Elizabeth Cobbe

Literary & Speculative Fiction Author

  • The Milford Method, Reconsidered

    The Milford Method of critiquing has become so ubiquitous at writer’s conferences that it’s become the default. It’s also terribly flawed, and it needs serious reconsideration. There’s a lot to be said for the Milford Method, of course. Let’s pretend there’s a brand-new writer who’s never attended a critique group before. He has his short… Continue reading

  • Books on the Shelf 1.2

    This is the second installment of my aptly-named series “Books on the Shelf,” in which I take any title or object from one of my lovingly alphabetized shelves and write a short response. Can you make out the title of the second book from the right? It’s Peter Ho Davies’s The Ugliest House in the… Continue reading

  • Books on the Shelf 1.1

    I am the only person I know who alphabetizes her private library. I do it with a sheer and unrelenting joy. I know how to find things, and I don’t have to remember where they are. Oh, you want to borrow my copy of Night Circus? Here you go! Feel like looking up that passage… Continue reading

  • What Happens at Viable Paradise

    Hi! If you’ve landed here—which also happens to be the inaugural post on my blog—I’d guess it’s because you’re thinking of applying to Viable Paradise, you’ve been accepted to Viable Paradise, or someone you know has been accepted, and you’d like to know what it is. The Viable Paradise website does a great job of… Continue reading