A Writer's Moment: 'Let what you believe shine through every sentence'

A Writer's Moment: 'Let what you believe shine through every sentence': “Be yourself.  Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish .” ...

'Let what you believe shine through every sentence'

“Be yourself.  Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” – John Jakes

 

Born in Chicago on this date in 1932, Jakes gained widespread popularity with the publication of his Kent Family Chronicles, which became the bestselling American Bicentennial Series in the mid-to-late 1970s.  The books have sold an amazing 55 million copies and still are in print.

 

He also published several other very popular works of historical fiction, including the North and South trilogy about the U.S. Civil War, which sold 10 million copies and was adapted into an ABC-TV miniseries.

 

Jakes started writing while studying at DePauw University and wrote nearly the rest of his life. He died just short of his 91st birthday in 2023.  The author of 55 novels, he also penned 4 major works of nonfiction, including award-winning books on famous war correspondents and “Famous Firsts” in sports.

 

Known for his meticulous attention to detail, Jakes said, “Research is one of the best parts of doing what I do: I learn something new with every novel.  I always begin by reading general studies about the period . . . find events or specific subjects that interest me . . . and then weave many independent pieces of research into the final story.”   

 

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the rhythms and the music'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the rhythms and the music':   “At school, I was never given a sense that poetry was something flowery or light. It's a complex and controlled way of using language....

'It's the rhythms and the music'

 

“At school, I was never given a sense that poetry was something flowery or light. It's a complex and controlled way of using language.  Rhythms and the music of it are very important. But the difficulty is that poetry makes some kind of claim of honesty.” – Tobias Hill

 

A multi-talented writer of fiction, poems and short stories, Hill was born in London on March 30, 1970 and died of brain cancer in 2023.  He won awards for all his writing efforts, which included 4 volumes of poetry, 4 novels, a short story collection, and a children's book in just 20 years of writing.  

 

For Saturday’s Poem from his award-winning Midnight in the City of Clocks (influenced by his experience of life in Japan), here is Hill’s,

 

         October

She meets the train

at Burning Stone station,

                        red leaves in her pocket

and the river from the mountain

green as an eye.

 

The sun keeps rhythm

                        through the pines. The train beats time. She tells me that

her name translates as Three Eight Sweet One,

Sickle-Hand, and that her town

is famous for carrots, and that

 

The moon has no face in Japan,

but the shadow of a hare,

                        leapt from the arms of a god.

 

Later, under the sod-black trees

she hides her face against the wind

and asks me to teach her to kiss.

A Writer's Moment: 'There's a genuine magic in what they do'

A Writer's Moment: 'There's a genuine magic in what they do':   “I love artists. I find them fascinating. To me, there really is a genuine magic in what they do.”  – Elizabeth Hand   Born in Yonkers...

'There's a genuine magic in what they do'

 

“I love artists. I find them fascinating. To me, there really is a genuine magic in what they do.” – Elizabeth Hand

 

Born in Yonkers, NY on March 29, 1957 Hand studied drama and anthropology in college and considered a stage acting career before getting into writing. Since 1988, she has lived in coastal Maine, the setting for many of her stories, and Camden Town, London, the setting for her several of the historical fantasy novels.  She’s written more than 30 novels and dozens of shorter works. 

 

While Science Fiction and Fantasy have been her primary focal point, she said she didn’t read much Science Fiction as a kid.  A self-proclaimed “total Tolkien geek,” she started reading Samuel Delany, Angela Carter and Ursula LeGuin in high school, starting her along a path toward her own works.  Her first novel, Winterlong, came out in 1988 and her most recent, A Haunting on the Hill, in 2023. Haunting was her third winner of the prestigious Shirley Jackson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Psychological Suspense – the other two being Generation Lost and Wylding Hall.

 

Hand also writes television and sci-fi movie spin-offs and serves as a regular critic and reviewer for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

 

“I never think about genre when I work,” she said.   “I've written fantasy, science fiction, supernatural fiction . . . suspense.   Genrés are mostly useful as a marketing tool, and to help booksellers know where to shelve a book.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The crossroads of time, place and eternity'

A Writer's Moment: 'The crossroads of time, place and eternity':   “The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. (The) problem is to find that location.”  – ...

'The crossroads of time, place and eternity'

 

“The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. (The) problem is to find that location.” – Flannery O'Connor

 

Born in Georgia on March 25, 1925 O’Connor is one of America’s most important literary voices – writing 2 novels, 32 short stories and a large number of reviews and commentaries in her relatively short lifetime (she died at age 39 from cancer).

