A PIECE OF WORK: Five Writers Discuss...

A PIECE OF WORK: Five Writers Discuss Their Revisions edited by Jay Woodruff (University of Iowa Press: $9.95; 273 pp., illustrated, paperback original). Woodruff traces the development of stories and poems by Tobias Wolff, Joyce Carol Oates, Tess Gallagher, Robert Coles and Donald Hall from the first hand-written notes to the final, printed version in print. Wolff, who destroys his early drafts, emerges as a warmly thoughtful person and writer, while Oates sounds pithy and more than a little self-conscious. Aspiring writers curious to understand just how the idols do it should consult Woodruff’s thorough study.