Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is publishing a monthly series of e-only essays to correspond with Katherine Paterson's two-year term as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. The subjects of the essays include: writing and literature for young people, the wonder and imagination found within great books, common questions novice writers ask, and Katherine's own personal experiences throughout her historic career.

The Newbery Award-winning author of "Dead End in Norvelt" shares advice for how to be the "best" brilliant writer in this funny and practical creative writing guide perfect for all kids who dream of seeing their name on the spine of a book.

"Find out where writers get their ideas, your story's characters and setting, writing, revising, and presenting your writing"--Provided by publisher.

"A guide to using creative writing methods to ease the symptoms of depression, from the founder of a Stanford University creative writing course for people with mood disorders"--Provided by publisher.

"We all have the call to create. The question is...why don't we answer it? We all come pre-loaded with a creative spark that drives us to innovate, explore, express, and make our unique contribution to the world. Often, though, that drive doesn't get us very far down the road before it runs right smack into resistance--the mysterious force that thwarts creativity. But resistance needn't be the enemy of writing--or any other creative endeavor. Deb...

"Creative writing professor Dinty W. Moore prescribes remedies for the most common stumbling blocks novelists and memoirists encounter when embarking on their writing project"--

"In The Art of Revision: The Last Word, Peter Ho Davies takes up an often discussed yet frequently misunderstood subject. He begins by addressing the invisibility of revision--even though it's an essential part of the writing process, readers typically only see a final draft, leaving the practice shrouded in mystery. To combat this, Davies pulls examples from his novels The Welsh Girl and The Fortunes, as well as from the work of other writers, including...

Long before there were creative-writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose. In Reading Like a Writer, Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters. She reads the work of the very best writers-Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov-and discovers why their work...

In a series of conversational observations and meditations on the writing process, The Art of Slow Writing examines the benefits of writing slowly. DeSalvo advises her readers to explore their creative process on deeper levels by getting to know themselves and their stories more fully over a longer period of time.