Rutgers University–Camden hosted acclaimed, bestselling author Liz Moore last month for an intimate look at the writer’s career and process as part of its Writers in Camden series. Her appearance capped off a slate of events celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Writers House, a hub for campus and community literary programming.
Moore, winner of a Rome Prize in Literature, is the writer of short fiction, essays, and five novels—among them, the instant New York Times bestsellers The God of the Woods and Long Bright River, set in Philadelphia, Moore’s hometown.
“Liz Moore is one of the best writers of suspenseful, character-driven fiction,” said Bronwen Everill, a Rutgers–Camden MFA student, who introduced Moore to the crowd. “I was blown away by The God of the Woods—the sharply but empathetically observed characters and the lush sense of place and time, the unflinchingly devastating storytelling, a plot to give Agatha Christie a run for her money.”
The author narrated from the first chapter of The God of the Woods, a literary mystery and thriller tracing the disappearance of two children set in the Adirondacks. She then shared with the audience how she approaches her craft.
Rutgers University–Camden/Ron Downes Jr.
“It takes me about four years to write a book, as opposed to one or two,” Moore said. There are some writers who publish on a much quicker timeline.”
As director of the MFA program in creative writing at Temple University, Moore said she does not outline her stories but follows a “3P” formula she shares with her own students when shaping her storytelling: place, people, and problem. Her plots emerge organically in her writing. Her exploration and excavation of plot may explain the length of her books as well as their timelines.
Undoubtedly, it is a process that works. Her books have earned national acclaim; Barack Obama placed The God of the Woods on his 2024 Summer Reading List and named Long Bright River one of his favorite books in 2020.
Her work has also attracted the attention of Hollywood. Her previous book, the suspense novel Long Bright River, was optioned for television two years before its debut in 2020. She’s credited as a co-writer, executive producer, and co-creator for the limited-series adaptation, which now airs on the streaming platform Peacock.
She shared with the audience that her mother was her earliest inspiration and provided the support and encouragement she needed to find her voice.
“My mom was really supportive of me growing up, and my mom was also a really good storyteller, and she would tell me stories aloud, off the top of her head. She could invent, like, whole worlds and on a car ride, for example, she could tell me this story that she had completely invented, which was so cool,” Moore said. “She also was probably my first reader.”
Rutgers University–Camden/Ron Downes Jr.
Opened in 2015, the Writers House is home to the university’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program and to Story Quarterly, the English department’s literary magazine. Writers House programming is open to both the Rutgers–Camden community and the public and is designed to unite artists, scholars, students, and citizens around the power of the written word.
The Writers in Camden series invites acclaimed novelists, poets, and nonfiction authors to share their work with students and the public. Past speakers have included Meg Wolitzer, Ross Gay, and James McBride.