A Writer's Moment: 'The chance to use your voice'

A Writer's Moment: 'The chance to use your voice':   "In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right."  – Ellen Goodman   Born in M...

'The chance to use your voice'

 

"In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right." – Ellen Goodman

 

Born in Massachusetts on this date in 1941, Goodman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author of 8 books, and a frequent speaker and commentator on society and social issues.

                                                                                                                              

After earning a degree in history at Radcliffe, she gravitated to writing after taking a “temporary” job as a researcher at Newsweek magazine. After working as a reporter at the Detroit Free Press and the Boston Globe, she started writing on social issues and soon was presenting her thoughts in a column read by millions around the world.

 

She was the first woman to be published on a major newspaper's Op-Ed Page and the first to have a regular column, joining the Washington Post Writers Group in 1976 where her groundbreaking writings have inspired action for decades.

 

Honored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists with the “Ernie Pyle Award for Lifetime Achievement,” she also is the recipient of the American Society of News Editors’ Distinguished Writing Award, the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award, and the National Women’s Political Caucus President's Award.  

 

“I think that having a job in journalism, despite all of the changes, is still a fantastic way to be – to make a living observing your society and having a chance to use your voice.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Right Choice-ing' at the fork in the road

A Writer's Moment: 'Right Choice-ing' at the fork in the road:   “The films of which I'm most proud I've written are the ones that pivot on forgiveness.” – Peter Morgan   Born in England on t...

'Right Choice-ing' at the fork in the road

 

“The films of which I'm most proud I've written are the ones that pivot on forgiveness.” – Peter Morgan

 

Born in England on this date in 1963, Morgan is best known for his historical films and plays The Queen and Frost/Nixon, and for creating Netflix’s wildly successful series The Crown.   He also co-wrote the screenplay for the award-winning movie The Last King of Scotland.  

 

The son of immigrants who fled to Great Britain to escape the Nazis (his father) and Soviet repression (his mother), he started writing while at the University of Leeds. His big breakthrough came with The Queen, for which he won a Golden Globe and the lead actor Helen Mirren an Academy Award.   Since then, everything he’s written has been successful and influential, for which he was honored with the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drama.

 

 “As a dramatist, you have 200 choices at every fork in the road,” he said.   “But the audience will reject it if you make the wrong choice, if they feel you are trying to shape the character in a way that suits you.  It rings false immediately.  People can sense when you're being cynical or schematic.”

A Writer's Moment: Every day an adventure'

A Writer's Moment: Every day an adventure':   “Mystery writing involves solving a puzzle, but 'high suspense' writing is a situation whereby the writer thrusts the hero/heroine...

Every day an adventure'

 

“Mystery writing involves solving a puzzle, but 'high suspense' writing is a situation whereby the writer thrusts the hero/heroine into high drama.” – Iris Johansen

  

Born in St. Louis in April of 1938, Johansen was working as a flight attendant when she decided to try writing – bored with the romance novels she liked to read.  

 

After early successes in the Romance genre, she began writing Historical Romance suspense novels in 1991 with the publication of The Wind Dancer, then settled into suspense writing with her bestselling crime fiction thriller Ugly Duckling in 1996.   A self-described “voracious” writer, she now has written 116 books, her latest being On The Hunt in 2024. 

 

Writing is a family affair for Johansen.  Her son Roy is an Edgar Award-winning screenwriter and novelist and has co-written 15 books with his mom.  Her daughter Tamara serves as her research assistant.  

 

Her myriad fans say Johansen’s writing often leaves them spellbound. 

 

“The greatest compliment a writer can be given is that a story and character hold a reader spellbound,” she said, adding that she can’t wait to get back to her writing each day.  “Every day should be an adventure, not a treadmill.”

A Writer's Moment: Writing with 'a terrible honesty'

A Writer's Moment: Writing with 'a terrible honesty':   “I don't like poetry that doesn't give me a sense of ritual; but I don't like poetry that doesn't sound like people talkin...

