A Writer's Moment: 'It's how we become participants'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's how we become participants':   “We participate in the creation of the world by de-creating ourselves.”  – Anne Carson   Carson, born in Canada on June 21, 1950 is a ...

'It's how we become participants'

 

“We participate in the creation of the world by de-creating ourselves.” – Anne Carson

 

Carson, born in Canada on June 21, 1950 is a poet, essayist, translator, and teacher at universities in both the U.S. and Canada.   She also is the winner of three of the most distinguished and richest writing awards – the Guggenheim, the MacArthur, and the Lannan.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Carson’s,

 

     Short Talk on Chromo-Luminarism

                         Sunlight slows down Europeans. Look at all those
                        spellbound people in Seurat. Look at Monsieur,
                         sitting deeply. Where does a European go when he
                         is ‘lost in thought'? Seurat has painted that
                        place—the old dazzler! It lies on the other
                        side of attention, a long lazy boatride from here.
                        It is A Sunday rather than A Saturday afternoon
                        there. Seurat has made this clear by a special
                        method. "Ma méthode," he called it, rather testily,
                        when we asked him. He caught us hurrying through
                        the chill green shadows like adulterers. The
                        river was opening and closing its stone lips.
                        The river was pressing Seurat to its lips.

A Writer's Moment: 'You have to search yesterday'

A Writer's Moment: 'You have to search yesterday':   “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”  – Pearl Buck   Born in the backwoods of West Virginia on this date i...

'You have to search yesterday'

 

“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.” – Pearl Buck

 

Born in the backwoods of West Virginia on this date in 1892, Buck spent many of her “growing up years" in China where her parents were missionaries.   Over her lifetime she penned 40 novels, led by the massive best-selling The Good Earth, lauded for its compelling depiction of Chinese peasant life.    Over her 50-year writing career she also wrote numerous short stories and several nonfiction works, earning every major writing award capped by the 1938 Nobel Prize, becoming the first American woman to win the award. 

 

She also spoke and wrote against injustice whenever and wherever she saw it, and after winning the Nobel she utilized the prize money to establish the Pearl S. Buck Foundation to address humanitarian issues, especially in support of overcoming crushing poverty faced by children.  She saw the world unfolding around her and chronicled it in a writing style that melded the past and present with clarity and intensity. 

 

“In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on,” she said.  “A ream of paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book.  I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.”

A Writer's Moment: 'What about a fourth apple?'

A Writer's Moment: 'What about a fourth apple?':   “Armenian folklore has it that three apples fell from Heaven: one for the teller of a story, one for the listener, and the third for the o...

'What about a fourth apple?'

 

“Armenian folklore has it that three apples fell from Heaven: one for the teller of a story, one for the listener, and the third for the one who 'took it to heart.' What a pity Heaven awarded no apple to the one who wrote the story down.” – Nancy Willard

 

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on this date in 1936, Willard was a novelist, poet and author/illustrator of children’s books. She won the coveted Newbery Medal for her combination poetry-prose children’s book A Visit To William Blake’s Inn.   Her children's book Sailing to Cythera, and other Anatole Stories also won many awards and has been listed among the all-time best in the genre'.

Growing up “surrounded by stories and storytellers,” she studied writing at the University of Michigan where she earned both her B.A. and Ph.D. (sandwiched around a Master’s degree from Stanford).   After teaching writing at Vassar, she branched off to her own writing, particularly children’s and young adult books, but continued to combine writing and teaching throughout her life.   Willard authored 4 novels, 4 nonfiction books, 18 books of poetry, and 43 children’s books, the last one, Gum, published just months before her death in 2017.  

 

 Among her many awards besides the Newbery Medal were an O. Henry Prize, 2 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships, and a Devins Award for Poetry.

 

“When I was growing up,” Willard said, “I loved stories in which a girl sets out on a quest . . . to rescue a prince instead of the other way around.”

A Writer's Moment: 'When every page contains a gem'

A Writer's Moment: 'When every page contains a gem':   “I like the idea that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It's probably what I love most about writing - that words can be ...