Popular Posts
-
A Writer's Moment: 'Property of the imagination' : “The English language is nobody's special property. ...
-
“Librarians and romance writers accomplish one mission better than anyone, including English teachers: we create readers for life - and w...
-
A Writer's Moment: 'Be willing to fail' : “I'm always terrified when I'm writing.” – Mary Karr ...
-
“One of the great joys of life is creativity. Information goes in, gets shuffled about, and comes out in new and intere...
-
A Writer's Moment: 'Story ideas surround you' : “I always tell my students, 'If you walk around with your eyes and ears...
-
A Writer's Moment: 'Information In; Creative Responses Out' : “One of the great joys of life is creativity....
Saturday, February 29, 2020
A Writer's Moment: Those 'Accidental' Poems
A Writer's Moment: Those 'Accidental' Poems: “A lot happens by accident in poetry.” – Howard Nemerov Born in New York City on this date in 1920, Nemerov start...
Those 'Accidental' Poems
“A
lot happens by accident in poetry.” – Howard Nemerov
Born in New York City on this date
in 1920, Nemerov started writing poetry in high school and had his first works
published while studying at Harvard.
After serving as a pilot in WWII, he embarked on a long and
distinguished writing and teaching career, capped by 21 years as
Poet-in-Residence at Washington University in St. Louis. He was twice named Poetry Consultant to the Library
of Congress.
His many collections of poetry,
fiction, and prose, as well as his work as an editor made him a major figure in
mid-20th century American poetry. About him, Joyce Carol Oates once
wrote, “Romantic, realist, comedian, satirist, relentless and
indefatigable brooder upon the most ancient mysteries—Nemerov is not to be
classified.” For Saturday’s Poem, here is
Nemerov’s,
Fugue
You see them vanish in their
speeding cars,
The many people hastening through the world,
And wonder what they would have done before
This time of time speed distance, random streams
Of molecules hastened by what rising heat?
Was there never a world where people just sat still?
Yet they might be all of them contemplatives
Of a timeless now, drivers and passengers
In the moving cars all facing to the front
Which is the future, which is destiny,
Which is desire and desire's end -
What are they doing but just sitting still?
And still at speed they fly away, as still
As the road paid out beneath them as it flows
Moment by moment into the mirrored past;
They spread in their wake the parading fields of food,
The windowless works where who is making what,
The grey towns where the wishes and the fears are done.
The many people hastening through the world,
And wonder what they would have done before
This time of time speed distance, random streams
Of molecules hastened by what rising heat?
Was there never a world where people just sat still?
Yet they might be all of them contemplatives
Of a timeless now, drivers and passengers
In the moving cars all facing to the front
Which is the future, which is destiny,
Which is desire and desire's end -
What are they doing but just sitting still?
And still at speed they fly away, as still
As the road paid out beneath them as it flows
Moment by moment into the mirrored past;
They spread in their wake the parading fields of food,
The windowless works where who is making what,
The grey towns where the wishes and the fears are done.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
A Writer's Moment: Setting A Style That Works
A Writer's Moment: Setting A Style That Works: “No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he doesn't get paid.” – Irwin Shaw ...
Setting A Style That Works
“No
writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he
doesn't get paid.” – Irwin Shaw
Born in New York City on this date in 1913, Shaw grew up in Brooklyn where he studied writing at Brooklyn College, wrote his first successful stage play at age 21, and went on to become one of America’s most popular writers. Over his long successful career he wrote 10 novels, 10 works for the stage, 15 screenplays, and a dozen short story collections. He was twice honored with the prestigious O. Henry Award for his short story writing. He also did a number of nonfiction works and had several of his stories made into successful movies, led by The Young Lions and Rich Man, Poor Man.
The
Young Lions, which starred Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, was
based on Shaw’s own experiences serving as an Army Warrant Officer in Europe
during WWII. Blacklisted after
standing up to the infamous McCarthy Commission in the mid-1950s, he moved to
Europe and lived there for 25 years. He
was in Davos, Switzerland at the time of his death in 1984.
“The last paragraph, in which you
tell what the story is about, is almost always best left out,” Shaw once
said. “A good editor understands what
you're talking and writing about and doesn't meddle too much.”
“I haven't stuck to any formula. Most great writers stick to the same style, but I wanted to be more various in what I did.”
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
A Writer's Moment: Writing That 'Touches The Reader'
A Writer's Moment: Writing That 'Touches The Reader': It is the job of the novelist to touch the reader.” – Elizabeth George Susan “Elizabeth” George, a native of Warr...