Writing with 'a terrible honesty'

 

“I don't like poetry that doesn't give me a sense of ritual; but I don't like poetry that doesn't sound like people talking to each other. I try to do both at once.” – Miller Williams

 

Born in Hoxie, AR on this date in 1930, Williams was studying to become a zoologist when his love of writing got in the way.  By the time of his death in 2015 he had produced some 40 books, created and read a poem at the Presidential Inauguration of fellow Arkansan Bill Clinton, and helped found The University of Arkansas Press.

 

His first collection of poems, Et Centera, was published while he was still an undergraduate student in biology at Arkansas State University.  His treatise on writing poetry, “Making a Poem: Some Thoughts About Poetry and the People Who Write It,” is regularly studied in colleges and universities around the world.    

 

A critic once wrote that Miller had "a terrible honesty" and "(wrote) about ordinary people in the extraordinary moments of their lives."   

 

Among his many awards were the Porter Prize Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement in Writing, the National Poets’ Prize – for his collection Living on the Surface – and the National Arts Award for his lifelong contribution to the arts. 

 

“I respond to mood. I hear some phrase, or pick up a rhythm,” he said of his writing style.  “I always have pen and paper with me.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Drawing from life . . . as you see it'

A Writer's Moment: 'Drawing from life . . . as you see it':   “[The writer] must essentially draw from life as he sees it, lives it, overhears it or steals it, and the truer the writer, perhaps the bi...

'Drawing from life . . . as you see it'

 

“[The writer] must essentially draw from life as he sees it, lives it, overhears it or steals it, and the truer the writer, perhaps the bigger the blackguard. He lives by biting the hand that feeds him.” – Charles R. Jackson

 

Born in New Jersey on April 6, 1903 Jackson wrote several bestselling novels, including The Lost Weekend, also adapted into an Academy Award-winning Best Picture.  The novel – his first – and subsequent film thrust Jackson into a limelight in which he wasn’t always comfortable, although he did enjoy a fairly distinguished lecture circuit career from the book and film successes.

 

At Syracuse University he studied journalism and wrote for a number of newspapers before gravitating to books – both writing and selling them.  He wrote several more novels, a number of well-received short stories, and had a very successful stint as a scriptwriter for radio soap operas.  

 

Hospitalized for a number of years with tuberculosis and alcoholism, Jackson took about a 15-year break before writing one more successful book, the semi-autobiographical novel A Second-Hand Life, shortly before his death in 1968.

 

During his long hiatus, Jackson blamed the demise more to his inability to handle his early successes rather than his  illnesses.  “The writer knows his own worth,” he lamented, “and to be overvalued can confuse and destroy him as an artist.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A wise woman, indeed'

A Writer's Moment: 'A wise woman, indeed':   “A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim.”  –  Maya Angelou Born in St. Louis on Ap...

'A wise woman, indeed'

 

“A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim.” –  Maya Angelou

Born in St. Louis on April 4, 1928, Angelou was a poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist and recipient of dozens of awards.  She was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom and more than 50 honorary degrees before her death in 2014.    For Saturday’s Poem, here is Angelou’s,                                                                                                                         

                             When You Come

            When you come to me, unbidden,
                         Beckoning me
                         To long-ago rooms,
                         Where memories lie.

                         Offering me, as to a child, an attic,
                         Gatherings of days too few.
                         Baubles of stolen kisses.
                         Trinkets of borrowed loves.
                         Trunks of secret words,

                          I CRY.

A Writer's Moment: Creating 'a unique bond of trust'

A Writer's Moment: Creating 'a unique bond of trust':   “There's a unique bond of trust between readers and authors that I don't believe exists in any other art form.  As a reader, I tru...

