Steve Almond has ostensibly written about writing—a craft book—in his latest work, Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow: A DIY Manual for the Construction of Stories.
It’s a book about writing, sure, but it’s also more than just that. And even as a book about writing, it’s still sort of classic Steve Almond—thoughtful, intelligent, eloquent, funny, candid and vulnerable.
Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow is a book I now find to be indispensable for what it offers to us about, yes, constructing stories.
However, we also learn about Almond’s own struggles as a writer. Even with his many publications, he must still manage writer’s block and the conundrum that is the writing life. He offers us information about plot, character, unreliable narrator, among other important elements you might expect in a book about writing stories.
This is also very much a book about being a reader—and also a teacher, a parent, a brother, a son.
In this wide-ranging interview, Steve Almond shares what he’s learned about how “Grace arrives only when you’re standing in the truth.”
Learn more about Steve Almond here.
