The Writer

VOLUME 135

MAY 2022

22 Common slush pile mistakes …and how they’re hold- ing your stories back. By AIGNER LOREN WILSON

28 The anger short-cut Rendering anger believably on the page requires taking the long way home. By ALISON ACHESON

32 Writing your novel chapters Chapters are the all-​ important building blocks of a novel. But how ex- actly should a first-time novelist develop and structure them in a man- uscript? And what makes for a successful chapter, anyway? We asked veter- an authors to share their best advice. By JACK SMITH

: S T O K K E T E / S H U T T E R S T O C K

C O V E R

38 “Winter” Read the first-place win- ner of our annual Spring Short Story Contest. By SHELLY MANBER

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3 Prologue 4 Dear Reader 5 Spring Cleaning

Guide 8 Insider 8 Opportunities 10 Literary Spotlight

12 Off the Cuff 15 Broadening the

Bookshelves Getting to know

Middle Eastern literature. BY YI SHUN LAI 42 Postscript Contests 48 Gigi Will Know

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