Dear Geist,

Do you know who wrote this sentence: “Writing is not just getting things down on paper, it is getting things inside someone else’s head”? I really want to know how to do that! It was written on a bit of paper that fell out of a library book; no connection to the book, and no information on the book or the writer.

—Cindy Fortin, Toronto ON

Dear Cindy Fortin,

We’re pretty sure that sentence was written by Peter Elbow, an iconoclastic writer and writing teacher for many years, and still ticking. His provocative published works include Writing without Teachers and Writing with Power. A more recent book, Vernacular Eloquence: What Speech Can Bring to Writing (2011), proposes a more profound effect of speech on the written word than has been understood. Have fun!

—The Editors