“I
always tell my students, 'If you walk around with your eyes and ears open, you
can't possibly live long enough to write all the novels you'll encounter.'”
– Jill McCorkle
Born in North Carolina on this date in 1958, short story writer and novelist McCorkle grew up writing and never stopped, finding ideas in every nook and cranny around her. The author of dozens of stories and 10 books, she also has had a stellar career as a writing professor at such leading universities as Tufts, North Carolina, Duke and (currently) North Carolina State.
McCorkle has the distinction of having her first two novels – The Cheer Leader and July 7th – published on the same day in 1984. Five of her books have been named New York Times notable books, and McCorkle has received the New England Booksellers Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature and the Thomas Wolfe Award.
Character development, McCorkle said, is key to a story's success. “You want to feel that your reader does identify with the characters so that there's a real entry into the story - that some quality speaks to the individual.”
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