A Writer's Moment: Choose a Palette

A Writer's Moment: Choose a Palette:   “With a photograph, you are left with the same modes of interpretation as you are with a book. You ask: 'What do we know about the au...

Choose a Palette

 

“With a photograph, you are left with the same modes of interpretation as you are with a book. You ask: 'What do we know about the author and their background? What do I know about the subject?'” – Joel Sternfeld

Born on this date in 1944, Sternfeld is noted for his large-format documentary pictures and for helping establish color photography as a respected artistic medium.  With many works in the permanent collections of the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, he not only established himself as an artistic “force,” but also influenced a generation of color photographers.

And his writing in support of his photographs made him an important chronicler of his life and times.  American Prospects, perhaps Sternfeld's most known book, explores the irony of human-altered landscapes in the United States. To make the book, Sternfeld photographed ordinary things, including unsuccessful towns and barren-looking landscapes.  His book On This Site: Landscape in Memoriam is about violence in America. Sternfeld photographed sites of tragedies, supplemented by his thoughtful text about the events that happened there.

  Green Valley, AZ, 1978, by Joel Sternfeld – Bachmann Gallery, Berlin

  

His books of photos and his essays on photography are part of the photographic teaching lexicon at many institutions in the U.S. and abroad.  “A photographer,” he said, “must choose a palette just as painters choose theirs.” 

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'The joy of deeds well done'

A Writer's Moment: 'The joy of deeds well done':   “True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.” –   Antoine de Saint- Exupéry Born on this ...

'The joy of deeds well done'

 

“True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.” –  Antoine de Saint- Exupéry

Born on this day in 1900, the French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist, and pioneering aviator Saint- Exupéry won several of France's highest literary awards and the U.S. National Book Award.   He probably is best remembered for his novella The Little Prince and for his lyrical aviation writings, including Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight.

I’ve written about this wonderful writer and great aviator before.  And while he is remembered for his writing, his trailblazing career as a pilot and his heroism on behalf of his country during World War II are equally worthy of attention.  His journalistic writings played a major role in rallying the French forces and French underground in the battle to reclaim his homeland.

While not precisely autobiographical, much of Saint-Exupéry's      

 writing was inspired by his experiences as a pilot, including of course the incredible Little Prince and the highly intense and descriptive Night Flight.    

As for his interpretations and explanation of things he wrote about, he noted, “The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.”  He died in 1944 while flying a recon mission for the Allies in advance of their invasion of southern France. We can only wonder how much more he would have produced and be grateful for what he gave to the world.

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Taking the Moment and Making the Best Of It'

A Writer's Moment: 'Taking the Moment and Making the Best Of It':   “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, m...

'Taking the Moment and Making the Best Of It'

 

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end.” – Gilda Radner

 

Radner was born on this date in 1946 and after her death from cancer in 1989 family and friends founded Gilda’s Club, both in her memory and to help others with the disease. 

The organization took its name from Radner's comment that cancer gave her "membership to an elite club I'd rather not belong to.”  Radner's story can be read in her inspiring, humorous and heart-wrenching book, It's Always Something, written after her diagnosis with the illness.   Gilda’s Club has become a global network serving multi-thousands of victims and their families.

Gilda Radner

“While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die - whether it is our spirit, our creativity or our glorious uniqueness,” Radner once said.   “Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.”

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'A Secret Kinship of Readers'

A Writer's Moment: 'A Secret Kinship of Readers':   “When I write, I have a sort of secret kinship of readers in all countries who don't know each other but each of whom, when they read...

'A Secret Kinship of Readers'

 

“When I write, I have a sort of secret kinship of readers in all countries who don't know each other but each of whom, when they read my book, feels at home in it. So I write for those readers. It's almost a sense of writing for a specific person, but it's a specific person who I don't know.” – Teju Cole

  

A writer, photographer, and art historian, Cole was born on this date in 1975 in Kalamazoo, MI, to Nigerian parents, the oldest of four children.    After growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, Cole moved back to the United States at the age of 17 to attend college and never left the U.S. again.  He is a 1996 graduate of Kalamazoo College.

He has authored several books, including the multiple award-winning Open City, a terrific story of a young Nigerian immigrant in Manhattan.   Cole’s essays, creative photography, and use of social media also have drawn the attention of numerous critics and other writers.  Salman Rushdie called him “the most gifted of today’s younger generation of writers.”     Cole has been distinguished writer in residence at Bard College and is a regular contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker.  He’s attracted a worldwide following for his interesting and thoughtful almost daily – some label them “poetic” – posts on Twitter.

“I'm not trying to be a poet on Twitter,” he said.  “I'm trying to be aware of the fact that a very simple sentence, well written, can have a very moving effect without that person knowing why.  (As a reader) There's a deep genetic part of you that somehow, even without your permission, recognizes good language when it arrives.”

