George Saunders (+ Henry Oliver's Recommendations!)

Lincoln in the Bardo, essays on writing and three top picks by Henry Oliver

March 20, 2025

It’s World Storytelling Day (and the first day of Spring) - so I’ve chosen one of my favorite writers, George Saunders, undoubtedly a great storyteller.

In addition to George Saunders’ great writing, we have something extra for you 👀 We’ve asked Henry Oliver to share some of his favorite articles from the last few weeks.

Let us know what you think the articles and whose recommendations you want to see next!

BIO
Why George Saunders?

George Saunders is an amazingly versatile writer. He has written everything from essays and short stories to novels and screenplays… (he’s been (sort of!) working on a film version of his book CivilWarLand in Bad Decline with Ben Stiller since 1998). His 2017 novel, Lincoln in the Bardo won the Booker Prize and was a New York Times bestseller.

Like many of the best writers, Saunders’ unique perspectives come - at least in part - from his background. He’s worked odd jobs, including as a roofer and in a slaughterhouse before spending time in Indonesia in an oil exploration team. Probably not too many people hold a geophysical engineering degree AND a creative writing degree!

This diverse background and openness to change his views over time - and just being an excellent writer - means his work covers a huge range of topics.

You can find his writing all over the internet, his work has been featured pretty much everywhere! He writes regularly on Substack, where he’s cultivated a community of writers with whom he regularly interacts. His ‘Office Hours’ posts are a service to writers and aspiring writers. His trademark accessible style feels motivating and makes you want to write!

Topics: Culture, Writing, Fiction, Satire

3 ESSAYS TO GET YOU STARTED
1 - Tent City, U.S.A.

A good starting point to get to know George Saunders' sharp style and criticism.

In "Tent City, U.S.A.," George Saunders visits a homeless encampment in Fresno to understand America's growing inequality. It's immersive reporting (that reminds us of the early works of Hunter S. Thompson) that pictures the humanity of residents living in makeshift shelters.

“He was satisfied, Rusty said. He'd been all over the world, done everything he wanted to do in life. He'd skydived, had three great kids: twin teenage sons and another son in veterinary college on a full scholarship.

Everyone, the PR reflected, made a sort of sense when you gave them time to explain themselves…”

How important is it to know the work of the people (writers in this case) who came before you? What is the relationship between reading and writing?

Saunders explores these questions in one of his regular ‘Office Hours’ posts. It’s a very accessible look at reading classic literature.

“I recently had this experience with The Brothers Karamazov, which I would have cited as an influence from back when I read it in my thirties; but, reading the new translation by Pevear and Volkhonsky, I literally didn’t remember a single scene. And yet: I did read it back then, and it did move and inform me”

An article shedding light on a writer's perspective of the creative process is always a great way to demystify successful novels and examine writing as a craft.

In this Guardian piece, George Saunders describes writing as a continuous series of revisions rather than executing a pre-planned idea; an intuitive act where authors gradually refine their work through multiple drafts, constantly evaluating what "feels right."

“An artist works outside the realm of strict logic. Simply knowing one’s intention and then executing it does not make good art. Artists know this. According to Donald Barthelme: “The writer is that person who, embarking upon her task, does not know what to do.” Gerald Stern put it this way: “If you start out to write a poem about two dogs fucking, and you write a poem about two dogs fucking – then you wrote a poem about two dogs fucking.” Einstein, always the smarty-pants, outdid them both: “No worthy problem is ever solved in the plane of its original conception. How, then, to proceed?” 

# Henry Oliver Top picks

We asked Henry Oliver, author of The Common Reader, to share some of the best articles he came across recently…

Here are his top picks 👇

1 - The Critic as Friend: The challenge of reading generously by Merve Emre

2 - In Theory by Christopher Ricks

3 - Arsy-versy Argy-bargy: how Chaucer remade language by Camille Ralphs

SUGGESTION BOX

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Enjoy George Saunders’ writing & see you next week! 🙂