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...
-
“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: 'Be willing to fail' : “I'm always terrified when I'm writing.” – Mary Karr ...
-
A Writer's Moment: 'Information In; Creative Responses Out' : “One of the great joys of life is creativity....
-
“I never write to disappear and escape. The truth is exactly the opposite. Most people strike me as escaping and disapp...
Monday, July 31, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'It's a gorgeous struggle'
'It's a gorgeous struggle'
“My cure for writer's block is to step away from the thing I'm stuck on, usually a novel, and write something totally different. Besides fiction, I write poetry, screenplays, essays and journalism. It's usually not the writing itself that I'm stuck on, but the thing I'm trying to write. So I often have four or five things going at once.” – Jess Walter
Born in July, 1965 Walter is the Spokane, Wash.-based author of 7 novels, 2 collections of short stories, a non-fiction book, and myriad essays and short stories. To date, his works have been translated into 32 languages.
His award-winning Beautiful Ruins has an interesting premise. It revolves around the people who surround or interact with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton during the filming of the 1963 blockbuster film Cleopatra. And, of course, everything fits into the “What If?” category.
A
frequent guest speaker, he says his best advice for new writers
is to “just do it and don’t worry,” noting that he wrote for 7 years and made a
total of $25 before finally breaking through.
“Forget being 'discovered.' All you
can do is write. If you
write well enough, and are stubborn enough to embrace failure, and if you
happen to fall into the narrow categories that the book market recognizes, then
you might make a little money.
Otherwise, it's a struggle. (But)
A gorgeous struggle.”
Sunday, July 30, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Becoming visible, bit by bit'
'Becoming visible, bit by bit'
“Something happens between a novel and its reader which is similar to the process of developing photographs, the way they did it before the digital age. The photograph, as it was printed in the darkroom, became visible bit by bit. As you read your way through a novel, the same chemical process takes place.” – Patrick Modiano
French novelist and 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Modiano was born on this date in 1945. His analogy of the development of the novel “before our eyes” is a remarkable one that also gives us a bit of a look into his writing style. He lets the picture slowly unfold, sometimes leaving us startled, sometimes satisfied, sometimes angry, but always interested in what’s coming next.
His novels delve into the puzzle of identity in ways seldom seen. And, he tackles a time in France – the German occupation during World War II – that evokes both heroism and shame depending on whose point of view his tale is being told.
In addition to the Nobel, Mondiano has been honored with every major European
and French writing award including one for his life’s body of work. He said he writes a few hours every day.
“The more things remain obscure and mysterious,” Modiano said, “the more they interest me. I even try to find mystery in things that have none.”
Saturday, July 29, 2023
A Writer's Moment: Thoughts from poets about poetry
Thoughts from poets about poetry
Friday, July 28, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Willing to leap into blackness'
'Willing to leap into blackness'
Born in Korea on this date in 1965, Lee emigrated to the U.S. with his family and has used the Korean immigrant experience as the primary focus for his award-winning writing and teaching about creative writing at Stanford. In his teaching he stresses that students should be aware of the broad spectrum of writing styles. “I'll offer them stories from Anton Chekhov to Denis Johnson, from Flannery O'Connor to A.M. Homes, and perhaps investigating all that strange variation of beauty has rubbed off on me. Or perhaps that's why I enjoy teaching literature,” he said.
“I often think that the prime directive for me as a teacher of writing is akin to that for a physician, which is this: do no harm.”
Thursday, July 27, 2023
A Writer's Moment: Characters that impact others' lives
Characters that impact others' lives
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'That space between known and unknown'
'That space between known and unknown'
Monday, July 24, 2023
A Writer's Moment: Integrity and imagination: Good writing companions
Integrity and imagination: Good writing companions
500 short stories to detective, mystery and adventure magazines.
His Travis McGee character made his first appearance in 1964 in The Deep Blue Good-bye, starting a run of 21 "McGee" bestsellers with each title including a color. "My purpose," MacDonald wrote about the McGee success, "was to entertain myself first and other people second." Seemed he did both quite well.
Saturday, July 22, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Discovering' your own poem
'Discovering' your own poem
“Isn't
it amazing the way the future succeeds in creating an appropriate past?”
– John Leonard
Born in Great Britain in July 1965, Leonard was raised and educated there but
now makes his home in Australia where he served as poetry editor of the
magazine Overland.
For Saturday’s Poem, from his book Braided Lands, here is:
You Don't Write a Poem
You don't write a poem-
What you do is discover
That there is a world,
Quite similar to our own,
Except that it contains
This one extra poem.
And what you recognise
Is that this one poem
Makes all the difference
© John Leonard
Thursday, July 20, 2023
A Writer's Moment: Writing from heart and soul
Writing from heart and soul
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
A Writer's Moment: Strictly from the imagination
Strictly from the imagination
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
A Writer's Moment: It's that 'Rainbow Connection'
It's that 'Rainbow Connection'
Monday, July 17, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'This is who we are and what we must do'
'This is who we are and what we must do'
Saturday, July 15, 2023
A Writer's Moment: It's 'for the people'
It's 'for the people'
“Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.” – June Jordan
Born on this date in 1936, Jordan was the daughter of Jamaican immigrants who earned dozens of writing honors, among
them a Rockefeller grant for creative writing, a National Endowment for the
Arts poetry fellowship, and an Achievement Award for International Reporting.
She founded the "Poetry for the People" program at UC-Berkeley in 1991, it’s aim to inspire and empower students to use poetry as a means of artistic expression. For Saturday’s Poem, here is Jordan's,
These Poems
These poems
they are things that I do
in the dark
reaching for you
whoever you are
and
are you ready?
These words
they are stones in the water
running away
These skeletal lines
they are desperate arms for my longing and love.
I am a stranger
learning to worship the strangers
around me
whoever you are
whoever I may become.