A Writer's Moment: Stories for Every Season

A Writer's Moment: Stories for Every Season:   “I wanted to communicate what I had seen, so that others could see it, too.” – Laurie Lee   Born on this date in 1...

Stories for Every Season

 

“I wanted to communicate what I had seen, so that others could see it, too.” – Laurie Lee

 

Born on this date in 1914, Laurence "Laurie" Lee was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, and while he was best known for his novels and screenplays, he loved poetry best.  While several of his poems written in the early 1940s reflect the atmosphere of World War II, he also wrote many that captured the beauty of the English countryside.  

 

Lee wrote beautiful poems and stories for every season.  Here for Saturday’s Poem is the one he chose to grace his own tombstone.  

 

April Rise

 

If ever I saw blessing in the air
I see it now in this still early day
Where lemon-green the vaporous morning drips
Wet sunlight on the powder of my eye.

Blown bubble-film of blue, the sky wraps round
Weeds of warm light whose every root and rod
Splutters with soapy green, and all the world
Sweats with the bead of summer in its bud.

If ever I heard blessing it is there
Where birds in trees that shoals and shadows are
Splash with their hidden wings and drops of sound
Break on my ears their crests of throbbing air.

Pure in the haze the emerald sun dilates,
The lips of sparrows milk the mossy stones,
While white as water by the lake a girl
Swims her green hand among the gathered swans.

Now, as the almond burns its smoking wick,
Dropping small flames to light the candled grass;
Now, as my low blood scales its second chance,
If ever world were blessed, now it is.

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'The Process of Discovery'

A Writer's Moment: 'The Process of Discovery':   “There’s a beauty in writing stories—each one is an exploratory journey in search of a reason and a shape. And when you...

'The Process of Discovery'

 

“There’s a beauty in writing stories—each one is an exploratory journey in search of a reason and a shape. And when you find that reason and that shape, there’s no feeling like it." – T.C. Boyle

 

Boyle, born in 1948, excels at writing short stories, even though he’s also darn good at writing novels, having published 11 of them.  His book World’s End, in fact, won the coveted PEN/Faulkner Award.  But, it’s his short story list that’s most impressive and it continues to grow.  To date, he has more than 60 in print and many more “in process.”    Boyle also is unafraid of sharing his writing skills and serves as Distinguished Professor of English at USC where he founded the creative writing program.

 

An advocate of the stream of consciousness style – he says start with a word or phrase and then just see where it might take you.  It’s also a great technique for overcoming writer’s block.  Just pick something and start writing.

 

“I have an idea and a first line – and that suggests the rest of it,” he said.  “I have little concept of what I’m going to say, or where it’s going. I have some idea of how long it’s going to be – but not what will happen or what the themes will be. That’s the intrigue of doing it – it’s a process of discovery. You get to discover what you’re going to say and what it’s going to mean.”

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: Persistence Pays

A Writer's Moment: Persistence Pays:   “Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyze yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and ge...

Persistence Pays

 

“Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyze yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it.” – Octavia Butler

Born on this date in 1947, Butler was a multiple recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula awards for her science fiction writing.  And in 1995 she became the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur foundation award.

The daughter of a housemaid and shoeshine man, she also was one of the first – if not the first – African-American SciFi writers and definitely the first female African-American in the field.  A shy child who avoided socializing whenever possible, she immersed herself in reading and got hooked on fairy tales and horse stories before gravitating to popular SciFi magazines such as Amazing Stories.  “No one was going to stop me from writing and no one had to really guide me towards science fiction,” she said.  “It was natural, really, that I would take that interest.”

By age 12 she was formulating ideas for stories that would work themselves into a series that in the 1970s became known as her Patternist tales:  Patternmaster, Mind of My Mind, and Survivor.  They were followed by a string of successful short stories and novellas before she cemented her place in writing history with the two-book series Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, earning the prestigious MacArthur in the process.         

                                “You don't start out writing good stuff,” Butler said shortly before her early death from a stroke (at age 58). “You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits for any writer is persistence.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Living in suspense from day to day'

A Writer's Moment: 'Living in suspense from day to day':   “We all live in suspense from day to day; in other words, you are the hero of your own story.” –   Mary McCarthy Author, critic and ...

'Living in suspense from day to day'

 

“We all live in suspense from day to day; in other words, you are the hero of your own story.” –  Mary McCarthy

Author, critic and political activist McCarthy was born on this day in 1912 in Seattle, WA, and built her reputation as a satirist, primarily with her 1963 novel The Group, which remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for almost two years.

Noted for her precise prose and its complex mixture of autobiography and fiction, she also was considered a rather “scandalous” writer in her younger years, especially with her first novel The Company She Keeps, which “told it like it was” in 1930s New York Society.

