. L. Cook’s The Art of Disobedience is a master class on fiction writing. To read this dynamic collection is to see into the mind (and wonderfully, the heart) of one of our most perceptive and impassioned contemporary writers. More than simply a treatise on creative writing, these essays chronicle Cook’s own journey, a story as compelling as any of the famous works he discusses. By the end, what he leaves us with is an unexpected treasure: an understanding of what is essential in life, as well as in literature. What greater gift can a writer hope to give?”
~Rachel M. Harper, author of Brass Ankle Blues and This Side of Providence |
“Mischievously shape-shifting from critical analysis to literary memoir to writing instruction and back again, The Art of Disobedience is brimming with provocative insights and practical advice for writers at every level of development. At turns playful and profound, Cook’s essays on writing and the writer’s life achieve that rarity among writing guides in being able to delight and amuse as they inform and inspire. Generous, honest, and rigorous in spirit, an indispensable book for anyone who writes, wants to write, or teaches writing.”
~John Pipkin, author of Woodsburner and The Blind Astronomer’s Daughter |
“The Art of Disobedience is an energetic book focused on form and influence in fiction, but it touches down in so many other books that we experience the bountiful feast of Cook’s reading life. We get to see his critical engagement with the forms of fiction, his thinking about how books work, and how and why it matters that we read fiction.”
~Elaine Neil Orr, author of Swimming Between Worlds and A Different Sun |
“Wonderfully clear, accessible, and edifying, K. L. Cook’s essays provide both a primer and graduate seminar on the art of writing and reading. With warmth and erudition, he engages us in conversations on craft from point of view to narrative structure, offers road maps for critiquing, and shows how the simplest tale, well-told, is an aesthetic marvel. Cook’s passion for his subject, as in his superb personal essay, ‘My Hamlet,’ moves us and inspires.”
~Roy Hoffman, author of Alabama Afternoons and Come Landfall |