In this bi-weekly column written under the name "John Fitch IV", Cormier recounts his childhood encounters with an unnamed bully after hearing Jonathan Winters share his experience with bullies on a talk show. Cormier wonders whether or not bullies…
Cormier writes to Julie in response to her four interview questions for a class project. It appears he enjoyed a friendship with her teacher, Ms. Hawks. Cormier discusses his childhood during the depression, his interests, and his motives for…
In this one-page letter, young reader Michael Antoniak identifies the theme of injustice in Cormier's work and asks the author if he experienced teasing and injustice as a child. He also notes the depressing tone of Cormier's endings. Handwritten in…
This article praises Cormier's work compiling a history of his home parish St. Cecilia's. Notably, this article presents a more circumspect account of Cormier's house burning when he was in the eighth grade, his use of St. Cecilia's for Monument's…
In this lengthy interview, Cormier discusses topics ranging from his early school writing, influential teachers, childhood traumas, autobiographical components of his writing, the young adult label, fear of large institutions, censorship,…
In this response to the interview questions from the "In Brief" team, Cormier discusses his love of words, the politically conservative climate, the horror of the commonplace, and his admiration of other writers, especially Graham Greene. The topics…
Thirty pages of Heroes manuscript, most of which show hand-written revisions and markings. Pages show pasted strips of salvaged sections from earlier drafts. Repeated versions of war scenes sliced with scenes of playing soldiers as children in the…
This story recounts the efforts of thirteen-year-old Phillip as he tries to impress his piano teacher Sister Angela and win a spot in the orchestra for the Christmas recital.
This story in The Sign tells how 11-year-old Jerome takes up painting in an effort to impress his teacher, the nun Marie-Thérèse, whose later departure from the convent serves as the story's subplot. The story takes place in Frenchtown, the setting…
This is a transcript of an online discussion panel with Cormier facilitated by Barnes and Noble. Although the Q&A focuses on the recently-released Heroes, participants also asked questions about censorship, Cormier's writing practices and…
In this letter to his agent, Cormier discusses current and forthcoming projects, particularly surrounding a potential novel on French-Canadians in New England. Cormier shows a remarkable degree of self-awareness in assessing his own writing,…
In this column, Cormier writes of staying up late waiting for his college-aged daughter and high school-aged son to come home on a Friday night. He takes pleasure in their little evening rituals and small talk and thinks back to his father's own…
In this column, Cormier writes about the closing of his alma mater, St. Cecilia's. He talks of his memories of the school including the house fire he witnessed from his classroom, his crush on Sister Emile who taught music, the poem on spring he…
In this column, Cormier describes his daily routine as a househusband. He writes at home, does the shopping, cooks dinner, get his daughter off of the bus, cleans house, and meets with friends and neighbors at lunch. He states that none of these…