Creating 'a unique bond of trust'

 

“There's a unique bond of trust between readers and authors that I don't believe exists in any other art form.  As a reader, I trust a novelist to give me his or her best effort, however flawed.” – Dan Simmons

 

Born in Peoria, IL on this date in 1948, Simmons is an award-winning author of science fiction, horror and fantasy, sometimes all within the same novel. A typical example of Simmons' intermingling of genres is his World Fantasy Award winner Song of Kali, a tale surrounding a mysterious cult that worships the Indian god Kali. 

 

After a number of modest successes, Simmons became internationally renowned for Hyperion, which won both the Hugo and Locus Awards for the best science fiction novel.    He followed that book’s success with 3 more books and several short stories in a series that concluded with another award winner, The Rise of Endymion, also winner of the Locus and a finalist for the Hugo.  

 

Simmons also writes mysteries and thrillers and said he enjoys moving among genres. His latest novel is the just-released (2025) historical thriller Omega Canyon.   

 

“I think it's one of the strangest attributes of this profession,” he said, “that when we writers get exhausted writing one thing we relax by writing another.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A fountain of gladness'

A Writer's Moment: 'A fountain of gladness':   “The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer ap...

'A fountain of gladness'

 

“The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible.” – Washington Irving

 

Born in New York City on this date in 1783, Irving is one of America’s earliest and most beloved storytellers, best known for his tales about "Rip Van Winkle” and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”  His book of short stories, simply known as The Sketch Book, was the first widely read work of American literature, helping advance the international reputation of American writers.

 

Also a noted essayist, biographer and historian,  he also was one of the leading diplomats of his time, serving as U.S. Ambassador to Spain in the 1840s – a time when relations between our young nation and the well-established European nation were crucial.  

 

Among Irving’s historical writings were bestselling biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith, and Muhammad, and histories of 15th-century Spain on subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors and The Alhambra.  

 

 Irving was a tireless advocate for stronger copyright laws to protect the young American writing community at a time when their works often were pirated, and he was instrumental in helping create international copyright laws.

  

Noted for his kindness and support of others, he said, “A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Every life . . .is a fairy tale'

A Writer's Moment: 'Every life . . .is a fairy tale':   “Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.”  – Hans Christian Andersen Born in Odense, Denmark on this date in 1805, Ande...

'Every life . . .is a fairy tale'

 “Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.” – Hans Christian Andersen

Born in Odense, Denmark on this date in 1805, Andersen was first introduced to the wonderful world of fairy tales by his poor and under-educated father who still found time almost daily to read to his young son – especially from 1001 Arabian Nights.  "Being read to by a parent” led Andersen to a lifelong love of both reading and fairy tales and the rest of the world became the beneficiary.

After singing as a child in the Royal Danish Theatre, Andersen turned to writing when his voice began to change, first working on theatrical pieces and then switching to fairy tales.  His first efforts were adaptations from tales he had heard as a child and before discovering magical worlds in his own imagination.

The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Match Girl and The Emperor’s New Clothes are just a few of the tales penned by Anderson.  His stories – translated into more than 125 languages and shared worldwide – have inspired plays, ballets and both live-action and animated films.   

  Since 1956 (for stories) and 1966 (for illustration), the International Board on Books for Young People has honored Andersen’s memory by presenting the Hans Christian Andersen Award to an author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children's literature.  

“Life itself,” Andersen wrote shortly before his death in 1875, “is and has been a most wonderful fairy tale.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The delicious promise of a riveting tale'

A Writer's Moment: 'The delicious promise of a riveting tale':     “I can think of no other experience quite like that of being 20 or so pages into a book and realizing that this is the real thing: a boo...

'The delicious promise of a riveting tale'

 

 “I can think of no other experience quite like that of being 20 or so pages into a book and realizing that this is the real thing: a book that is going to offer the delicious promise of a riveting story, arresting language and characters that will haunt me for days.” – Anita Shreve

 

Born in Boston in 1946, Shreve wrote those kinds of books herself, including the mega-bestsellers The Pilot’s Wife, Testimony and The Weight of Water, all also made into successful movies.  She began writing fiction in the 1960s while still a high school student and one of her early short stories, Past the Island, Drifting, was named for the prestigious O. Henry Prize while she was still a teen.  

