5 Things About Aging I Learned From My Favorite Books

Writers have strived to survey the landscape of old age since Shakespeare wrote King Lear. But the Bard’s iconic image of the dying and raging patriarch is hardly a contemporary portrait. Today, when writers, like all of us, are living and working into… Continue reading

Second Act: From Funeral Director to Author

From the time I could first hold a pen, it was my dream to make a living from the written word. As a child, I was awed by the power of books and the worlds they opened. My career path, however, took a very different turn — until it didn’t. My early sch… Continue reading

Keeping It Real: 4 tips for getting a steady diet of mentorship

On this edition of “Keeping It Real,” a recurring podcast series on Inman, Peter Lorimer gives his top tips for finding an exceptional mentor and surrounding yourself with knowledge.  Continue reading

The Tall Poppies Support Women Novelists

When health professor Ann Garvin, 58, of Madison, Wis. challenged herself to write and publish her first novel, she never imagined that it would spark a burning desire to become a career novelist. But in 2009, after two years of carving out stolen mome… Continue reading

Following Your Second Act Dreams When the World Says Don’t

Second-act entrepreneurship is a certifiable trend, with 55-to-64-year-olds now accounting for 26% of new entrepreneurs, according to the Kauffman Foundation. But some of these entrepreneurs launch despite naysayers saying: Don’t do it! Here’s the stor… Continue reading

Mary Pipher: The Cultural Anthropologist Navigating New Currents

In 1994, Mary Pipher wrote Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, a groundbreaking, bestselling book examining the complicated lives of teenage girls. It was the result of her work as a clinical psychologist with this age group. And i… Continue reading

The Glamorous History of Drag

(Editor’s note: Covering LGBTQ issues is an ongoing Next Avenue priority, and this June, during Pride Month, we are publishing a special LGBTQ-focused series. The first article in it: How to Be an LGBTQ Ally.)  Drag in all its sequined, feathered and b… Continue reading

Suggestions for Your Summer Reading

Three-day weekends — not to mention summer vacations — always lend themselves to settling in somewhere sunny with a good book. What will you read? Ask your local bookseller for suggestions and check out the following recommendations from staff members … Continue reading

Crime Fiction: Savvy Sleuths Over 50

Does age really bring wisdom? Recent studies affirm this adage, showing that older adults are better able to estimate the slope of a hill, recover quickly after making a mistake  and use their brains more efficiently than younger adults. For readers of… Continue reading

Grammar Check: Q & A With Author Benjamin Dreyer

In fact, Benjamin Dreyer would really prefer that I open this article quite differently. The longtime copy chief at Random House has made a career of helping authors like  E.L. Doctorow, Frank Rich and Elizabeth Strout replace such “wan intensifiers” a… Continue reading