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“News of the Spirit” was used as title of a story collection by Lee Smith in the 1990s. In the forward to the book, she attributes the phrase to the author George Garrett.

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“The best work will contain news of the spirit.” I’m all in on that concept!

This was a magnificent end to the series (if this is the end.) I loved her words of wisdom in conclusion— the idea that “overall, If you have a vision for something, stick with it. There’s something in that first gut-level version of what you think you want your book to be. Try to shut out the voices telling you it won’t work.”

Also great: the quote from Czeslaw Milosz, whom I’d not heard of before, to keep our work located in the “naked reality” where the best work inheres, with the images of war and gunpoint and cobblestones! It’s all great, very inspiring. I will stop writing hors d’oeuvres immediately. It was a delight to hear this conversation, and I can’t wait to read the Two-Step Devil!

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