A Writer's Moment: 'Flowing To A Satisfying Conclusion'

A Writer's Moment: 'Flowing To A Satisfying Conclusion':   “The best writers who have put pen to paper have often had a journalism background. “ – Rick Bragg Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist B...

'Flowing To A Satisfying Conclusion'

 “The best writers who have put pen to paper have often had a journalism background.“ – Rick Bragg

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bragg was born on this date in 1959 in Piedmont, AL, and credits his development as a writer to his ability to be a good listener.  Bragg wrote for several small newspapers before gravitating to the New York Times where he became a national correspondent and then Miami Bureau Chief, covering the controversial story of young Cuban Elian Gonzalez and earning the Pulitzer for his efforts. 

Among Bragg's best-known books are All Over But the Shoutin’, the story of his turbulent childhood in Alabama; and two high-profile biographies, one about POW Jessica Lynch I Am A Soldier Too, and the other about rock-and-roller Jerry Lee Lewis.

The winner of more than 50 writing awards and professor of journalism at the University of Alabama, he always hearkens back to journalism as a great foundation for any writer.  Learning to be a reporter teaches attention to detail, how to deal with deadlines, how to “listen” to both what is being said and what is left unsaid, and how to organize a story so that it flows to a satisfying conclusion.
 

 

“People who think there is something pedestrian about journalism are just ignorant,” Bragg said.  “I don't think there's a difference between writing for a newspaper or magazine and doing a chapter in a book.”   

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Poetry Is Intimate'

A Writer's Moment: 'Poetry Is Intimate':   “I feel like prose comes much more from outside me than poetry does. Poetry is intimate and more generated in my own theater, shall we say...

'Poetry Is Intimate'

 “I feel like prose comes much more from outside me than poetry does. Poetry is intimate and more generated in my own theater, shall we say. But in prose I have to be responsive to that story that’s coming to me and there has to be some part of me that goes out to meet it.” – Tess Gallagher

 

Born in July 1943 to a logging family in Port Angeles, WA, Gallagher has published numerous collections of poetry, including Instructions for a Double, which won the Elliston Book Award.   Her Moon Crossing Bridge, a series of 60 poems on the theme of loss and grieving, prompted the American Book Review to call it “a rare document of loss, faith, and returns—return to the site of loving and to the gradual last breath, return to life's immediate summonings.”

 

For Saturday’s Poem here is Gallagher’s,

Now that I am Never Alone

In the bath I look up and see the brown moth

pressed like a pair of unpredictable lips

against the white wall. I heat up

the water, running as much hot in as I can stand.

These handfuls over my shoulder—how once

he pulled my head against his thigh and dipped

a rivulet down my neck of coldest water from the spring

we were drinking from. Beautiful mischief

that stills a moment so I can never look

back. Only now, brightest now, and the water

never hot enough to drive that shiver out.

 

But I remember solitude—no other

presence and each thing what it was. Not this raw

fluttering I make of you as you have made of me

your watch-fire, your killing light.

 

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Kind of the Whole Thing'

A Writer's Moment: 'Kind of the Whole Thing':   “Lyrics are kind of the whole thing; it's the message. Something might have a beautiful melody but if it's not the truth coming ou...

'Kind of the Whole Thing'

 “Lyrics are kind of the whole thing; it's the message. Something might have a beautiful melody but if it's not the truth coming out of your mouth, it's not appealing.” – Alison Krauss

Often credited with reviving America’s interest in bluegrass through her writing of the score for the wonderful movie O Brother Where Art Thou?, Krauss seemed born (on this date in 1971) to be a singer, songwriter and entertainer extraordinaire.  A violinist at age 5, and competition fiddler by age 8, she had her first recording at age 14, already the lead fiddler by then with a group that was to become Union Station – the band she still performs with today.   And while her fiddling is almost unsurpassed, her singing, as they say “ain’t too shabby either.”

She has released 14 albums, appeared on numerous soundtracks, and won dozens of awards, including 28 Grammys, more than any other living performer.  Her creative and heartfelt writing has been lauded in successful movies like the one above and Cold Mountain, which both earned her Academy Award nominations. 

 

To jump-start your day and enjoy great music, too, here are two examples of Krauss’ writing, singing and fiddling.  The first is with Union Station on "The David Letterman Show" in 2011, and the second a version of her award-winning hit “Down to the River to Pray” from O Brother Where Art Thou? performed with the Berklee College Gospel Choir.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hayb9mZSZDQ  (Lay My Burden Down)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CJfxaWRkNs  (Down to the River to Pray) 

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Leaving an Impression With the Reader'

A Writer's Moment: 'Leaving an Impression With the Reader':   “Any writer who gives a reader a pleasurable experience is doing every other writer a favor because it will make the r...