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A Writer's Moment: 'Property of the imagination' : “The English language is nobody's special property. ...
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“Librarians and romance writers accomplish one mission better than anyone, including English teachers: we create readers for life - and w...
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A Writer's Moment: 'Be willing to fail' : “I'm always terrified when I'm writing.” – Mary Karr ...
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“I'm always terrified when I'm writing.” – Mary Karr Karr’s sentiment probably echoes all who take pen in ...
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“One of the great joys of life is creativity. Information goes in, gets shuffled about, and comes out in new and intere...
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“The pleasure that I take in writing gets me interested in writing a poem. It's not a statement about what I think anybody else shoul...
Saturday, June 29, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'De-create and re-create'
'De-create and re-create'
“We participate in the creation of the world by de-creating ourselves.” – Anne Carson
Born in Canada in June of 1950 Carson is a poet, essayist, translator and professor. She has taught at universities across the U.S. and Canada, including McGill, Michigan and Princeton. The author of more than 20 books, she is the recipient of three of the most distinguished and richest writing awards – the Guggenheim, the MacArthur, and the Lannan. For Saturday’s Poem here is Carson’s,
Short Talk on Chromo-Luminarism
Sunlight
slows down Europeans. Look at all those
spellbound
people in Seurat. Look at Monsieur,
sitting
deeply. Where does a European go when he
is
‘lost in thought'? Seurat has painted that
place—the
old dazzler! It lies on the other
side
of attention, a long lazy boatride from here.
It is A Sunday rather than A Saturday
afternoon
there.
Seurat has made this clear by a special
method.
"Ma méthode," he called it, rather testily,
when
we asked him. He caught us hurrying through
the
chill green shadows like adulterers. The
river
was opening and closing its stone lips.
The
river was pressing Seurat to its lips.
Friday, June 28, 2024
A Writer's Moment: Taming those 'unruly' novels
Taming those 'unruly' novels
“When language is treated beautifully and interestingly, it can feel good for the body: It's nourishing; it's rejuvenating.” – Aimee Bender
Born on this date in 1969, Bender is a novelist and short story writer who studied creative writing at the University of San Diego and California Irvine then went into simultaneous careers as a writer and teacher. She teaches creative writing at the University of Southern California and was Director of the USC PhD in Creative Writing & Literature for several years.
Known for her stories about young people, Bender said, “I love to write about people in their 20s. It's such a fraught and exciting and kind of horrible time.” The winner of two Pushcart Prizes, her novel An Invisible Sign of My Own, was named as a Los Angeles Times “Pick of the Year.” Her collection of short stories, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, spent several months on both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller lists. Her latest novel is 2020's The Butterfly Lampshade.
Despite the success of her novels, she said she prefers short stories. “Novels are so much unrulier and more
stressful to write. A short story can last two pages and then it's over, and
that's kind of a relief. But, I really like balancing the two.”
Bender said she enjoys writing. “The human being's ability to make a metaphor to describe a human experience is just really cool.”
Thursday, June 27, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'They must be felt with the heart'
'They must be felt with the heart'
“The
most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be
felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
June 27th is Helen Keller Day, first proclaimed in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter in commemoration of the anniversary of her birth (in Alabama) on this date in 1880. Author, political activist, and lecturer, she was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree and a longtime writer, first being published at age 12.
The story of how her teacher Anne Sullivan broke through Keller’s wall of silence and isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language and leading to Helen’s learning to communicate is depicted in the wonderful book, play and movie, The Miracle Worker. Ultimately, Keller authored a dozen books, hundreds of essays and many stories, and inspired countless others with her writing and speaking skills.
In 1964 Keller was a recipient of The Presidential Medal of Freedom. Posthumously (she died in 1968) she was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame (in 1971) and was one of 12 inaugural inductees into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame (2015).
“When we do the best that we can,”
she said, “we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of
another. I seldom think about my
limitations, and they never make me sad.
Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague,
like a breeze among flowers.”
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'So, who wrote that story down?'
'So, who wrote that story down?'