 

Shreve, who died from cancer in 2018, combined her creative writing with teaching and working as a journalist in the U.S. and Africa before writing The Pilot’s Wife in 1999.  That book catapulted Shreve into her successful full-time writing career that resulted in 19 novels with millions of sales worldwide.

                                            

 Shreve wrote all of her books in longhand, and in an interview with The Writer magazine explained why she thought writing in longhand was the best thing any author could do.

 

“The creative impulse, the thing that gets deep inside me, goes from the brain to the fingertips.  When you’re writing by hand, even when you’re not consciously thinking about it, you’re constructing sentences in the best way possible.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Let what you believe shine through every sentence'

A Writer's Moment: 'Let what you believe shine through every sentence': “Be yourself.  Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish .” ...

'Let what you believe shine through every sentence'

“Be yourself.  Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” – John Jakes

 

Born in Chicago on this date in 1932, Jakes gained widespread popularity with the publication of his Kent Family Chronicles, which became the bestselling American Bicentennial Series in the mid-to-late 1970s.  The books have sold an amazing 55 million copies and still are in print.

 

He also published several other very popular works of historical fiction, including the North and South trilogy about the U.S. Civil War, which sold 10 million copies and was adapted into an ABC-TV miniseries.

 

Jakes started writing while studying at DePauw University and wrote nearly the rest of his life. He died just short of his 91st birthday in 2023.  The author of 55 novels, he also penned 4 major works of nonfiction, including award-winning books on famous war correspondents and “Famous Firsts” in sports.

 

Known for his meticulous attention to detail, Jakes said, “Research is one of the best parts of doing what I do: I learn something new with every novel.  I always begin by reading general studies about the period . . . find events or specific subjects that interest me . . . and then weave many independent pieces of research into the final story.”   

 

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the rhythms and the music'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the rhythms and the music':   “At school, I was never given a sense that poetry was something flowery or light. It's a complex and controlled way of using language....

'It's the rhythms and the music'

 

“At school, I was never given a sense that poetry was something flowery or light. It's a complex and controlled way of using language.  Rhythms and the music of it are very important. But the difficulty is that poetry makes some kind of claim of honesty.” – Tobias Hill

 

A multi-talented writer of fiction, poems and short stories, Hill was born in London on March 30, 1970 and died of brain cancer in 2023.  He won awards for all his writing efforts, which included 4 volumes of poetry, 4 novels, a short story collection, and a children's book in just 20 years of writing.  

 

For Saturday’s Poem from his award-winning Midnight in the City of Clocks (influenced by his experience of life in Japan), here is Hill’s,

 

         October

She meets the train

at Burning Stone station,

                        red leaves in her pocket

and the river from the mountain

green as an eye.

 

The sun keeps rhythm

                        through the pines. The train beats time. She tells me that

her name translates as Three Eight Sweet One,

Sickle-Hand, and that her town

is famous for carrots, and that

 

The moon has no face in Japan,

but the shadow of a hare,

                        leapt from the arms of a god.

 

Later, under the sod-black trees

she hides her face against the wind

and asks me to teach her to kiss.

A Writer's Moment: 'There's a genuine magic in what they do'

A Writer's Moment: 'There's a genuine magic in what they do':   “I love artists. I find them fascinating. To me, there really is a genuine magic in what they do.”  – Elizabeth Hand   Born in Yonkers...

'There's a genuine magic in what they do'

 

“I love artists. I find them fascinating. To me, there really is a genuine magic in what they do.” – Elizabeth Hand

 

Born in Yonkers, NY on March 29, 1957 Hand studied drama and anthropology in college and considered a stage acting career before getting into writing. Since 1988, she has lived in coastal Maine, the setting for many of her stories, and Camden Town, London, the setting for her several of the historical fantasy novels.  She’s written more than 30 novels and dozens of shorter works. 

