The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

For over a quarter of a century, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Ann Lamont has inspired new writers with honest and down to earth advice, written with humor and experience. The title refers to advice Lamott’s father gave her brother, who was struggling with a school paper on birds. Just write one bird at a time, and don’t get overwhelmed.

“Thirty years ago, my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, an...