A Writer's Moment: A champion for social justice and human rights

A Writer's Moment: A champion for social justice and human rights:   “I've always loved writing, and the impulse for me is storytelling. I don't sit down and think: 'What political message can I ...

A champion for social justice and human rights

 

“I've always loved writing, and the impulse for me is storytelling. I don't sit down and think: 'What political message can I sell?' I love the creativity of it.” – Randa Abdel-Fattah

 

Born in Sydney, Australia in June of 1979, Abdel-Fattah is of Palestinian-Egyptian heritage, bringing an interesting cultural mix to her writing.  She had her first short story published at age 11, wrote numerous short stories as a teenager, and completed the first draft of her debut novel Does My Head Look Big in This? at age 18.   The story about life choices, bias and abiding friendships, the book also spawned a play and both versions were winner of numerous awards.

 

In addition to her writing, Abdel-Fattah is an attorney and champion for social justice and human rights issues.  A frequent speaker and regular broadcast commentator on those topics, she has continued to produce short stories and essays and (to date) a dozen books.  Her most recent is 2025’s Discipline.

 

Abdel-Fattah's writing also touches on celebratory events from all cultures and religions. 

 

“Religious celebrations,” she said, “and the good will, high spirits and generosity that mark them, are wonderful occasions for understanding the potential of 'everyday multiculturalism,’ and how people from diverse faiths can connect and show they care, rather than go down parallel, sometimes hostile, roads.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The task of a writer'

A Writer's Moment: 'The task of a writer':   “The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.”  – Thomas Mann   Born in Lubeck, Germany on June 6, 18...

'The task of a writer'

 

“The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.” – Thomas Mann

 

Born in Lubeck, Germany on June 6, 1875 Mann was a journalist, novelist, short story writer, philanthropist and essayist who started writing in the mid-1890s while living in Munich.   Winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, he was one of the most outspoken critics of Adolph Hitler, ultimately having to flee to Czechoslovakia and then the United States where he became a naturalized American citizen and lived until shortly before his death in 1955.

 

His successful creative writing career, which began with his novel Buddonbrooks – about a merchant family and reflective of his own childhood roots – was marked primarily by his short stories, which were popular throughout his lifetime and continue to be studied in writing classes today. 

 

"In books we never find anything but ourselves,” Mann said.  “Strangely enough, that always gives us great pleasure, and (yet) we say the author is a genius."

A Writer's Moment: 'It's in the heart of me'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's in the heart of me':   "The three foundations of judgement: Bold Design, Constant Practice, and Frequent Mistakes." –   John Masefield   Born in Ledbur...

'It's in the heart of me'

 

"The three foundations of judgement: Bold Design, Constant Practice, and Frequent Mistakes." –  John Masefield

 

Born in Ledbury, England on June1, 1878 Masefield was longtime Poet Laureate of Great Britain and remains one of those poets who had the uncommon sense to take every ordinary thing and make it shine.   Masefield loved the sea and wrote of it often in both prose and poetry.  His “Sea Fever” with the famous line “I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky” is probably one of the most quoted lines in poetry.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is another of Masefield’s terrific short poems,

The Wanderer

A wind’s in the heart of me, a fire's in my heels, 

I am tired of brick and stone and rumbling wagon-wheels; 

I hunger for the sea's edge, the limit of the land, 

Where the wild old Atlantic is shouting on the sand.

Oh I'll be going, leaving the noises of the street, 

To where a lifting foresail-foot is yanking at the sheet; 

To a windy, tossing anchorage where yawls and ketches ride, 

Oh I'll be going, going, until I meet the tide.

And first I'll hear the sea-wind, the mewing of the gulls, 

The clucking, sucking of the sea about the rusty hulls, 

The songs at the capstan at the hooker warping out, 

And then the heart of me'll know I'm there or thereabout.

Oh I am sick of brick and stone, the heart of me is sick, 

For windy green, unquiet sea, the realm of Moby Dick; 

And I'll be going, going, from the roaring of the wheels, 

For a wind's in the heart of me, a fire's in my heels.

A Writer's Moment: 'Seeing your life in a different way'

A Writer's Moment: 'Seeing your life in a different way':   I wasn't one of those kids who grew up wanting to write or who read a particular book and thought: 'I want to do that!' I alwa...