 

While Science Fiction and Fantasy have been her primary focal point, she said she didn’t read much Science Fiction as a kid.  A self-proclaimed “total Tolkien geek,” she started reading Samuel Delany, Angela Carter and Ursula LeGuin in high school, starting her along a path toward her own works.  Her first novel, Winterlong, came out in 1988 and her most recent, A Haunting on the Hill, in 2023. Haunting was her third winner of the prestigious Shirley Jackson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Psychological Suspense – the other two being Generation Lost and Wylding Hall.

 

Hand also writes television and sci-fi movie spin-offs and serves as a regular critic and reviewer for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

 

“I never think about genre when I work,” she said.   “I've written fantasy, science fiction, supernatural fiction . . . suspense.   Genrés are mostly useful as a marketing tool, and to help booksellers know where to shelve a book.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The crossroads of time, place and eternity'

A Writer's Moment: 'The crossroads of time, place and eternity':   “The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. (The) problem is to find that location.”  – ...

'The crossroads of time, place and eternity'

 

“The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. (The) problem is to find that location.” – Flannery O'Connor

 

Born in Georgia on March 25, 1925 O’Connor is one of America’s most important literary voices – writing 2 novels, 32 short stories and a large number of reviews and commentaries in her relatively short lifetime (she died at age 39 from cancer).

 

Much of O'Connor's best-known writing on religion, the “writing process,” and the South is contained in her voluminous correspondence with other writers and educators.  After her death her longtime friend Sally Fitzgerald collected and published a book of her letters under the title The Habit of Being.   That book and other letters maintained by Emory University are a key part of O’Connor’s legacy.

 

In 1972, O’Connor’s posthumously published Complete Stories won the National Book Award for Fiction and has been the subject of enduring praise, including being lauded by many critics as the best book to ever have won the prestigious award.

 

O’Connor said as a writer she enjoyed “studying people” and advised young writers to always be aware of their surroundings and the people they encountered.   “The writer should never be ashamed of staring,” she said.  “There is nothing that does not require his or her attention.”

A Writer's Moment: 'An ancient and honorable act'

A Writer's Moment: 'An ancient and honorable act':   “Storytelling is an ancient and honorable act. An essential role to play in the community or tribe. It's one that I embrace wholeheart...

'An ancient and honorable act'

 

“Storytelling is an ancient and honorable act. An essential role to play in the community or tribe. It's one that I embrace wholeheartedly and have been fortunate enough to be rewarded for.” –  Russell Banks

 

Born in Massachusetts on this date in 1940, Banks wrote 20 books of fiction and poetry.  He was best known for his accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary, often-marginalized characters, frequently drawing from his own childhood experiences growing up in poverty.

 

Winner of the John Dos Passos Award for Creative Writing, he also earned numerous international awards and had his work translated into 20 different languages.  Two of his books – The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction – not only became international best-sellers but were made into successful feature films.

 

A member of the International Parliament of Writers and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he wrote right up until his death early in 2023, publishing a novel The Magic Kingdom in 2022.  A posthumous collection of his short stories, American Spirits, was published in 2024.

Also a winner of the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Award for Excellence in Fiction, Banks noted, “There are people like me who want to be writers simply because they love to write.  My life has been shaped by my writing,”   

A Writer's Moment: 'I teach in order to learn'

A Writer's Moment: 'I teach in order to learn':   “ In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life:   It goes on.”   – Robert Frost I’ve always loved the poetry of Robert F...

'I teach in order to learn'

 “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life:   It goes on.” – Robert Frost

I’ve always loved the poetry of Robert Frost and thought about his imagery and attention to the land while recently driving and walking in the rugged countryside of western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming.  I don’t think Frost ever visited there, but I’m sure if he had, the world would have had another great book of poems about his experience.