Writing That 'Touches The Reader'
It
is the job of the novelist to touch the reader.”
– Elizabeth George
Susan “Elizabeth” George, a native
of Warren, Ohio, made her claim to fame by writing about “ordinary and
extraordinary” days in the life of a detective 6,000 miles away from her home –
Great Britain’s Inspector Thomas Lynley.
George, born on this date in 1949, didn’t start her stellar writing
career until middle age, first making her mark as an award-winning writing teacher. During her
14-year teaching career, she was twice named Teacher of the Year for
California’s largest county.
An avid “journaler,” she started her own creative writing by using
bits and pieces from her journals, including travels to England. She created the intriguing Lynley book series, most of which have been adapted by the BBC
as The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.
Her creations have now been translated into 3 dozen languages and earned her honorary degrees from California State University
Fullerton, and the Northwest Institute of Language Arts
(Whidbey Island MFA Program).
Recognition of the detail in her works – a hallmark of her writing thanks in no small part to her journaling skills – also has earned her Britain’s Anthony and Agatha Awards and France’s LeGrand Prix de Literature Policiere, a writing version of an Academy Award.
“I wish that I had known back then
that a mastery of process would lead to a product,” she said of her
writing. “Then I probably wouldn't have
found it so frightening to write.”
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
A Writer's Moment: Inspiring Writers To Reach Deeper
A Writer's Moment: Inspiring Writers To Reach Deeper: “Writing is really a way of thinking--not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, myste...
Inspiring Writers To Reach Deeper
“Writing is really a way of
thinking--not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate,
unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.”—Toni
Morrison
Black
History is much more than a month and is reflective of us all each and
every day. None tell this story better
than Morrison, born in February 1931. As
a novelist, editor and professor she helped shaped literature with the
power of her epic themes, vivid dialogue and richly detailed characters.
We will
forever be in her debt for giving us such wonderful books as The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved.
When she
was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 the award capped a
basketful of major achievement awards, begun with a Pulitzer Prize and
American Book Award, both for Beloved,
and then the Nobel Prize for her life’s body of written work. Morrison, who died this past August, gave us a
craftsmanship that inspires all writers to reach deeper within themselves.
“If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written
yet,” she said, “you must be the one to write it.”
Monday, February 24, 2020
A Writer's Moment: The Hardest Thing You Love To Do
A Writer's Moment: The Hardest Thing You Love To Do: “Writing is the hardest thing I know, but it was the only thing I wanted to do. I wrote for 20 years and published not...
The Hardest Thing You Love To Do
“Writing
is the hardest thing I know, but it was the only thing I wanted to do. I wrote
for 20 years and published nothing before my first book.”
– Kent Haruf
Born
in Pueblo, CO, on this date in 1943, Haruf finally broke through the barrier in
1984
with The Tie That Binds, not only
establishing his writing credentials but also earning him both a Whiting Award
and a Hemingway Foundation/PEN citation for excellence. His novel, Plainsong, a huge bestseller published in 1999, is considered one
of the best ever written about Western U.S. small town life. And
his last novel, Our Souls at Night, completed just before his death in
2014, was adapted into a popular film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.
The son of a Methodist minister,
Haruf first started writing in high school and further studied writing at
Nebraska Wesleyan University and at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he earned
his MFA. All of his novels
are set in the fictional town of Holt, CO, based on the small Western plains’
town of Yuma, where he resided in the early 1980s.
“I write in a journal first, briefly,”
he said of his writing process. “Then
(I) read something I've read many times before, for about half an hour, then
rework what I wrote the day before.”
“You have to believe in yourself, despite the evidence.”
Saturday, February 22, 2020
A Writer's Moment: A Poetic Presence on a Global Scale
A Writer's Moment: A Poetic Presence on a Global Scale: “You can't work in a steel mill and think small. Giant converters hundreds of feet high. Every night, the sky look...
A Poetic Presence on a Global Scale
“You
can't work in a steel mill and think small. Giant converters hundreds of feet high.
Every night, the sky looked enormous. It was a torrent of flames - of fire. The
place that Pittsburgh used to be had such scale.”
– Jack Gilbert
Gilbert
was born (Feb. 18, 1925) and raised in Pittsburgh. His first book of poems Views of Jeopardy not only was a major bestseller but also earned
him a Guggenheim Fellowship that started him on a path to both studying and
speaking about poetry on a global scale.
Twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, he became a well-known international
speaker, won a prestigious Lannan Literary Award for Poetry and became a Poet
In Residence at several colleges and universities. For Saturday’s Poem, here is Gilbert’s,
The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart
How astonishing it is that language
can almost mean,
and frightening that it does not quite. Love, we say,
God, we say, Rome and Michiko, we write, and the words
get it all wrong. We say bread and it means according
to which nation. French has no word for home,
and we have no word for strict pleasure. A people
in northern India is dying out because their ancient
tongue has no words for endearment. I dream of lost
vocabularies that might express some of what
we no longer can. Maybe the Etruscan texts would
finally explain why the couples on their tombs
are smiling. And maybe not. When the thousands
of mysterious Sumerian tablets were translated,
they seemed to be business records. But what if they
are poems or psalms? My joy is the same as twelve
Ethiopian goats standing silent in the morning light.
O Lord, thou art slabs of salt and ingots of copper,
as grand as ripe barley lithe under the wind's labor.
Her breasts are six white oxen loaded with bolts
of long-fibered Egyptian cotton. My love is a hundred
pitchers of honey. Shiploads of thuya are what
my body wants to say to your body. Giraffes are this
desire in the dark. Perhaps the spiral Minoan script
is not laguage but a map. What we feel most has
no name but amber, archers, cinnamon, horses, and birds.
and frightening that it does not quite. Love, we say,
God, we say, Rome and Michiko, we write, and the words
get it all wrong. We say bread and it means according
to which nation. French has no word for home,
and we have no word for strict pleasure. A people
in northern India is dying out because their ancient
tongue has no words for endearment. I dream of lost
vocabularies that might express some of what
we no longer can. Maybe the Etruscan texts would
finally explain why the couples on their tombs
are smiling. And maybe not. When the thousands
of mysterious Sumerian tablets were translated,
they seemed to be business records. But what if they
are poems or psalms? My joy is the same as twelve
Ethiopian goats standing silent in the morning light.
O Lord, thou art slabs of salt and ingots of copper,
as grand as ripe barley lithe under the wind's labor.
Her breasts are six white oxen loaded with bolts
of long-fibered Egyptian cotton. My love is a hundred
pitchers of honey. Shiploads of thuya are what
my body wants to say to your body. Giraffes are this
desire in the dark. Perhaps the spiral Minoan script
is not laguage but a map. What we feel most has
no name but amber, archers, cinnamon, horses, and birds.
Friday, February 21, 2020
A Writer's Moment: Just 'Sleeping In'
A Writer's Moment: Just 'Sleeping In': I’ve always liked this poem by Englishman Roger McGough, who recently celebrated his 82nd birthday. I thought of it again yesterday when ...
Just 'Sleeping In'
I’ve
always liked this poem by Englishman Roger McGough, who recently celebrated his 82nd birthday. I thought of it
again yesterday when the new-fallen snow covered our
streets, sidewalks and yards – unblemished but just waiting for
the tread of neighborhood kids’ feet and tire tracks.
Sleeping In
Our
street is dead lazy
Especially
in winter.
Some
mornings you wake up
And
it’s still lying there
Saying nothing. Huddled
under its white counterpane.
But soon the lorries arrive
Like angry Mums,
Pull back the blankets
And send it shivering
Off to work.
McGough,
by the way, grew up in Liverpool, home to another rather well-known group of lads who
made their way in the performance industry under the name The Beatles. In the 1960s, McGough started making a name
in his own right with the publication of his best-selling poetry book The
Mersey Sound. under its white counterpane.
But soon the lorries arrive
Like angry Mums,
Pull back the blankets
And send it shivering
Off to work.
Since then he’s led a highly successful writing career as a performance poet, children’s author
and playwright. A broadcaster, too, he
hosts the BBC’s “Poetry Please” show and still makes his home in the Mersey
area of Liverpool.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
A Writer's Moment: Writing for 'Goodness' Sake
A Writer's Moment: Writing for 'Goodness' Sake: “Let us forget such words, and all they mean, as Hatred, Bitterness and Rancor, Greed, Intolerance, Bigotry; let us renew our faith and pl...
Writing for 'Goodness' Sake
“Let
us forget such words, and all they mean, as Hatred, Bitterness and Rancor,
Greed, Intolerance, Bigotry; let us renew our faith and pledge to Man, his
right to be Himself, and free.” – Edna St. Vincent Millay.
St. Vincent Millay, who was born in
Maine on this day in 1892, won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1923 – only the
third woman to win the award in that category.
