A Writer's Moment: 'More powerful than observed'

A Writer's Moment: 'More powerful than observed':   The reason that I keep writing is that all my most powerful messages about the fates of wild places that I care about need to have words a...

'More powerful than observed'

 

The reason that I keep writing is that all my most powerful messages about the fates of wild places that I care about need to have words as well as images.” – Galen Rowell

Born in California on this date in 1940, Rowell was a wilderness photographer, climber and writer who devoted his final 30 years to photographing and writing about the world’s wild places.   In the process, he won the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography and established his own lasting legacy.

 

Also held in high esteem for his writing on photography and on the humanitarian and environmental issues and mountaineering he loved, his remarkable 18 books included In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods about the history of mountaineering on the Himalayan mountain K2, and Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape, one of the bestselling “how-to” photo books of all time.  

 

In addition to his many photo shoots and articles for Life, National Geographic, and Outdoor Photographer, Rowell - who died in August of 2002 - also produced myriad stand-alone shots.  He said recognizing how film sees the world differently than the human eye and adjusting his shooting techniques to fit was probably the secret to his success.  

 

“Sometimes those differences can make a photograph more powerful than what you actually observed,” he said.  “It’s remarkable.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Only emotion endures'

A Writer's Moment: 'Only emotion endures':   “In poetry, only emotion endures.”  – X.J. Kennedy   Born in Dover, NJ on this date in 1929, Kennedy was both a children’s book author...

'Only emotion endures'

 

“In poetry, only emotion endures.” – X.J. Kennedy

 

Born in Dover, NJ on this date in 1929, Kennedy was both a children’s book author and poet who published numerous poetry collections, including Dark Horses: New Poems, and Breaking and Entering. His many works for young audiences included Exploding Gravy: Poems to Make You Laugh. 

 

Kennedy (who died in January, 2026) earned degees from Seton Hall and Columbia and had a 6-decade writing career.  For Saturday’s Poem – from his collection Nude Descending a Staircase (winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize) – here is Kennedy’s,   

                          Nude Descending a Staircase

        Toe after toe, a snowing flesh,
        a gold of lemon, root and rind,
        she sifts in sunlight down the stairs
        with nothing on. Nor on her mind.

        We spy beneath the banister
        a constant thresh of thigh on thigh;
        her lips imprint the swinging air
        that parts to let her parts go by.

 

        One-woman waterfall, she wears
        her slow descent like a long cape
        and pausing on the final stair,
        collects her motions into shape.

A Writer's Moment: 'What if?' - A Key to the Writing Door

A Writer's Moment: 'What if?' - A Key to the Writing Door:   “Whenever I start a novel, I'm always looking for two things: a bit of science that makes me go 'what if?' and a piece of hist...

'What if?' - A Key to the Writing Door

 

“Whenever I start a novel, I'm always looking for two things: a bit of science that makes me go 'what if?' and a piece of history that ends in a question mark.” – James Rollins
 

Born in Chicago on this date in 1961, Rollins is a writer of action-adventure/thriller novels and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, practicing under his “real” name James Paul Czajkowski.   And he is an amateur spelunker and certified scuba diver, great background and settings for some of his tales. 

 

Rollins studied Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri and didn’t start writing until 1999. Since then he has penned more than 50 novels, including the wildly successful Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Witch Fire – written under his other pen name James Clemens.  That book was “discovered” as an entry in a contest sponsored by the Maui Writers' Conference. 

 

His most recent books are A Dragon of Black Glass and A Fist of Molten Fire, released in the past two years under his “MoonFall” series.   In his veterinarian career, Rollins stays busy caring for abandoned or abused animals.  But it’s books that remain at the heart of things for him.

  

“Books are keys that open many doors,” Rollins said. “Generally, if you preface a request with, 'I'm an author writing a book,' for some reason, that seems to open a lot of doors.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The foundation for writing structure'

A Writer's Moment: 'The foundation for writing structure': “I think of novels as houses. You live in them over the course of a long period, both as a reader and as a writer.” – Nicole Krauss   Born i...