Winner of two Guggenheim Fellowships and a number of other major funding awards, she was named for the National Medal for Literature and

 the Edward MacDowell Medal, both in 1984   

 and just on the cusp of learning that she had lung cancer.  During her later years, in recognition of her groundbreaking work, she was presented with 8 honorary degrees from some of America’s leading universities.

A respected critic, she was often feuding with other leading writers over her frank and often not-so-flattering reactions to their works.  And, as for her own writing, she said she often surprised herself with their outcomes. “The suspense of a novel,” I think,  “is not only for the reader, but in the novelist, who is usually intensely curious about what will happen to her hero.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'Collaborate With Your Readers'

A Writer's Moment: 'Collaborate With Your Readers':   “I love the fact that you collaborate with your readers when you write a book.” – Robert Crais Born on this day in 1953, Crais is o...

'Collaborate With Your Readers'

 

“I love the fact that you collaborate with your readers when you write a book.” – Robert Crais

Born on this day in 1953, Crais is one of America’s best-selling authors of crime fiction, but he didn’t start to create novels in the genre until long after he already had made a name for himself as the writer of scripts for television shows.   After graduating from LSU, he moved to Hollywood and jumped right into writing for shows like Hill Street Blues and Cagney and Lacey. 

But in the late 1980s he tested the waters with his first novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat, an instant hit with readers and critics alike – earning everything from “best first novel” to “best mystery.”  Since then, he’s had over 20 novels, published in 62 countries.    In 2006 he received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award (for crime fiction) and in 2014 he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.                 

“My books come to me in images,” he said about his inspiration.  “Sometimes the image is at the beginning of the book, and sometimes it's simply a flash somewhere in the middle.”  Whatever and whenever, it definitely works, built around his two memorable main characters – Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.

Perhaps his best-known novel, also made into a movie, is Hostage, cited for the great character development throughout.   “I write characters and stories that move me,” he said, “and I write from the heart.” 

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'It's a matter of life'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's a matter of life':   “Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.” – Lucille Clifton Born in June, 1936 near Buffalo, NY, Clifton both stu...

'It's a matter of life'

 

“Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.” – Lucille Clifton

Born in June, 1936 near Buffalo, NY, Clifton both studied and lived in Washington, DC, before settling in her adopted Maryland where from 1979–1985 she was the state’s Poet Laureate. Common topics in her poetry include the celebration of her African American heritage, and feminist themes, but she also is a powerful portrayer of daily life in the city and the home.

Her first poetry collection Good Times was published in 1969, and was an instant success, listed by The New York Times as one of the year's 10 best books.  She expanded her writing and was invited to be poet-in-residence at Coppin State College in Baltimore in the early ‘70s, setting a successful path on a writing and teaching career. 

 

 

Lucille Clifton

On this Juneteenth celebration and for saturday’s poem, here is Clifton's,

                            

I am accused

                          

 

                i am accused of tending to the past
                as if i made it,
                as if i sculpted it
                with my own hands. i did not.
                this past was waiting for me
                when i came,
                a monstrous unnamed baby,
                and i with my mother's itch
                took it to breast
                and named it
                History.
                she is more human now,
                learning languages everyday,
                remembering faces, names and dates.
                when she is strong enough to travel
                on her own, beware, she will.

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: The 'nourishing' activity

A Writer's Moment: The 'nourishing' activity:   “My theory is that literature is essential to society in the way that dreams are essential to our lives. We can't live without dreami...

The 'nourishing' activity

 

“My theory is that literature is essential to society in the way that dreams are essential to our lives. We can't live without dreaming - as we can't live without sleep. We are 'conscious' beings for only a limited period of time, then we sink back into sleep - the 'unconscious.' It is nourishing, in ways we can't fully understand.” – Joyce Carol Oates

Yesterday was Oates 84^th birthday and like almost every other day she probably spent 4 hours (or more) writing.  The prolific writer said she enjoys the process as much as the product and puts in the hours accordingly. 

Oates, an Upstate New Yorker by birth, attended a one-room country school as a child and had her first book published in 1963 when she decided to go to Vanguard Press.  While that one cost some from her own pocket (Vanguard “shares” publishing costs with the author), it was the last time that sort of thing happened. 

That novel’s success opened the floodgates for her and since then she’s had more than 40 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction published by the world’s leading publishers.  For those efforts she’s won numerous awards, including a National Book Award for her novel Them.  A terrific writer in all genres, she’s also won two O. Henry Awards and the National Humanities Medal.   Three novels – Black Water, What I Lived For, and Blonde – along with two of her short story collections were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

 

  

Joyce Carol Oates

Oates likes to write from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in her own unique style – longhand.   Many days she also writes a couple hours in the evenings.

“I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted," she said,  "when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.”

 

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