Frost, who was born in California on March 26, 1874 grew up and spent most of his life in New England. His realistic depictions of rural life, the beauty of the land, and command of American colloquial speech – all while examining complex social and philosophical themes – may never be equaled.   

Poetry is a simple process, he liked to say; just an emotion finding a thought and the thought finding its words.  Like every writer he hit dry periods, but unlike many he had something to say about that.  “Poets,” he noted, “are like baseball pitchers.  Both have their moments.  It’s the intervals that are the tough things.”

 

Honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, Frost also was a great teacher at some of America's greatest colleges.   “I talk in order to understand,” he said.  “But I teach in order to learn."

A Writer's Moment: That 'most fertile' writing ground

A Writer's Moment: That 'most fertile' writing ground:   “A theatre, a literature, an artistic expression that does not speak for its own time has no relevance.”  – Dario Fo   Born in Italy o...

That 'most fertile' writing ground

 “A theatre, a literature, an artistic expression that does not speak for its own time has no relevance.” – Dario Fo

 

Born in Italy on this date in 1916, Fo often said he was “an idiot” who just happened to win the Nobel Prize.  But “brilliant” would be a more apt descriptive title for the multi-talented Fo.   An actor, playwright, director, songwriter he was arguably the most widely performed contemporary playwright in world theatre during his lifetime.

 

A master of satire and irony, he grew up the son of a self-educated writing mother and day-laborer father who also was a traveling actor in the ancient Italian tradition of regional performance, lampooning local politicos and religious figures.

 

“When I was a boy,” he said, “unconsciously, spontaneously I learned the art of telling ironic stories.”  Fo’s writings – translated into 30 languages and performed worldwide – address issues ranging from dictatorial brutality to organized crime.  He especially found politics to be fertile writing ground.. 

 

 “Every artistic expression," he said, "is either influenced by or adds something to politics.”

A Writer's Moment: 'You make community with others'

A Writer's Moment: 'You make community with others':   “Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that...

'You make community with others'

 

“Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that you commune, you take communion, you make a community with others.” – Mary Karr

 

While she calls herself a poet first, Karr, who was born in Southeastern Texas in 1955, rose to fame with the publication of her memoir The Liars' Club.  But her poetry have won her most acclaim, earning her a Whiting Award, the Pushcart Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship for her poetry.   For Saturday’s poem, here is Karr’s,

A Perfect Mess

I read somewhere
that if   pedestrians didn't break traffic laws to cross
Times Square whenever and by whatever means possible,

the whole city
would stop, it would stop.
Cars would back up to Rhode Island,
an epic gridlock not even a cat
could thread through. It's not law but the sprawl
of our separate wills that keeps us all flowing. Today I loved
the unprecedented gall
of the piano movers, shoving a roped-up baby grand
up Ninth Avenue before a thunderstorm.
They were a grim and hefty pair, cynical
as any day laborers. They knew what was coming,
the instrument white lacquered, the sky bulging black
as a bad water balloon and in one pinprick instant
it burst. A downpour like a fire hose.
For a few heartbeats, the whole city stalled,
paused, a heart thump, then it all went staccato.
And it was my pleasure to witness a not
insignificant miracle: in one instant every black
umbrella in Hell's Kitchen opened on cue, everyone
still moving. It was a scene from an unwritten opera,
the sails of some vast armada.
And four old ladies interrupted their own slow progress
to accompany the piano movers.
each holding what might have once been
lace parasols over the grunting men. I passed next
the crowd of pastel ballerinas huddled
under the corner awning,
in line for an open call — stork-limbed, ankles
zigzagged with ribbon, a few passing a lit cigarette
around. The city feeds on beauty, starves
for it, breeds it. Coming home after midnight,
to my deserted block with its famously high
subway-rat count, I heard a tenor exhale pure
longing down the brick canyons, the steaming moon
opened its mouth to drink from on high ...

A Writer's Moment: 'Imagining worlds unlike our own'

A Writer's Moment: 'Imagining worlds unlike our own':   “The historical novelist has to consider what has actually happened, while the SciFi writer is dealing in possibilities, but they are both...

