Author Jane Smiley captivates the audience as she attributes the success of her Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, "A Thousand Acres" to the lessons she learned from "Uncle Bill," as in William Shakespeare and his play, King Lear. In this interview with veteran journalist Dean Nelson, Smiley describes her compulsion to write and urges other writers to follow their own passions and not be too hard on themselves, as most early drafts are terrible. "Everyone has a story to tell if they want to tell it," she says, while offering advice on how to push through the barriers that often limit aspiring novelists. Smiley is presented by the 2018 Writer's Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University.

(#32690)