Robert Boswell brings his vast experience as a teacher, writer and reader, as well as his keen critical eye, to bear on craft issues facing literary writers, using examples from masters such as Leo Tolstoy, Flannery O'Connor and Alice Munro to punctuate this sparkling collection of essays. Boswell also candidly shares the experiences that have shaped his writing life and imaginative process, including the story of a boyhood adventure which taught him how important it is for writers to embrace the half-known world' of fiction, where surprise and meaning converge.'