Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy

Starred review from May 15, 2015

Moore (English, Ohio Univ.), winner of the National Book Prize for Between Panic and Desire, presents a guide to writing essays that is both brilliantly instructive and wonderfully entertaining. The book is structured as an advice column that answers questions from famous contemporary essayists. Each answer is followed by a piece that illustrates the points made. While the questions are clever, they cover familiar writing issues: punctuation and grammar, tone, logic, ethics, choosing topics, etc. Moore mentions that Michel de Montaigne, who is often considered the father of the essay, serves as his inspiration when composing the sample essays, which reference everything from cocktail napkins to Google Maps, in order to demonstrate, explain, or clarify issues. The learning process is enhanced by every piece being engaging and hilarious. While plenty of other helpful works on penning essays are available by this same author, such as Crafting the Personal Essay, this gem stands alone. VERDICT Highly recommended for writers and anyone who loves to laugh out loud while they read.--Kimberley Robles-Smith, California State Univ. Lib., Fresno

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