Catapult | Lynn-Steger-Strong

Lynn Steger Strong

Instructor & Writer

Lynn Steger Strong's first novel, Hold Still, was released by Liveright/WW Norton in March 2016. She received an MFA from Columbia University and her non-fiction has been published in Guernica, LARB, Elle.com, Catapult, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. She teaches both fiction and non-fiction writing at Columbia University, Fairfield University, and the Pratt Institute. Lynn's second novel, Want, is forthcoming from Henry Holt in spring 2020.

Cover Photo: This photograph is of a classroom of students, most of them sitting at desks and taking notes, with one woman standing up as if talking to a teacher, holding her notebooks to her chest. She has a smile on her face.

The Intimacy of Teaching Creative Writing

Enjoy this conversation between Lynn Steger Strong and Laura Spence-Ash and read novel excerpts from her 12-Month Generator students in this graduation showcase.

Lynn Steger Strong

Nov 29, 2021

Don’t Write Alone | Notes From Class

Cover Photo: This photograph is mostly out of focus, other than a healthy indoor plant in the right hand corner. Past the plant, we see a laptop open on a table, and its out-of-focus screen shows the panels of a video call.

Making Space for Writing in 2020

A new life can grow inside a book once you realize you’re not making it all for yourself.

Lynn Steger Strong

Jun 02, 2021

Don’t Write Alone | Notes From Class

Cover Photo: Two young women sit at an outside table in the sun. One is reading a book and one is taking notes in a journal and drinking a to-go cup of coffee.

So, You’ve Finished Your Book

When my students finished a draft, all I wanted them to do was sit inside of it for longer than was comfortable. To acknowledge and celebrate what they’d accomplished.

Lynn Steger Strong

Oct 03, 2019

On Writing | Turning Points

How To Finish

Three ways of thinking that might help you get the damned novel done, from our beloved 12-Month Novel Generator instructor, Lynn Steger Strong (author of HOLD STILL)

Lynn Steger Strong

Jan 31, 2019

Catapult Instructors Community | Advice

Cover Photo: Photograph by Gabriel Crismariu via Unsplash

What I Imagined Motherhood Would Be, and What It Is

When you give birth to a life, you are also giving birth to a death.

Lynn Steger Strong

Oct 11, 2018

People | Family | Parenting

How She Did It: On Penelope Fitzgerald, Writing, and Women at Work

Fitzgerald was ground down, I imagine, consumed by how to take care of her family. This didn’t make her any less the thinker, writer, reader, that she was.

Lynn Steger Strong

Apr 09, 2018

Arts & Culture | Books