 

Much of O'Connor's best-known writing on religion, the “writing process,” and the South is contained in her voluminous correspondence with other writers and educators.  After her death her longtime friend Sally Fitzgerald collected and published a book of her letters under the title The Habit of Being.   That book and other letters maintained by Emory University are a key part of O’Connor’s legacy.

 

In 1972, O’Connor’s posthumously published Complete Stories won the National Book Award for Fiction and has been the subject of enduring praise, including being lauded by many critics as the best book to ever have won the prestigious award.

 

O’Connor said as a writer she enjoyed “studying people” and advised young writers to always be aware of their surroundings and the people they encountered.   “The writer should never be ashamed of staring,” she said.  “There is nothing that does not require his or her attention.”

A Writer's Moment: 'An ancient and honorable act'

A Writer's Moment: 'An ancient and honorable act':   “Storytelling is an ancient and honorable act. An essential role to play in the community or tribe. It's one that I embrace wholeheart...

'An ancient and honorable act'

 

“Storytelling is an ancient and honorable act. An essential role to play in the community or tribe. It's one that I embrace wholeheartedly and have been fortunate enough to be rewarded for.” –  Russell Banks

 

Born in Massachusetts on this date in 1940, Banks wrote 20 books of fiction and poetry.  He was best known for his accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary, often-marginalized characters, frequently drawing from his own childhood experiences growing up in poverty.

 

Winner of the John Dos Passos Award for Creative Writing, he also earned numerous international awards and had his work translated into 20 different languages.  Two of his books – The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction – not only became international best-sellers but were made into successful feature films.

 

A member of the International Parliament of Writers and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he wrote right up until his death early in 2023, publishing a novel The Magic Kingdom in 2022.  A posthumous collection of his short stories, American Spirits, was published in 2024.

Also a winner of the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Award for Excellence in Fiction, Banks noted, “There are people like me who want to be writers simply because they love to write.  My life has been shaped by my writing,”   

A Writer's Moment: 'I teach in order to learn'

A Writer's Moment: 'I teach in order to learn':   “ In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life:   It goes on.”   – Robert Frost I’ve always loved the poetry of Robert F...

'I teach in order to learn'

 “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life:   It goes on.” – Robert Frost

I’ve always loved the poetry of Robert Frost and thought about his imagery and attention to the land while recently driving and walking in the rugged countryside of western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming.  I don’t think Frost ever visited there, but I’m sure if he had, the world would have had another great book of poems about his experience.

Frost, who was born in California on March 26, 1874 grew up and spent most of his life in New England. His realistic depictions of rural life, the beauty of the land, and command of American colloquial speech – all while examining complex social and philosophical themes – may never be equaled.   

Poetry is a simple process, he liked to say; just an emotion finding a thought and the thought finding its words.  Like every writer he hit dry periods, but unlike many he had something to say about that.  “Poets,” he noted, “are like baseball pitchers.  Both have their moments.  It’s the intervals that are the tough things.”

 

Honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, Frost also was a great teacher at some of America's greatest colleges.   “I talk in order to understand,” he said.  “But I teach in order to learn."

A Writer's Moment: That 'most fertile' writing ground

A Writer's Moment: That 'most fertile' writing ground:   “A theatre, a literature, an artistic expression that does not speak for its own time has no relevance.”  – Dario Fo   Born in Italy o...

That 'most fertile' writing ground

 “A theatre, a literature, an artistic expression that does not speak for its own time has no relevance.” – Dario Fo

 

Born in Italy on this date in 1916, Fo often said he was “an idiot” who just happened to win the Nobel Prize.  But “brilliant” would be a more apt descriptive title for the multi-talented Fo.   An actor, playwright, director, songwriter he was arguably the most widely performed contemporary playwright in world theatre during his lifetime.

 

A master of satire and irony, he grew up the son of a self-educated writing mother and day-laborer father who also was a traveling actor in the ancient Italian tradition of regional performance, lampooning local politicos and religious figures.

 

“When I was a boy,” he said, “unconsciously, spontaneously I learned the art of telling ironic stories.”  Fo’s writings – translated into 30 languages and performed worldwide – address issues ranging from dictatorial brutality to organized crime.  He especially found politics to be fertile writing ground.. 

 

 “Every artistic expression," he said, "is either influenced by or adds something to politics.”

A Writer's Moment: 'You make community with others'

A Writer's Moment: 'You make community with others':   “Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that...