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdXEjmsjf2KhW1cBzAi8abuz1TdsW2aBGDwgivgUD72Nj1Wz8NwsmCXQRVNbr5u42u4sYTvJezEOONMkJJyUs6T0eUsvfPHc1yTcSZzI76TzsiJsDKdaeXek2ijDD8wuD1olYagjIv-CbT/s400/th_013.jpg)
Monday, June 24, 2024
A Writer's Moment: Projecting that 'What If?' factor
Projecting that 'What If?' factor
“I loved to read, and if I could've been a professional reader, that's probably what I would've wanted to be!“ – Kathryn Lasky
Perhaps best-known for her “Diaries” tales – where she builds a story around the diary of her protagonist – Lasky was born in Indiana on this date in 1944 and now makes her home in Massachusetts. She is the recipient of numerous writing honors. including the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature and a Newbery Prize. Her writing, she said, is often triggered by both current events and a “What if?” mentality. The author of over one hundred books, her most notable series is Guardians of Ga’Hoole.
“When I was growing up I loved reading historical fiction, but too often it was about males; or, if it was about females, they were girls who were going to grow up to be famous like Betsy Ross, Clara Barton, or Harriet Tubman. No one ever wrote about plain, normal, everyday girls. I always wondered what it was like to be just a normal kid growing up in trying times or during a great moment in history.” That "What If?" factor, if you will.
“Whether you are a 12-year-old
princess or a 12-year-old regular kid, you need to know you are loved and
respected.”
Saturday, June 22, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'Plausible stuff; transformative words'
'Plausible stuff; transformative words'
“Some
very plausible stuff is being written by women in a way that most men are not
doing.” – Amy Clampitt
Born June 15, 1920 Clampitt was a reference librarian at the Audubon Society when her first poem was published (by The New Yorker) in 1978. In 1983, she published her first full-length collection, The Kingfisher. Until her death from cancer in 1994, Clampitt published five books of poetry, including the award-winning What the Light Was Like.
So transformative was her work that she was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Grant in 1992 while working on what would become her final book, A Silence Opens. For Saturday’s Poem, here is Clampitt’s,
Beach Glass
While you walk the water's edge,
turning over concepts
I can't envision, the honking buoy
serves notice that at any time
the wind may change,
the reef-bell clatters
its treble monotone, deaf as Cassandra
to any note but warning. The ocean,
cumbered by no business more urgent
than keeping open old accounts
that never balanced,
goes on shuffling its millenniums
of quartz, granite, and basalt.
It behaves
toward the permutations of novelty—
driftwood and shipwreck, last night's
beer cans, spilt oil, the coughed-up
residue of plastic—with random
impartiality, playing catch or tag
or touch-last like a terrier,
turning the same thing over and over,
over and over. For the ocean, nothing
is beneath consideration.
The houses
of so many mussels and periwinkles
have been abandoned here, it's hopeless
to know which to salvage. Instead
I keep a lookout for beach glass—
amber of Budweiser, chrysoprase
of Almadén and Gallo, lapis
by way of (no getting around it,
I'm afraid) Phillips'
Milk of Magnesia, with now and then a rare
translucent turquoise or blurred amethyst
of no known origin.
The process
goes on forever: they came from sand,
they go back to gravel,
along with treasuries
of Murano, the buttressed
astonishments of Chartres,
which even now are readying
for being turned over and over as gravely
and gradually as an intellect
engaged in the hazardous
redefinition of structures
no one has yet looked at.
Friday, June 21, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'What writing suspense - and success - is all about'
'What writing suspense - and success - is all about'
I often will write a scene from three different points of view to find out which has the most tension and which way I’m able to conceal the information I’m trying to conceal. And that is, at the end of the day, what writing suspense is all about.”– Dan Brown
Born on June 22, 1964 Brown has utilized the technique to perfection. His thrillers exude suspense and his readers flock to them and have since his first success (The Da Vinci Code) in 2003. Brown's novels are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour period, featuring recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes and conspiracy theories.
While writing is his life today it wasn’t that way until the mid-1990s. Until then he was a singer, songwriter and pianist in Hollywood, where he also taught music at the prestigious Beverly Hills Preparatory School. Brown grew up with classical music and still is a composer. His highly regarded Wild Symphony features 21 individual orchestral movements representing the funny or interesting sides of various animals’ personalities. "My engagement with music has never waned," he told one interviewer. "I still play piano and compose nearly every day."
