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About Arthur Plotnik
Contents:
Biographical summary
Links to reviews, etc.
Some favorite quotes
Poetry
Other sites by A.P.
Biographical Summary
Arthur Plotnik is a versatile author with a distinguished background in editing and publishing. Two of his works have been featured selections of the Book of the Month Club: The Elements of Editing (Macmillan/Longman), a standard reference through more than twenty printings, and The Elements of Expression: Putting Thoughts into Words (Henry Holt / toExcel/ Barnes & Noble). Reviewers have consistently praised Plotnik's writing for its accuracy, style, and wit, often ranking it with Strunk & White in practicality.
His latest book, Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style, was published November 15, 2005, by Random House Reference. Poet Billy Collins called it "A must for every writer's desk." Lauded by Booklist, Library Journal, and many others, it is among the bestselling new titles
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Hear the lively interview with Art on Choice Literacy.
Hear Art's interview on the Writers on Writing radio show hosted by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett (Aug. 17, 2007)
See Chip Scanlon's featured Poynter Institute interview with Plotnik
See MediaBistro's interview with Plotnik on Spunk & Bite
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on language and writing. A trade paperback edition (with new study guide) was published in May 2007 with the subtitle, A Writer's Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style.
A passionate observer of trees, Plotnik is author with his wife, the artist Mary Phelan, of The Urban Tree Book: An Uncommon Field Guide for City and Town (Crown/Random House, 2000).
As a publisher, Plotnik brought five national awards (1993-1997) to the American Library Association’s book imprint. He won numerous honors also as editor of ALA’s flagship magazine, American Libraries.
Plotnik has written scores of magazine articles and columns, seven nonfiction books, and numerous (pseudonymous) paperback novels. He has appeared in publications ranging from La Prensa (Bolivia) to The New York Times. Long a columnist for The Writer magazine, he serves on its Editorial Board. He previously contributed to Britannica Book of English Usage and the "American English" column of American Way in-flight magazine.
A native of White Plains, N.Y., Plotnik studied under Philip Roth and Vance Bourjaily in the Iowa Writers Workshop and served as a staff writer on the Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union. He wrote fiction for the Scott-Meredith Literary Agency while completing work on the second of two master's degrees (English, library service). In Washington he served the Librarian of Congress as press and public relations assistant and newsletter editor. He was later an editor in New York and has lived in Chicago since 1975.
On July 4 of the Constitution's 200th birthday year (1987), the National Archives published his The Man Behind the Quill, a biography of the Constitution's calligrapher. Highlighted in Time magazine and praised as a "small miracle of research," the book won a Blue Ribbon government publishing award.
A popular speaker, Plotnik taught in the journalism department at Columbia College in Chicago. Special honors include service as a charter board member, American Book Awards, and first place in the prestigious Verbatim national competition for essays on the English language. He is listed in Who's Who, Contemporary Authors, Journalists of the United States, and other directories of writers and journalists.
Rights on all nonfiction books and his recently completed novel, Dwell Time, "a love fable in airport hell," are represented by his literary agent (Ed Knappman of New England Publishing Associates.)
Contact "Art" at baronplot@aol.com
Other links
"My Addiction to Oil," by Arthur Plotnik, humor, in Swink Online
Quotes
"Freedom is like a blanket which, pulled up to the chin, uncovers the feet." --John Updike
"Myths are things that never happened but always are."--Salustis
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once."--via Shirley Hufstrader
"...the life fear comes when all the mysteries are laid open, when what we thought we wanted is attained." --Peter Matthiessen
"Aut inveniam viam aut faciam--I shall either find a way or make one." --via C.P. Snow
"All you need to do anything is time to do it, being let alone long enough to do it, and a center to do it from." --Walker Percy
"The category of what might have been is already too crowded." from Creation, Gore Vidal
"... in order to invent Heaven and Hell, a man would need to know nothing except the human body." --Jose Saramago
"It's never too late to have a happy childhood." --advertisement for Lionel trains
"It is a question we can only stare at in silence, like a bird before a snake, hoping it will not swallow us." --from Foe, J.M. Coetzee
"In art, truth that is boring is not art." --Isaac Bashevis Singer
"Anything can happen in life, especially nothing." --Michel Houellebecq, Platform
MORE TO COME...
Poetry
Plotnik’s current writings include a modest, humbling return to poetry after a decades-long hiatus.(Early works include the portfolio, Witches & Cabalists & Mystics & Magicians, N.Y.: Associated American Artists.)
In May 2005, his narrative poem, "Dermot's Question," won the first Poetry Competition of the Irish-American Heritage Center (Chicago). "Seams," a poem about flux, won first honorable mention in the 2006 Rambunctious Review poetry competition and will be published in 2008. "Philip Roth at the Bat: A Memoir" appeared in the summer 2007 online edition of Slow Trains. Harpur Palate published "The Menu Poet" in its summer 2007 issue. A group of poems, "Brushes with the Famous," earned finalist honors in the 2008 Dana Literary Awards.
From time to time, a new unpublished work will be showcased here.
Other pages by Arthur Plotnik
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[Counter begun
7/31/01. --A.P.]
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