'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 ...

'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 used in a way that's like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around.” –  Markus Zusak

 

When I read The Book Thief and then later saw the movie, I thought it had to have been written by a grizzled old writer who had the story in his or her mind for decades, or who had the experiences in a longstanding family history and then finally put them into a book before death got in the way and left the story untold.

 

So, I was shocked to learn that this heart-wrenching novel about the awful years in Germany during the late 1930s and through World War II were, in fact, presented to the world by a writer who wrote it in his late 20s and had it published just before his 30^th birthday.  Winner of dozens of awards, The Book Thief has been translated into more than 40 languages.

 

Born in Australia on June 23, 1975 Zusak wrote his first book The Underdog in 1999, the first of 5 books he had published before age 30.  Challenging The Book Thief for “best book” honors among those 5 was his 2003 multiple award-winner The Messenger (I Am the Messenger in the U.S. version), adapted in 2023 as a television series.   To date, he has authored 7 novels and a nonfiction (“memoir-type”) book Three Wild Dogs and the Truth, out in 2024.

 

His third book When Dogs Cry was actually his first writing effort.  He started it as a teenager and it took 7 years to get accepted.  Since then it’s sold continuously and won many awards around the globe, as has Zusak, who was named for the American Library Association’s Margaret Edwards Award in 2014 for his contribution to Young Adult literature.    

 

“I try hard and aim big,” Zusak said. “People can hate or love my books but they can never accuse me of not trying.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's that funny thing about memory'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's that funny thing about memory':   “Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow.”  – Tobias Wolff Born in Birming...

'It's that funny thing about memory'

 

“Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow.” – Tobias Wolff

Born in Birmingham, AL in June of 1945, Wolff is a short story writer, memoirist, novelist, and teacher of creative writing especially known for This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army.  His short story collection The Barracks Thief won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and he's been honored for his lifetime body of work with a National Medal of the Arts award.

 

A Vietnam veteran (Special Forces), he completed several tours of duty there before heading back to school to study creative writing and ultimately beginning his award-winning career.  Wolff said he had wanted to be a writer since age 14 but work and then the military always got in the way.  He has used many of his "life" experiences in his writing and is especially noted for using autobiographical elements in his short stories.   

 

 After earning several degrees, Wolff started teaching creative writing in the late 1980s, first at Syracuse and then at Stanford.  Dozens of successful writers trace their beginnings to classes and mentoring provided by Wolff, who has counseled and taught them in all genres.  That being said, it is short story writing that remains his favorite.

 

“Everything," he said, "has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Programmed to be Curious'

A Writer's Moment: 'Programmed to be Curious':   “Why do we read biography? Why do we choose to write it? Because we are human beings, programmed to be curious about other human beings, a...

'Programmed to be Curious'

 

“Why do we read biography? Why do we choose to write it? Because we are human beings, programmed to be curious about other human beings, and to experience something of their lives. This has always been so - look at the Bible, crammed with biographies, very popular reading.” – Claire Tomalin

 

Born in London on June 20, 1933 Tomalin is best known for her biographies of such luminaries as Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Jane Austin.    She did not set out to be a writer but jumped into the field to support her family of 5 children after her journalist husband Nicholas Tomalin was killed while working as a war correspondent.   Starting in 1973, she worked as an editor of the New Statesman and at The Sunday Times before trying her hand at biography. Her very first effort, The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, not only was a popular bestseller but set her on a writing path that has produced 11 bestselling biographies and won her more than a dozen top prizes.

 

While she has scaled back her writing – her most recent book is 2021’s The Young H.G. Wells: Changing The World  -- she is still active as a vice president of both the Royal Literary Fund and The Royal Society of Literature. 

 

Among her books, she said she very much enjoyed writing Charles Dickens: A Life, considered one of the best ever on the author and his works . 

 

“Dickens was a part of how the whole celebration of Christmas as we know it today emerged during the 19^th century,” she said.  “Dickens is (was) a lover of human beings; a relisher of human beings.”