Another writing technique Brown likes is using real people in his life as key characters, answering the old familiar question many writers get: “Where do you get your characters?”
Characters aside, Brown’s secret to writing success is simple: “Hard work. I still get up every morning at 4 a.m. I write seven days a week, including Christmas. I still face a blank page every morning, and my characters don’t really care how many books I’ve sold.”
Thursday, June 20, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'You collaborate with your readers'
'You collaborate with your readers'
“I love the fact that you collaborate with your readers when you write a book.” – Robert Crais
Born in Louisiana on this date in 1953, Crais is one of America’s best-selling crime fiction authors. But he didn’t start writing his novels until long
after he had made a name for himself as a script writer for
such television shows as Hill Street Blues and Cagney and Lacey.
It was in the late 1980s before he tested the bookwriting waters. His first novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat, was an instant hit and earned every award from “Best First Novel” to “Best Mystery.” Since then he’s had 22 other bestsellers. Among his many awards are the Ross Macdonald Literary Award for crime fiction and being named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.
In 2020 his novel Suspect was named Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade by the Barry Awards. Perhaps his best-known novel, also made into a movie, is Hostage, often cited for its great character development.
“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.
“I write characters and stories that move me,” he said, “and I write from the heart.”
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'Leaping tall buildings'
'Leaping tall buildings'
“Take something you love, tell people about it, bring together people who share your love, and help make it better. Ultimately, you'll have more of whatever you love for yourself, and for the world.” – Julius Schwartz
Perhaps few people even know Schwartz’s name, but he left readers with a lasting legacy by helping develop some of our most iconic comic book “superheroes.” Schwartz also came up with the concept (and title) of the Justice League of America.
Born on this date in 1915, Schwartz (who died in 2004) was DC Comics’ primary editor in the development of the publisher's flagship superheroes Superman and Batman. Also a literary agent, he co-founded the Solar Sales Service Literary Agency, where he represented such writers as Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury and H. P. Lovecraft, placing some of Bradbury's first published works and Lovecraft's last.
And, he is credited with helping organize the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939. The organization, which is now known as WorldCon, presents the annual Hugo Awards for best science fiction and fantasy.
Schwartz is one of just a few editors to be inducted into both the Comic Industry’s Jack Kirby Hall of Fame and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, something he found almost unbelievable.
“Not too many people,” he said, “ever know who the editor is.”
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'Witness to history; opportunity to live it'
'Witness to history; opportunity to live it'
“Journalism
allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity
to live it.” – John Hersey
Born in China (to missionary parents) on June 17, 1914 Hersey is perhaps best known for his bio-novel A Bell for Adano, and for his feature story "Hiroshima" about the aftermath of the first atomic bomb. In the span of two years he won the Pulitzer Prize for Bell, and waves of accolades for “Hiroshima,” later judged “the finest piece of American journalism of the 20th century” by a 36-member panel associated with New York University’s journalism department.
Adano is the story of an Italian-American military officer who wins the respect and admiration of the people of Adano, Sicily, by helping them find a replacement for the town bell that the Fascists had melted down for rifle barrels. The tale grew directly out of his own WWII experiences.
That book was the third of 27 that Hersey wrote, including a terrific book based on his parents’ and their contemporaries’ missionary experience titled The Call. Hersey also had a long journalistic career led by “Hiroshima.” Written in August, 1946 the 31,000-word article was published by The New Yorker and told from the viewpoint of 6 survivors. The story occupied almost the entire issue – something The New Yorker had never done before, nor has since.
Shortly before his 1993 death, Yale (his alma mater) honored Hersey by creating an annual lecture series in his name. In dedicating the series, fellow Yale alum and author, David McCullough said, “Hersey portrayed our time with a breadth and artistry matched by very few. He has given us the century in a great shelf of brilliant work, and we are all his beneficiaries."
