Last year, I was laid off, and I suddenly found myself with a lot of free time. I decided to do something I've always wanted to do. I started writing a novel. In the process, I learned a lot about ...

The characters in “Happy All the Time,” Laurie Colwin’s 1978 novel, spend a surprising amount of time being unhappy. “He had never felt so miserable in his life,” Colwin writes of Vincent Cardworthy ...

Writing is part of me. I’ve been writing since I was 11 years old — nearly three decades at this point. I started with a pen and paper in the 1990s, then switched to a PC in the early 2000s, and ...

Ms. O’Rourke is the executive editor of The Yale Review and a professor of creative writing at Yale University. July 18, 2025 When I first told ChatGPT who I was, it sent a gushing reply: “Oh wow — it ...

In November 2024, I found myself on the receiving end of a companywide downsizing, or layoffs. The news hit hard at first. Those 15 minutes between getting the message (you know, the ominous one, "Can ...