'Imagining worlds unlike our own'

 

“The historical novelist has to consider what has actually happened, while the SciFi writer is dealing in possibilities, but they are both in the business of imagining a world unlike our own and yet connected to it.” – Pamela Sargent

 Born in Ithaca, NY on March 20, 1948 Sargent is an American science fiction writer and editor, and winner of the prestigious Nebula Award.   Acclaimed for her series on the terraforming of Venus, and for editing various anthologies celebrating the contributions of women in the history of science fiction, she also has been honored with The Pilgrim Award, presented by the Science Fiction Research Association for Lifetime Achievement.  

 

Among her best-known books are Firebrands: The Heroines of Science Fiction and Fantasy (co-authored with Ron Miller) and her Women of Wonder series.   She has penned nearly 30 novels, half-dozen story collections and several nonfiction works while also collaborating on several novels in the “Star Trek” series. 

 Sargent said she feels an affinity with writers of historical fiction.  “A feeling for history is almost an essential for writing and appreciating good science fiction,” she said.  “(It’s crucial) for sensing the connections between the past and future that run through our present.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing the rhythms of the world'

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing the rhythms of the world':   “What makes me write is the rhythm of the world around me - the rhythms of the language, of course, but also of the land, the wind, the sk...

'Writing the rhythms of the world'

 

“What makes me write is the rhythm of the world around me - the rhythms of the language, of course, but also of the land, the wind, the sky, other lives. Before the words comes the rhythm - that seems to me to be of the essence.” – John Burnside

 

Born in Scotland on this date in 1955, Burnside is one of only four writers to win both the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize for a single book – his being 2011’s Black Cat Bone.  He also won a Whitbread Award for The Asylum Dance in 2000, and The David Cohen Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2023.  He died after a short illness in May of 2024 just after publishing his 22^nd book of poetry, Ruin, Blossom.

 

A longtime Professor in Creative Writing at St Andrews University, Burnside also authored many short stories, novels, essays, and two multi-award-winning memoirs, A Lie About My Father and Waking Up In Toytown.

 

“I love long sentences,” he said about his writing style.  “My big heroes of fiction writing are Henry James and (Marcel) Proust – people who recognize that life doesn't consist of declarative statements, but rather modifications, qualifications and feelings.”

A Writer's Moment: That 'truth' about fiction

A Writer's Moment: That 'truth' about fiction:   “A writer borrows a bit from here, there and everywhere, and adapts it to her own purpose.  (But) I find that the more of me I include, th...

That 'truth' about fiction

 

“A writer borrows a bit from here, there and everywhere, and adapts it to her own purpose.  (But) I find that the more of me I include, the more successful the book; the more readers can identify with.” – Joy Fielding

 

Born on this date in 1945 in Toronto, Canada (where she still lives), Fielding said she knew early in life that she wanted to be a writer.  Even when drawn in different directions – particularly acting – she always felt the pull back to that first love and to date has authored 32 novels -- the newest Jenny Cooper Has a Secret coming out in August.

  

“I love writing because it's the only time in my life when I feel I have complete control,” Fielding said.   “Nobody does or says anything I don't tell them to – although even this amount of control is illusory because there comes a point where the characters take over and tell you what they think they should say and do.” 

   

Fielding said she looks upon everything as a potential scene for a book, and everyone as a potential character.  While she occasionally gets ideas from magazines and newspaper articles – especially headlines – more often her ideas come from something that happens to her or someone she knows. 

 

“I don't enjoy doing a lot of research, preferring as a rule, to ‘make up my facts.’ That's why I write fiction,” she said.  “I firmly believe that if you want facts, you read non-fiction; you read fiction to discover truth.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The pleasure . . . of telling a story'

A Writer's Moment: 'The pleasure . . . of telling a story':   “The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating...