Monday, June 17, 2024
A Writer's Moment: Sharing the possibilities that storytelling embraces
Sharing the possibilities that storytelling embraces
Donaldson, born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1947 may be American but he is mostly “other-worldly” in his writing. Over his lifetime he's written a wide range of fantasy and science fiction novels that have cemented his position as a leading writer in the genre’, knocking around in alternative universes like he successfully does in his 10-volume The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
Saturday, June 15, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'The poet's job is to render the world'
'The poet's job is to render the world'
“The
job of the poet is to render the world - to see it and report it without loss,
without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people
do.” – Mark Van Doren
I wrote earlier this week about Van
Doren, who won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for his book Collected Poems
1922–1938. The author of numerous short
stories, novels, and plays, Van Doren was above all a poet and a teacher. As
Thomas Merton said in a letter to Van Doren, "You always used your gifts
to make people admire and understand poetry and good writing and
truth." For Saturday’s Poem, here
is Van Doren’s,
Spring Thunder
Listen, The wind is still,
And far away in the night --
See! The uplands fill
With a running light.
Open the doors. It is warm;
And where the sky was clear--
Look! The head of a storm
That marches here!
Come under the trembling hedge--
Fast, although you fumble...
There! Did you hear the edge
of winter crumble?
Friday, June 14, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'Write what you see; what you hear'
'Write what you see; what you hear'
“I simply write what I find to be the way people are. . . I just let my characters go, the way I let life go.” – Carolyn Chute
Born in Maine on this date in 1947, Chute is an award-winning writer (both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Thornton Wilder Award) who writes by hand, lives off the grid (no electricity or running water in her home), and raises much of her own food.
She started writing as a part-time newspaper correspondent, then taught creative writing while finishing her first novel The Beans of Egypt, Maine, also made into a well-received movie.
Now the author of half-dozen books and numerous short stories, she is a frequent speaker about class issues in America, strongly identified with the culture of poor, rural western Maine although her works speak to other similar regions in the U.S.
Write what you see
and hear, Chute says. “All I want to do is explore. I want to see what people would do. I say,
'What would this person do in this situation?' and I write it down.”
Thursday, June 13, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'The art of assisting discovery'
'The art of assisting discovery'
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'The characters come to life within you'
'The characters come to life within you'
“The interesting thing about fiction from a writer's standpoint is that the characters come to life within you. And yet who are they and where are they? They seem to have as much or more vitality and complexity as the people around you.” – Whitley Strieber
Born in San Antonio, TX, on June 13, 1945 Strieber has split his writing talents between horror stories, science fiction, and speculative fiction with a social conscience – interrupted (both literally and figuratively) by his nonfiction account of being abducted by “non-human visitors.” That particular book, Communion, while pooh-poohed as “improbable if not impossible,” was a huge bestseller and a subsequent successful big screen adaptation.
Two of his other books, The Wolfen and The Hunger, also were made into successful films. Still going strong as he turns 79, these days Strieber writes for the SyFy Channel, does non-fiction books, and produces a podcast “Dreamland.” His latest book is 2023’s Them.
"Everything ultimately comes
down to the relationship between the reader and the writer and the characters,”
Strieber said. “Does or does not a
character address moral being in a universal and important way? If it does,
then it's literature.”
Monday, June 10, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'Most of what we call life'
'Most of what we call life'
“A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.” – Saul Bellow
Born in Canada on this date in 1915, Bellow later became a naturalized U.S.
citizen after attending the University of Chicago and Northwestern where he
earned degrees in sociology and anthropology. The fact that he was an
anthropologist probably is not a surprise for his readers who find
anthropological references sprinkled throughout his award-winning books.
Best known for The Adventures of Augie March; Herzog; and Humboldt’s Gift, Bellow earned every major writing award including the Nobel Prize. He won the National Book Award for Fiction 3 times (the only writer ever to do so); a Lifetime Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters; the National Medal of Arts; and 2 Pulitzer Prizes.
"The backbone of 20th-century American literature has been provided by two novelists,” fellow novelist Philip Roth said. “They are William Faulkner and Saul Bellow. Together they are the Melville, Hawthorne, and Twain of the 20th Century." Bellow died in 2005.
“You know, you never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write down,” Bellow said. “Maybe that's why they’re called dreams."