Great Literary Beginnings

There is an art to creating a terrific opening line in every story, whether it's for a newspaper article or for the first words of a great novel. Tonight on the Front Porch we're going to talk about what it takes to come up with a great literary first line. We'll hear some great examples of literature's best opening sentences, from In Cold Blood, to Pride and Prejudice and Catch 22. We'll also hear from the man behind an international contest to find the worst opening lines ever.

Our guests are:
Richard Adams Carey, author of several books of nonfiction, including The Philosopher Fish. He teaches writing for the Southern New Hampshire University MFA program.

Scott Rice, chair of the English Department at San Jose State University. He's the founder of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. It's an annual competition to see who can submit the worst opening line of a novel.

***This show originally aired March 13, 2007***