WEbook Blog

First Lines by Poets & Writers

PageToFame has shown just how important a good first page is. A good book can easily go ignored if it doesn't also have a good start. Well, every eye-catching first page begins with a fantastic first line, so in our ongoing partnership with Poets & Writers, we'd like to share some more great first lines from a few recently published books:

"Jacob stood in the barn mouth and watched Edna leave the henhouse."
Burning Bright (Ecco, March 2010) by Ron Rash. Eleventh book, fourth story collection. Agent: Marly Rusoff. Editor: Lee Boudreaux. Publicist: Michael McKenzie.

"Bernice was ten when her mother walked around the block naked."
Hot Springs (Tin House Books, February 2010) by Geoffrey Becker. Fourth book, second novel. Agent: Ellen Levine. Editor: Meg Storey. Publicist: Deborah Jayne.

"The preacher came up the dusty road followed by the girl pulling the wagon stacked with bibles."
Lamb Bright Saviors (University of Nebraska Press, March 2010) by Robert Vivian. Third book, second novel. Agent: None. Editor: Kristen Elias Rowley. Publicist: Rusty Shelton.

To read more lines, visit Poets & Writers. Or, if you've read a really great first line lately, post it in the comments section below! Maybe you saw one while rating some PageToFame entries?

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First Lines

The first sentence of your first serious novel can be a kind of torture. You know it’s important, but you also have a full story to tell. So to do? You tear through your bookcase, yanking out tomes to see again how they begin, hoping upon hope that inspiration will arrive.

In October we announced our content partnership with Poets & Writers (the organization, which publishes the magazine) and posted excerpts from Page One, a regular feature in Poets & Writers magazine which presents a smattering of first sentences from newly released books.

Here's part of the newest selection. Click through to Poets & Writers to read more.

"On certain autumn days in New York City, the light seems to come from every direction."
Little Boy Blues (Pantheon Books, January 2010) by Malcolm Jones. First book, memoir. Agent: Chris Calhoun. Editor: Dan Frank. Publicist: Katie Freeman.

"There were two kinds of truths, good truths and hurtful ones."
Wild Child and Other Stories (Viking, January 2010) by T. C. Boyle. Twenty-first book, ninth story collection. Agent: Georges Borchardt. Editor: Paul Slovak. Publicist: Holly Wats

"Outside his Cincinnati windows, a street game in full swing."
Approaching Ice (Persea Books, December 2009) by Elizabeth Bradfield. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Gabriel Fried. Publicists: Tressa Canaday, Stephanie Kartalopoulos, and Latisha Linder.

Check out more at Poets & Writers, then add your favorite—from books new or old—in the comments area below to help inspire your fellow WEbookers.

Want even more from Poets & Writers? Check out this special magazine offer exclusively for WEbookers!

There are few things as compelling as the first sentence of a great book. When done well, its power is absolute: it virtually commands you to read on, to invest in the story, to search for more clues about the characters, the setting, the conflict.

For many aspiring writers, the first sentence of their first serious novel can be a kind of torture. You know it’s hugely important, but you also have a full story to tell. So what do you do? You tear through your bookcase, yanking out your favorite tomes to see again how they begin, hoping upon hope that inspiration will arrive in the process.

Now, thanks to a content partnership with Poets & Writers (the organization, which publishes the magazine), you can get your inspiration delivered to you monthly right here. Page One, a regular feature in Poets & Writers magazine, presents a smattering of first sentences from newly released books. Here’s a quick selection:

• "Val Carmichael credited Pete Stenning—who was always called ‘the Martian'—with getting him off the gin and on to the vodka." Liver: A Fictional Organ With a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes (Bloomsbury, November 2009) by Will Self.
• "I shook his hand for the first time in the spring of 1967." Invisible (Henry Holt, November 2009) by Paul Auster.
• “In the beginning, Drago smelled of dirt and bloom, the odor that would rise if you peeled the earth back at its seams." Thirsty (Swallow Press, October 2009) by Kristin Bair O'Keeffe.

Check out more at Poets & Writers, then add your favorite—from books new or old—in the comments area below to help inspire your fellow WEbookers.

--John

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