Instagram story viewer> @elizmccrack> Tagged

Elizabeth McCracken

@elizmccrack

4.9K

followers

1588

following

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

This is glorious up close or at a distance. #writers

10

0

another outtake of just being a body and soul in shimmery interconnected motion 🌀

@elizmccrack quote ✨🦋✨

“we’re not our souls,
we’re not our bodies;
we’re the shimmering
border between.”

may we dissolve the borders;
every last one.

#asabovesobelow #truthbetold #doyouseewhatisee #indieartists

18

6

Excellent evening with @penfaulkner’s Malamud Award ceremony honoring @elizmccrack with award for short fiction, in conversation with Yiyun Li, previous winner. @janna.m.smith.3 honoring the winner and also her father Bernard Malamud. Literature at it’s finest.

#penfaulkner #malamudaward #literature #writers

10

1

Presenting our 2026-2027 Visiting Writers Series ✨

Save these dates 📅 and stay tuned for more details. We’re so excited to host these excellent authors at AU!

40

1

☀️☕️📖 Happy Sunday! The festival is almost upon us - have a browse through our programme and book your tickets. Here are some events that might pique your interest.
.
🎟 https://tickets.wigtownbookfestival.com/sales .
.
.
.
.
#wigtownbookfestival #bookfestival #booktown #wigtownbooktown #lovebooks #happysunday #lovereading #author #authorevents #wigtown #galloway #dumfriesandgalloway #scotlandsnationalbooktown

24

4

One of my favorite ever Real Housewives interactions came from Real Housewives of Vancouver when one of the women was really upset about another who screamed profanities at her and, when recounting the experience to another cast member, said “she was screaming profound things at me.”

And honestly I think we should all consider this approach? When you feel the urge to flip the middle finger at a real shitty driver, consider instead rolling down the window and screaming at them to stop and smell the roses. Pissed off at the person who brought their bluetooth speakers with them to the hiking trail to treat everyone else out enjoying nature to their sick beats? Channel that rage and remind them that they really can’t judge a book by its cover. #bless

And now, a teehee word whoopsie roundup to start off that Wednesday morning scroll

LOVE YOU MEAN IT GLAD YOU’RE HERE!

@kristielb & @laprofloyd
C/ 3788mg
C/ dion-thesocialist & rakshar
@thefaceofdave
C/ _uspellings & @elizmccrack
@simoncholland
@3dog101

157k

3k

Whenever I’ve faced an “idea drought,” I always turned to books to get inspiration. Instead of just hoping an idea would magically pop in my head, I learned from other artists, thinkers, and innovators on how they brought their inner world to the external world.

I could take what I learned and put my own spin on things. Soon enough, I would have ideas for characters, plot lines, different mediums to use, mind-altering perspectives that cracked me open.

The ideas would be flowing so much that I would get distracted and stop reading, motivated into action.

One thing about me: if you come to me with a creative problem, I’m going to have a book recommendation for you. It’s one of my love languages.

Follow @zackorsborn for more ways to get more creative ideas in unconventional ways.

1k

18

Read the Winners of American Short Fiction’s 2026 Insider Prize via @literaryhub, selected by Elizabeth McCracken, and with a special intro from Inside Prize Director @sergiofmuro, at link in bio. 🎉

The Insider Prize is annual writing contest for incarcerated Texans, organized by American Short Fiction in partnership with @hustontillotsonuniversity’s Institute for Justice and Equity. This project is supported in part by a grant from @txcommarts.

Thank you to all the Insider Prize volunteers, and for all of you for reading and sharing these stories.

123

2

WRITING THE REAL, edited by Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst
Dead Ink return with their new anthology about writing, this time focusing on writing from real life and the art of narrative non-fiction. The essays explore how a writer can shape their personal experience on the page, and how the ambiguity of reality can be a powerful source of creative energy.

As much for readers as for writers, the collected writers show they attempt to make meaning from the world around them through writing in diverse forms including memoir and personal essays, place-based writing and autofiction. The essays ask a writer to question what is truly real, and how subjective memory and real life can be transformed into compelling narratives.

