One True Thing

Life's questions, big and small.

by Jennifer Haupt

Allison Winn Scotch: Balancing Motherhood and Career

I stepped back and thought, "what would happen if I opted out my career? Who would I then be?" The answer was (and is) both murky and scary, but one worth exploring. Read More

Mom Humbled by a Happy Meal

There are a few things in life you hope you won’t be. A convict. A dentist. A bad parent. A spoken word artist... I didn’t want to be humbled by a Happy Meal. But then one day, I was. Read More

Two Mothers in One

If there is a relationship more complicated than mothering, I don’t know what it is. Read More

"I think I always end up writing about what it means to be a good man. Maybe even how to be a good man. My characters are often tortured by this question. They know that, in some sense, they are both beasts and angels." Read More

Interview with Novelist Pamela Redmond Satran

"I was inspired to write this book by my grandmother... Perhaps the truest thing in the book – as in my life – is that people tried to keep a lot of secrets that ultimately could not be kept, even if all the facts were never known." Read More

My Family Secret

Mother’s secret had a name. We call it bipolar now, but in the sixties, this illness was labeled manic depressive. Read More

Anne Lamott: On Unexpectedly Becoming a Grandmother

"I started out with a lot of faith, but these three-plus years since the kids got pregnant really tested me." Read more from prolific author Anne Lamott. Read More

Myfanwy Collins: Giving my Son the Tools of Faith

"There are questions my son asks which often leave me breathless and fumbling. The most difficult to answer is what happens to us after we die." —Myfanwy Collins Read More

Jessica Tuccelli: Are Dreams Real?

"When I was a child, I imagined I could open a portal inside my head where my best friend would enter, and together we would adventure. She liked this idea, and so we agreed that I would concentrate before I went to sleep and send her a link, a telepathic conduit to dreamland." —Jessica Tuccelli Read More

Q&A with Author Meg Waite Clayton: The Four Ms. Bradwells

"There is nothing quite like friends with whom you've shared lives for decades, is there?" Here's more from Meg Waite Clayton: Read More

Q&A With Author Jean Kwok: Girl in Translation

"It was hard re-experiencing the world I had left behind... my parents went from being parents to being people who were even more lost and confused than I was. The physical hardships—the fabric dust in the sweatshop, the bitter cold in our apartment, the rats that ran over our blankets as we slept—were more bearable than feeling unprotected and alone." —Jean Kwok Read More

Author Robert Davidson: Trusting Your Artistic Sixth Sense

"Anything seems possible in the first draft of a story. There’s great fun in kicking over a bucket of mop water and seeing where the spill takes you." -- Robert Davidson Read More

Q&A With Author Pam Houston

"This book began when I took my own advice to my students: when you get stuck just jot down things that have happened out in the world lately that glimmered at you." Read More

Deborah Henry: Author Struggles with Letting Go

"Publishing a novel and letting go of characters can be like sending children out into the world."—Deborah Henry Read More

Q & A With Hilma Wolitzer: A 30-Year Love Affair With Writing

"My novels speak to everyone who's ever loved someone. We all know from experience or intuition about loss—I'm certainly no exception—and we all hope for the solace of redemption. The latter can take many shapes." Read More

Q&A with Author Helen Simonson: Finding Love Later in Life

"Being true to oneself and one's principles is often the harder road, and may seem unlikely to succeed, but anything else is a pale imitation." Read More

Memoir About Learning to Dance With Uncertainty

"Find the whimsy. If you don't wear a tutu once in a while, life will be the way it's always been." — Deborah Jiang Stein Read More

Q&A With Author Dan Chaon

"Fiction is a particular kind of rhetoric, a way of thinking that I think can be useful in your life. It asks you to image the world through someone else's eyes, and it allows you to try to empathize with situations that you haven't actually experienced." Read More

Jennifer Gilmore: My Bridge to Nowhere

"We thought that once we decided on adoption, out of the ether, a child would appear. We were wrong." Read More

Q&A with Author Jessica Keener: Night Swim

“Publishing a novel turned into my holy grail. With each passing year, it started to matter too much. By that I mean, the desire to publish the novel overtook the desire to be centered and fulfilled by the writing itself.” Read More

Interview with author Naomi Benaron: Running the Rift

Running the Rift is an ambitious and inspiring debut novel about a young Rwandan boy who dreams of becoming an Olympic runner despite seemingly overwhelming obstacles. Naomi Benaron uses her first-hand experiences traveling in Rwanda and real stories of genocide survivors to create a fearless and heart-warming story. Here's more from Naomi: Read More

Writing Rituals: Spiritual or Simply Habits?

For some authors, there's something spiritual about starting each day the same way. Others simply look at these habits as a way to turn on the creative part of their brain. Here's more from Alice Hoffman, Jenna Blum, Pam Houston and other authors. Read More