45 ratings | 4 reviews | avg rating:4.67

Peter’s Year In Books

Peter’s 2024 Year in Books

Take a look at Peter’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.

Go to Peter’s 2024 Year in Books

Peter Selgin’s Followers (63)

Peter’s Bookshelves

to-read (5)
currently-reading (21)
read (51)

Peter’s Friends (935)

Natalia Fiore

484 books | 122 friends

Susan Rukeyser

63 books | 349 friends

Robert Vaughan

1,305 books | 1,521 friends

Noreen

1,177 books | 378 friends

Ton Hof

512 books | 583 friends

Clifford

1,548 books | 3,196 friends

Jay Nicorvo

279 books | 228 friends

Maria Tizon

2,472 books | 2,774 friends

More friends…

Peter Selgin

Goodreads Author

Born

Bethesda, Maryland, The United States

Website

http://peterselgin.com/

Genre

Fiction, Memoir, Children's

Member Since

January 2009

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/peterselgin

edit data

Peter Selgin is the author of Drowning Lessons, winner of the 2007 Flannery O’Connor Award for Fiction, Life Goes to the Movies, a novel, two books on the craft of fiction, and two children’s books. His stories and essays have appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including Glimmer Train Stories, Poets & Writers, The Sun, Slate, Colorado Review, Writers and Their Notebooks, Writing Fiction, and Best American Essays 2009. Confessions of a Left-Handed Man: An Artist’s Memoir, was recently published by the University of Iowa Press and was short-listed for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. His latest novel, The Water Master, won this years’ Pirate’s Alley / Faulkner Society Prize, and his essay, The Kuhreihen Melod ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Peter Selgin questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Peter Selgin’s books

Average rating: 4.09 · 498 ratings · 102 reviews · 25 distinct works • Similar authors

	By Cunning & Craft: Sound Advice and Practical Wisdom for Fiction Writers 4.16 avg rating — 152 ratings — published 2007 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	179 Ways to Save a Novel: Matters of Vital Concern to Fiction Writers 3.78 avg rating — 88 ratings — published 2010 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Drowning Lessons: Stories 3.97 avg rating — 61 ratings — published 2008 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Inventors: A Memoir by Peter Selgin (Goodreads Author), Lidia Yuknavitch (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 4.15 avg rating — 48 ratings — published 2016 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Duplicity 4.56 avg rating — 27 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Confessions of a Left-Handed Man: An Artist's Memoir (Sightline Books) 3.78 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Your First Page: First Pages and What They Tell Us about the Pages that Follow Them 4.32 avg rating — 22 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Life Goes to the Movies 4.42 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2009 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Boy's Guide to Outer Space 4.11 avg rating — 19 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	"S.S." GIGANTIC ACROSS THE ATLANTIC: The Story of the World's Biggest Ocean Liner Ever 3.93 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 1999 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Peter Selgin…

44 posts
Peter Selgin's Blog

COVER STORY #9: THE SUN ALSO RISES

Published by Scribner’s in 1926, the first edition featured a Hellenistic jacket design illustrated by Cleonike Damianekes. The illustration, printed in a medley of beiges and browns, depicts a loosely-robed, exhausted-looking woman inclined against an even more tired-looking tree, her head resting on her shoulder, her eyes closed, both shoulders and one thigh exposed, cupping a golde

Peter is Currently Reading

Peter Selgin is currently reading

Moonglow

by Michael Chabon

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Mar 20, 2024 01:06PM

Peter Selgin is currently reading

Quarry

by Jane White

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Mar 16, 2024 04:00PM

Peter Selgin is currently reading

Alphabetical Diaries

by Sheila Heti (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Feb 11, 2024 04:14PM

rss
Peter’s Recent Updates

Peter Selgin is currently reading Moonglow by Michael Chabon	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 20, 2024 01:06PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Moonglow by Michael Chabon. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Moonglow by Michael Chabon <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Peter Selgin is currently reading Quarry by Jane White	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 16, 2024 04:00PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Quarry by Jane White. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Quarry by Jane White <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Peter Selgin is currently reading Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 11, 2024 04:14PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Peter Selgin rated a book it was amazing The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000 (Vintage International) by Martin Amis	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 11, 2024 04:12PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The War Against Cliche by Martin Amis. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The War Against Cliche by Martin Amis <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Peter Selgin is currently reading Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 28, 2023 08:01PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of Peter's books…

Quotes by Peter Selgin (?)

“Never try to keep it professional, keep it smutty, write with bodily fluids on sandpaper, and damn the men with clipboards in white suits, the literary bean-counters, the prose police.”
― Peter Selgin, 179 Ways to Save a Novel: Matters of Vital Concern to Fiction Writers

tags: writers-on-writing, writing, writing-advice, writing-books, writing-process, writing-style

1 likes

“Think of all the stories that would end before they begin if their characters gave careful consideration to the consequences of their actions.”
― Peter Selgin, 179 Ways to Save a Novel: Matters of Vital Concern to Fiction Writers

0 likes