Recent fiction is teeming with blocked writers: from John Updike鈥檚 Henry Bech to Stephen King鈥檚 Paul Sheldon and Mike Noonan. From David Foster Wallace鈥檚 Mark Nechtr to the autofictional figures of Jordan Castro, Salvador Plascencia, Nam Le, Ben Lerner, Sheila Heti, and Andrew Martin. Writing Through Writer鈥檚 Block offers the first book-length analysis of the archetype of the blocked writer. From the scenes of writer鈥檚 block enacted in these fictions, we gather pedagogical lessons that are germane to writers of all kinds鈥攃reative and academic, advanced and novice鈥攁nd particularly useful for the growing contingency of faculty whose teaching responsibilities lie in both literature and academic writing.
鈥淚n its thorough study of what we write about when we write about writer鈥檚 block, this book reveals a new intersection of autofiction and writing theory, bringing to light not only solutions but a new method for studying the geneses of writing.鈥濃擠ouglas Dowland, author, We, Us, and Them: Affect and American Nonfiction from Vietnam to Trump
鈥淧eople working in writing studies could learn a lot by thinking about fiction writers as 鈥榯heorists of composition,鈥 and literary studies could gain a needed urgency by seeing how its work is relevant to the experiences of not only artists and critics but writers in undergraduate composition courses. Colton charts useful new ground.鈥濃擩oseph Harris, author, The Work of Teaching Writing: Learning from Fiction, Film, and Drama
