A Writer's Moment: The 'discomfort of labels'

A Writer's Moment: The 'discomfort of labels':   Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are.  – Jonathan Coe   Born in Bromsgrove, Englan...

The 'discomfort of labels'

 

Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are. – Jonathan Coe

 

Born in Bromsgrove, England in August of 1961, Coe has written 17 mostly satirical and politically focused novels, starting with 1987’s The Accidental Woman.  His most recent novel is 2024’s The Proof of My Innocence and his next one Lessons in Harmony, slated for release this November.  His novel Middle England won both the European and Costa book awards.

 

 Coe also has had several nonfiction books, led by Humphrey Bogart: Take It and Like It – one of the best written on the late actor – and his ongoing love of music has led to collaborations with other writers and musicians on a wide range of songs.  And he’s written several children’s books, but no short stories.

 

“I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories,” he said.   “They just seem to turn into novels.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'Reluctant writing; successful results'

A Writer's Moment: 'Reluctant writing; successful results':   “One way an author dies a little each day is when his books go out of print.”  – William Goldman   Born in Chicago on this date in 193...

'Reluctant writing; successful results'

 

“One way an author dies a little each day is when his books go out of print.” – William Goldman

 

Born in Chicago on this date in 1931, Goldman wrote the Academy Award-winning screenplays for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men and also wrote two massively bestselling novels – the thriller Marathon Man and the comedy-fantasy The Princess Bride – also adapted into successful films.  He wrote 20 screenplays and adapted or consulted on a dozen more, all critical and box office successes.

 

The prolific Goldman, who died in 2018, studied writing at Oberlin College and authored 16 novels, a children’s book, 9 nonfiction books and numerous short stories to go along with his many screenplays.  But, despite that success, he often referred to himself as “a reluctant writer.”

 

“The easiest thing to do on earth is not write,” he said. “But this is life on earth, you can't have everything.”

A Writer's Moment: 'To hold nothing back'

A Writer's Moment: 'To hold nothing back':   “I love writing. I've pursued it with a passion.”  – Betsy Byars   Born in Charlotte, NC in August of 1928, Byars' passion for...

'To hold nothing back'

 

“I love writing. I've pursued it with a passion.” – Betsy Byars

 

Born in Charlotte, NC in August of 1928, Byars' passion for writing began in high school and led to a degree in English from Queens College in New York.  Her first professional writing was for magazines before she authored the book Clementine in 1962.

 

Listed among the 100 best children’s authors of all time and one of the 10 best writers for children during her lifetime, she wrote more than 50 books and collaborated with two of her daughters on half-a-dozen more.  Byars, who died in 2020, also wrote a bestselling memoir.

 

Her novel Summer of the Swans won a Newbery Medal, and her novel The Night Swimmers earned a National Book Award.  And, to show she also could handle mystery writing, she won the Edgar Prize for the novel Wanted …Mud Blossom.   She created some of the most popular and beloved characters in children’s literature – like Kate Morrison in The Computer Nut and Benjie “Mouse” Fawley in The 18^th Emergency – but presented each of them only once.

 

“Early in my career,” Byars said, “I decided not to do sequels. I know that children enjoy them, but I valued the feeling that this was the only time I would write about these characters. I felt it gave me an added incentive to do my best by them, to tell readers everything I knew, to hold nothing back.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Find the good, and praise it'

A Writer's Moment: 'Find the good, and praise it':   “In my writing, as much as I could, I tried to find the good, and praise it.”  –  Alex Haley   Born in Ithaca, NY on Aug. 11, 1921 Hal...