Author Birthday – 21 October – Ann Napolitano

Happy Birthday, Ann Napolitano, born on 21 October 1971.

Ann Napolitano Quotes

1. I don’t believe in what’s commonly described as writer’s block, in which a writer sits down to write and finds themselves unable to. What I do believe in are the many legitimate issues that can make writing difficult.
2. Figure out the nature of the underlying problem that’s holding you back from your work, or holding your work back. It might be a lack of time or self-belief. Another possibility is that you always struggle during a specific phase of the writing process, and that’s why you feel stuck right now. If you recognise that this is a pattern—a repeated rough patch—you might feel better equipped to muscle through it.
3. I prefer the advice: Write what you like to read. This challenge opens the door of the writer’s imagination. If you love the work of Dickens, don’t hesitate to start your own sweeping epic. If you love the lyrical beauty of Jesmyn Ward’s work, please write your own gorgeous, tone-perfect story. And if you love romances set in foreign cities—go for it!
4. I knew, even at that young age, that I had to write in order to feel whole. Whether or not anyone else read my work, or paid me for it, was a separate matter.
5. The first year, while I’m thinking about the book, I don’t let myself write, and I only think and plan and research and take notes. But still, there’s probably only about five things that I know are going to happen when I start writing the book. The rest of it, I discover.
6. Write as often as you can. Even if you can only manage five minutes of writing a day, do that. The more stories you write, and the more characters you create, the stronger your feel for your strengths and weaknesses will be.
7. Find a reader (or readers) who will be kind and tell you the truth about your work. No matter how talented or experienced you are, you need another pair of eyes to tell you what you’re doing badly and what you’re doing well.
8. Whenever I’m stuck in a story and there’s a narrative problem I don’t know how to solve, I hear my friend Helen ask: What does the easiest solution look like? This question has proved incredibly helpful to me over the years.
9. When I teach fiction writing, I always tell my students to pay attention to their obsessions. I tell them to imagine that we each have a specifically calibrated magnet board inside us, and that we have to pay attention to whatever thwacks against our board… If you’re a writer or an artist, your obsessions are critically important, because they’re connected to your themes.

Source for quotes 1-4: LitHub and 5: NPR and 6-9: Oprah Daily

Ann Napolitano is an American novelist who writes in the literary fiction genre. Her work explores family relationships, grief, trauma, love, and the possibility of healing. Her novel, Hello Beautiful, was published in 2023 and was an instant New York Times bestseller and the 100th Oprah Book Club pick. It was longlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award. Dear Edward was published in 2020 and was an instant New York Times bestseller, a Read with Jenna selection, and was released as an Apple TV+ series. Napolitano is also the author of the novels A Good Hard Look and her debut, Within Arm’s Reach. She has taught fiction writing for Brooklyn College’s MFA program, New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and for Gotham Writers’ Workshop. Follow her on Instagram.

Source for photograph: Author’s website

by Amanda Patterson
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