'The pleasure . . . of telling a story'

 

“The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating characters; the novel is such a wonderfully flexible form.  You learn a lot, writing fiction.” –  Penelope Lively

 

Born in Egypt (of British parents) on St. Patrick’s Day in 1933, Lively has authored dozens of books (fiction and nonfiction) for both adults and children, earning a Booker Prize for her adult novel Moon Tiger, and the Carnegie Medal for British Children's Books for The Ghost of Thomas Kempe.   She’s been honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and elected Vice-President of the Friends of the British Library, one of her main causes.

 

Beside novels and short stories, Lively has also written radio and television scripts, presented a radio program, and contributed reviews and articles to various newspapers and journals.

 

While she didn’t start writing until she was almost 40, the prolific Lively has written 32  children’s books, 5 nonfiction books and 22 adult novels or short story collections.  Her latest work Metamorphosis, a short story colletion, was published in 2022.

 

 “Every novel generates its own climate,” she said.  “You just have to get going with it.”  Also a dedicated reader, she added,  “Reading is of the most intense importance to me.  If I were not able to read, to revisit old favorites and experiment with names new to me, I would be starved - probably too starved to go on writing myself.”

A Writer's Moment: And the beat goes on

A Writer's Moment: And the beat goes on:   “The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, fi...

And the beat goes on

 “The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, finds mischief boring and avoids it. Without the hidden conspiracy of goodwill, society would not endure an hour.” – Kenneth Rexroth 

Born in March of 1905, American poet, translator and critical essayist Rexroth laid the groundwork for what would become the 1950s beat movement.  Dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time Magazine, he also was among the first U.S. poets to explore styles like haiku. 

  

For Saturday’s Poem here is Rexroth’s,

Yin and Yang

It is Spring once more in the Coast Range
Warm, perfumed, under the Easter moon.
The flowers are back in their places.
The birds are back in their usual trees.

The winter stars set in the ocean.
The summer stars rise from the mountains.
The air is filled with atoms of quicksilver.
Resurrection envelops the earth.

Goemetrical, blazing, deathless,
Animals and men march through heaven,
Pacing their secret ceremony.

The Lion gives the moon to the Virgin.
She stands at the crossroads of heaven,
Holding the full moon in her right hand,
A glittering wheat ear in her left.

The climax of the rite of rebirth
Has ascended from the underworld
Is proclaimed in light from the zenith.
In the underworld the sun swims
Between the fish called Yes and No.

 

A Writer's Moment: 'We're all amateur investigators'

A Writer's Moment: 'We're all amateur investigators':   “We're all amateur investigators. We scan bookshelves, we ogle trinkets left out in the open, we calculate the cost of furniture and s...

'We're all amateur investigators'

 “We're all amateur investigators. We scan bookshelves, we ogle trinkets left out in the open, we calculate the cost of furniture and study the photographs on display; sometimes we even check out the medicine cabinet.” – Lisa Lutz

Born in California on this date in 1970, Lutz started writing with an idea for a screenplay, which ultimately became the basis for a best-selling series of novels.    It was while working for a private investigation firm that she started writing the screenplay for a dark Mob-type comedy called Plan B.  

Ultimately published as the novel The Spellman Files, her book is about a family of private investigators named Spellman, who, while very close knit, are also intensely suspicious and spend much time investigating each other. 

That first book – nominated for half-dozen awards – has led to 8 books in the series, all with multiple honors.  Her most recent is 2022's The Accomplice.  She’s also authored a children’s book and several stand-alone thriller/mystery books, including the 2017 award-winning The Passenger.

While highly successful, she said, “My writing process is chaos.  I usually start with an overarching theme. Then I establish several story threads, but I don't outline. I just start writing and keep notes for what may come. It's an organic process that's usually pretty flexible.”

A Writer's Moment: Words that 'peek out in an emotional way'

A Writer's Moment: Words that 'peek out in an emotional way':   “I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others.”   – James Taylor Born in Boston ...