Mr. Stroud,

I am in 11th grade, and beginning to look at colleges. I was thinking about going to school for becoming an Author. I figured since you are an excellent writer, the college you attended must have been good quality, and I would like to look into that college; if you don't mind saying which it was.

Thank you,
Adele

Hello Adele,

Sorry to be so long replying: you've probably LEFT college by now!

Well, the place I studied at was York University (UK); I read English Literature there. It certainly was really good and I learned a lot, mainly by reading great books and writing critical studies of them. That's the thing I should emphasise - I didn't do much creative writing there (though I did a dodgy play and some v. dubious poems in my spare time). I certainly gained a lot by being exposed to great writers from the past, and by understanding a bit about how they operated it's helped me subsequently to do a little writing of my own. But of course there are places which do very good courses in Creative Writing, and that's another option you should consider. Don't feel that you HAVE to do a creative writing course, though - I would guess that most writers study something else, and gradually build up their talents by doing essays, writing journalism for the student papers, doing extracurricular creative stuff like I did. There is no one right option, but lots of great possibilities.

Anyway, the best of luck with finding a good place, and with all your future writing. I hope to read one of your books one day!

All good wishes,

Jonathan