by Nolan Zavoral

My friend Ira Berkow visits art galleries in New York, where he lives and writes, and in other cities when he travels. But Ira is no dilettante. When he looks at a canvas, he distills what will help him on the page.

“A painter can convey a lot with just a brushstroke,” says Ira, a former New York Times columnist, Pulitzer winner, and author. “Once I saw a Rembrandt at the Cleveland Museum [of Art], and there was an old man in the distance in the painting, and what said ‘old man’ was the prominent veins in his hands.

By Ellen Baker

Three years ago, I listened in shock to my new agent telling me that Random House had not only just bought my first novel, Keeping the House, they’d also bought my second novel. I was thrilled. I was confused. But I’ve only written the one. They do that? “It can be about whatever you want it to be,” my agent told me. “They just really love your writing.”