L2L How to Become a Writer

“How to Become a Writer”

Lorrie Moore

Lorrie Moore has established herself as an acute observer and trenchant commentator, as well as having extraordinary writing skills and a sardonic sense of humor. She has published six short story collections, three novels, and — in her latest, See What Can Be Done — a book of essays and criticism. As Don Lee has framed it, she has had “a remarkably stable writing career,” and “[w]hile success has come quickly and easily to her, she has worked hard for it.” Her first book, Self Help, was published in 1985 and included short stories from her M.F.A. thesis at Cornell. “Six of the nine stories” in this debut, as Lee explains, “are written in the second-person mock-imperative, ironically imitating self-help books for contemporary women, particularly in regard to romance.” One is called “How to Become a Writer,” and this week Leigh E. Rich and P. T. Bridgeport discuss Moore’s life and work, focusing on this story and a more recent one, “Face Time,” written during the coronavirus pandemic.