And just to show that she wasn’t a “one hit wonder,” she won the Frost
Medal for her lifetime contribution to American poetry 20 years later. In between, she wrote many, many great poems
and earned the accolade from fellow poet Richard Wilbur that “She wrote some of
the best sonnets of the century.”
While she grew up in Maine, she was
educated at Vassar and spent her writing life in New York City, Europe, and
during WWII in Washington, DC, where she was active in creating writing supporting
the U.S. war efforts.
Millay also wrote plays and prose
and once said, “A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the
populace with his pants down. If it is a
good book nothing can hurt him. If it is
a bad book nothing can help him.”
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
A Writer's Moment: A Song Unfinished
A Writer's Moment: A Song Unfinished: “There's nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human existence as a song unfinished. Or an old a...
A Song Unfinished
“There's
nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human existence as a
song unfinished. Or an old address book.” – Carson
McCullers
Born Lula Carson
Smith on this date in 1917 (in Columbus, GA, a place I “hung out” in for a time
during my Army days at nearby Ft. Benning), McCullers was an American novelist,
short story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet whose stories not only were
successful in print but also successfully adapted into stage or film versions.
Among her biggest
sellers were The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter,
The Member of the Wedding and Reflections In A Golden Eye, all adapted
into highly popular stage or screen productions. While writing was her ultimate passion, she
had planned to be a professional musician and was accepted to study at the prestigious
Julliard School of Music in New York City.
But en route to enroll, she lost her tuition money and decided instead to work
in New York. After meeting and marrying a young soldier named Reeves McCullers, she decided to try her hand at writing using her middle name and new last name as a pseudonymn. Her first effort was the wildly successful "Heart," and the rest, as they say . . .
McCullers, who suffered from a number of illnesses and died at age 50, is often described as a “Southern Gothic” writer, indicative of both the settings and style of her stories and her tendency toward depression and loneliness
despite her popularity as a writer.
“But,” she said, “I live with the
people I create and that has always made my essential loneliness less keen.”
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
A Writer's Moment: Taking An Impactful 'Journey'
A Writer's Moment: Taking An Impactful 'Journey': “I have to entertain, because if I don't entertain you, you're not going to continue reading. But if I'm not out to enlighten,...
Taking An Impactful 'Journey'
“I
have to entertain, because if I don't entertain you, you're not going to
continue reading. But if I'm not out to enlighten, or change your mind about
something, or change your behavior, then I really don't want to take the
journey.” – Bebe Moore Campbell
Born in Philadelphia on this date in
1950 (she died of cancer in 2006), Campbell was an author, journalist and
teacher who wrote 3 New York Times bestsellers: Brothers and Sisters,
Singing in the Comeback Choir, and What You Owe Me. The latter also won the Los Angeles Times
"Best Book of 2001" award.
Campbell, whose essays, articles,
and excerpts appeared in many anthologies as well as in many of the nation’s
leading magazines and newspapers, also authored Your Blues Ain't Like Mine. The book was a New York Times Notable
Book of the Year and winner of the NAACP Image Award for Literature.
Her interest in mental health was the catalyst for her first children's book, Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry, named for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Outstanding Literature Award of 2003. The book tells the story of how a little girl copes with being reared by her mentally ill mother.
Campbell said she hoped that her
writing would serve as a way for readers to not only learn about things but also to begin a dialogue. “Despite what I said, there’s no point
in writing merely to entertain," she said.
“Race, redemption and healing – that’s my thing.”
Sunday, February 16, 2020
A Writer's Moment: Celebrating Presidents Day
A Writer's Moment: Celebrating Presidents Day: Tomorrow is Presidents Day, a celebration held in February because our two greatest Presidents – Lincoln and Washingto...
Celebrating Presidents Day
Tomorrow is Presidents Day, a celebration held in February because our two greatest
Presidents – Lincoln and Washington – were born in this month, Feb. 12th
and Feb. 22nd, respectively.
Both gave the nation, and thus each of us, much to be grateful for, not
least being the opportunity and freedom to express ourselves through the
writing and sharing of our thoughts and ideas.
It is a freedom not allowed in a wide swath of the world and one we need to cherish and maintain.
I thought it appropriate to share a
comment made by Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis on both the honor and challenge of
playing Abraham Lincoln in his Academy Award-winning role a few years
ago. When asked, Day-Lewis said:
“The minute you begin to approach
him -- and there are vast corridors that have been carved that lead you to an
understanding of that man's life, both through the great riches of his own
writing and all the contemporary accounts and biographies -- he feels
immediately and surprisingly accessible. He draws you closer to him.”
Daniel
Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln
Happy Presidents Day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)