In a second volume of original essays drawn from the long-running New York Times column,Writers on Writing brings together another group of contemporary literature’s finest voices to muse on the challenges and gifts of language and creativity.

The pieces ranges from taciturn, hilarious advice for aspiring writers to thoughtful, soul-wrenching reflections on writing in the midst of national tragedy. William Kennedy talks about the intersecting lives of real and imagined Albany politics; Susan Isaacs reveals her nostalgia for a long-retired protaganist; and Elmore Leonard offers pithy rules for letting the writing, and not the writer, take charge. Writers on Writing offers an uncommon and revealing view of the writer’s world.

Contributors include Diane Ackerman, Margaret Atwood, Ann Beattie, GeraldineBrooks, Frank Conroy, Chitra Divakaruni, Allegra Goodman, Kathryn Harrison, Mary Karr, Patrick McGrath, Arthur Miller, P. J. O’Rourke, Anna Quinlan, Amy Tan, and Edmund White.