Elliot Holt
(1991)
How would you characterize the influence of your YWW experience in your life?
My teacher at the Young Writers Workshop noted that, “irony is always present in [my] work.” I was seventeen then, and not consciously employing irony, but it was an astute observation and it’s still true of my work! I had been writing stories since I was a little kid—I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was about six—and that summer at the YWW made me believe that I had talent and real prospects. My teacher was so encouraging and I felt so at home in that workshop, among those other budding writers. I knew I was with kindred spirits. I thought, these are my people! And writers are still my people. I have a lot of friends who are writers.
What’s the best advice you can give a Young Writer (in general or in your specific genre)?
Read a lot. And revise a lot. Better to make your work really good than rush to try to publish.
What do you find yourself most often reading or listening to lately and why?
I read a lot—several books a week, generally. There are certain writers I return to for regular re-readings: Alice Munro, Mavis Gallant, James Baldwin, Mary Gaitskill, Charles D’Ambrosio, Anton Chekhov, and Elizabeth Bishop to name a few. And I just reread Moby-Dick (one of my favorite books of all time).