*****
No 13 of our September TBR recommendations: links below

https://tinyurl.com/September2026TBR
https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/super-september-recommended-new-releases-from-indie-presses-republic-of-words

*****
More Writers writing on writing
* Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
* Steering the Craft - Ursula K Le Guin
* A Long Game - Elizabeth McCracken
* Attention - Anne Enright
* Language of the Night - Ursula K Le Guin

#DeadInkBooks #WritingTheReal #NorthernWriters #CreativeWriting #WritingCraft #WritingLife #WritingTips #EssayWriting #WritersOfInstagram #OnWriting #Bookstagram #BookstagramUK #ReadersOfInstagram #NewReleases

78

8

ANN PATCHETT - Author Event Appreciation by Lou
I was lucky enough to see Ann Patchett speak in Bath earlier this week and what a joyful evening it was. One of the many fabulous stories she told was of seeing Dolly Parton speak at a dinner and realising that if Dolly had started a cult that evening, everyone there would have joined. I had the same feeling about the audience at this event. I’m certainly on for a cult based on storytelling, bookshop love, wonderful writing and an abundance of generosity and curiosity. Does anyone want to join me?
Ann started by talking about her new novel Whistler, which I can’t stop recommending. It’s a warm, compelling story of a woman unexpectedly bumping into her stepfather who she’d last seen when she was a child and they’d been involved in a traumatic accident. I’ll link to my full review in stories, but quick summary - it’s brilliant - one of my books of the year - go and read it right now!
And if you haven’t read her previous books read those too. I’d say start with Bel Canto if you like a thriller element or with Commonwealth if a layered family saga is more your thing, but I’d recommend them all.
Ann was in conversation with fellow author and her longtime friend Elizabeth McCracken which led to a wonderfully relaxed and wide ranging conversation. Ann tells a story in person as well as she does in writing. She talked about her inspirations and her writing process, gossiped about other authors, her travels, relationships and the time she crashed a wedding with author Patrick Ryan.
As well as being a brilliant author, Ann also owns a bookshop in Nashville and champions independent bookshops. Throughout the evening she was generously recommending other authors books, including Elizabeth Strout’s, Meg Mason’s and Emily St John Mandel’s. If you don’t already, follow @parnassusbooks for lots more of her recommendations old and new.
Many thanks to Ann Patchett, @mrbsemporium, @bloomsburypublishing and @elizmccrack for a fascinating and inspiring evening. The best author event I’ve been to in a long time!

#annpatchett #whistler #favouriteauthor #newbooks

33

19

Breakfast Club starts back up on Wednesday, Sept 9!!! Give yourself an hour for YOU. LINK IN BIO.

29

3

Back around 1998, I was writing fiction, not nonfiction, and had already sold my first novel, but I still went to Cape Cod for a weeklong class with Elizabeth McCracken. She had written The Giant’s House, a book I loved, and I wanted to learn from her.

Good call. She was an amazing teacher. I’m still close to some of the class - and we still talk about this week together.

Later, my mother, also a fan, invited Elizabeth to appear in the reading series she ran in Florida. Mom knew that Florida was full of serious readers who wanted serious writers, and she had hundreds of people turning up for literary events. Elizabeth and my mother got to know each other, which made me very happy.

Elizabeth has remained a friend, not just an influence.

If you don’t know her work, her books include The Giant’s House, Niagara Falls All Over Again, Bowlaway, The Hero of This Book, the story collections Thunderstruck and The Souvenir Museum, and the unforgettable memoir An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination. Start anywhere.

She has now won the 2026 PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. It is one of the country’s major honors for short fiction—and she deserves the hell out of it.

The ceremony is Sunday, October 4, at American University in Washington. I’m not sure yet whether I can be in DC, but I wanted to put this here in case anyone else would like to go celebrate her.

See comments for link for ceremony.

Congratulations, Elizabeth. I am so proud of you and so damn happy for you. @elizmccrack @penamerica @penfaulkner

17

4