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 ...

'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...