Jennifer Howard

For someone who grew up in Washington, D.C., I am not very well read in the literature of the city—the political literature, that is. I haven’t read many of the political novels set here. That has been partly a deliberate choice, a desire to concentrate more on the extra-political creative possibilities of this town. A lot of Washington lives have very little to do with politics; not everyone moves here to be a Type A politico or lobbyist or lawyer or, heaven help us, journalist. Many of my neighbors are people whose families have been here for three, four, five… Read more...

I’ve got a new short story out. It’s called “Mercury Rising,” and you can find it in Amazing Graces (Paycock Press, 2012), a collection edited by Richard Peabody. (Read a Washington Post profile of him.) Here’s the excerpt I read at Politics and Prose on Sunday, when we launched the book: “Call the fire department!” Everything Timmy said these days had an exclamation point at the end of it. Six was the age of enthusiasms. “He’s not on fire, stupid,” said William. “Don’t call your brother stupid,” Roberta said. “We’ll call 911.” She left the engine running while she plowed… Read more...

It’s no secret that I’m not a very good member of my book club. I tend to read the book late if I read it at all. I go for the company (smart, friendly) and the wine (why not?). The latest book I didn’t read is A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, which got raves from those who actually had read it. The book club loved many things about it but especially loved the plot, which sounds like a corker. One friend, who’s also a novelist, said, “It’s the kind of plot that must have been a lot harder… Read more...

I’m over at Bookslut this week as a guest blogger. Bookslut remains one of my favorite litblogs; Jessa Crispin and her gang do great work there. If you are in the neighborhood, swing by. Feel free to drop me a line with bookish tips and lit news. This is also the week I get back to fiction-writing, although the results of that won’t be public for a while. No, I’m not participating in NaNoWriMo, but if you are I wish you the best of writing luck and discipline. Tell me how it’s going in the comments. Does the time pressure… Read more...

I hit an unexpected and unwelcome writing hiatus this past month when my netbook stopped working. I want to say that the netbook died or that it decided to quit on me, but that would be giving it a life and a sense of being that it doesn’t deserve, much as I loved it. (And I did love it.) And even saying that a machine doesn’t deserve something anthropomorphizes it. It’s hard to resist the pull to see one’s writing implements as collaborators. Writing gets very tangled up for me with the mechanics by which it’s accomplished. There’s a practical… Read more...

There was a time when every journalist starting out got some version of the fire-in-the-belly speech from his or her editor. The speech went like this: Writing’s a tough game, kid. The pay’s as short as the hours are long. The world doesn’t give a crap about your deathless prose. So if you don’t have the fire in the belly—if you’d just as soon spend your days as a lawyer or a doctor or a mechanic—do yourself and the rest of humanity a favor and decide writing’s not for you before you file another story. Mine was delivered by my… Read more...