Read Robert Duncan’s essay on how he returned to publishing after an over 30-year hiatus in today’s issue of LitHub: On the Event That Brought Me Back to Writing After 30 Years

Be sure to check out this deeply personal, stunning essay in full. An excerpt:

“Could inspiration wait decades? Would even a high-energy guy like me have anything left? I told my son Daddy would definitely be writing another book. And though I’d always been careful not to make promises to my children I didn’t intend to keep, at the time I couldn’t see how.

When the kids were finally launched, it turned out I didn’t want to sit by myself in a quiet corner and make up stories. I wanted to celebrate, revel in the bars, restaurants, concerts and spontaneity I’d denied myself (in a pre-Covid rehearsal) for 20 years. Roni and I even decided to move back from the country to San Francisco. I wanted to get drunk and high and stay out late and return to those halcyon days before I had a godawful notion to be a writer.”