Most importantly, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted, and reminds us that good writing comes out of good reading. 'Like most maybe all writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books - Francine Prose, Reading Like A Writer. Written with passion, humour and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart - to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel to look to John le Carre for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O'Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail to be inspired by Emily Bronte's structural nuance and Charles Dickens's deceptively simple narrative techniques. We’ll discuss applying close reading strategies to prose: that is, to anything that isn’t written in verse, from short stories to novels to memoirs and more.

In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and tricks of the masters to discover why their work has endured. Like most authors, Prose has been an avid reader since childhood: 'On one family vacation, my father pleaded with me to close my book long enough to look at the Grand Canyon.' She read broadly. In this article, we’ll give you strategies to begin reading prose like a writer.

Prose reading like a writer