'You make community with others'

 

“Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that you commune, you take communion, you make a community with others.” – Mary Karr

 

While she calls herself a poet first, Karr, who was born in Southeastern Texas in 1955, rose to fame with the publication of her memoir The Liars' Club.  But her poetry have won her most acclaim, earning her a Whiting Award, the Pushcart Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship for her poetry.   For Saturday’s poem, here is Karr’s,

A Perfect Mess

I read somewhere
that if   pedestrians didn't break traffic laws to cross
Times Square whenever and by whatever means possible,

the whole city
would stop, it would stop.
Cars would back up to Rhode Island,
an epic gridlock not even a cat
could thread through. It's not law but the sprawl
of our separate wills that keeps us all flowing. Today I loved
the unprecedented gall
of the piano movers, shoving a roped-up baby grand
up Ninth Avenue before a thunderstorm.
They were a grim and hefty pair, cynical
as any day laborers. They knew what was coming,
the instrument white lacquered, the sky bulging black
as a bad water balloon and in one pinprick instant
it burst. A downpour like a fire hose.
For a few heartbeats, the whole city stalled,
paused, a heart thump, then it all went staccato.
And it was my pleasure to witness a not
insignificant miracle: in one instant every black
umbrella in Hell's Kitchen opened on cue, everyone
still moving. It was a scene from an unwritten opera,
the sails of some vast armada.
And four old ladies interrupted their own slow progress
to accompany the piano movers.
each holding what might have once been
lace parasols over the grunting men. I passed next
the crowd of pastel ballerinas huddled
under the corner awning,
in line for an open call — stork-limbed, ankles
zigzagged with ribbon, a few passing a lit cigarette
around. The city feeds on beauty, starves
for it, breeds it. Coming home after midnight,
to my deserted block with its famously high
subway-rat count, I heard a tenor exhale pure
longing down the brick canyons, the steaming moon
opened its mouth to drink from on high ...

A Writer's Moment: 'Imagining worlds unlike our own'

A Writer's Moment: 'Imagining worlds unlike our own':   “The historical novelist has to consider what has actually happened, while the SciFi writer is dealing in possibilities, but they are both...

'Imagining worlds unlike our own'

 

“The historical novelist has to consider what has actually happened, while the SciFi writer is dealing in possibilities, but they are both in the business of imagining a world unlike our own and yet connected to it.” – Pamela Sargent

 Born in Ithaca, NY on March 20, 1948 Sargent is an American science fiction writer and editor, and winner of the prestigious Nebula Award.   Acclaimed for her series on the terraforming of Venus, and for editing various anthologies celebrating the contributions of women in the history of science fiction, she also has been honored with The Pilgrim Award, presented by the Science Fiction Research Association for Lifetime Achievement.  

 

Among her best-known books are Firebrands: The Heroines of Science Fiction and Fantasy (co-authored with Ron Miller) and her Women of Wonder series.   She has penned nearly 30 novels, half-dozen story collections and several nonfiction works while also collaborating on several novels in the “Star Trek” series. 

 Sargent said she feels an affinity with writers of historical fiction.  “A feeling for history is almost an essential for writing and appreciating good science fiction,” she said.  “(It’s crucial) for sensing the connections between the past and future that run through our present.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing the rhythms of the world'

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing the rhythms of the world':   “What makes me write is the rhythm of the world around me - the rhythms of the language, of course, but also of the land, the wind, the sk...

'Writing the rhythms of the world'

 

“What makes me write is the rhythm of the world around me - the rhythms of the language, of course, but also of the land, the wind, the sky, other lives. Before the words comes the rhythm - that seems to me to be of the essence.” – John Burnside

 

Born in Scotland on this date in 1955, Burnside is one of only four writers to win both the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize for a single book – his being 2011’s Black Cat Bone.  He also won a Whitbread Award for The Asylum Dance in 2000, and The David Cohen Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2023.  He died after a short illness in May of 2024 just after publishing his 22^nd book of poetry, Ruin, Blossom.

 

A longtime Professor in Creative Writing at St Andrews University, Burnside also authored many short stories, novels, essays, and two multi-award-winning memoirs, A Lie About My Father and Waking Up In Toytown.

 

“I love long sentences,” he said about his writing style.  “My big heroes of fiction writing are Henry James and (Marcel) Proust – people who recognize that life doesn't consist of declarative statements, but rather modifications, qualifications and feelings.”

A Writer's Moment: That 'truth' about fiction

A Writer's Moment: That 'truth' about fiction:   “A writer borrows a bit from here, there and everywhere, and adapts it to her own purpose.  (But) I find that the more of me I include, th...

That 'truth' about fiction

 

“A writer borrows a bit from here, there and everywhere, and adapts it to her own purpose.  (But) I find that the more of me I include, the more successful the book; the more readers can identify with.” – Joy Fielding

 

Born on this date in 1945 in Toronto, Canada (where she still lives), Fielding said she knew early in life that she wanted to be a writer.  Even when drawn in different directions – particularly acting – she always felt the pull back to that first love and to date has authored 32 novels -- the newest Jenny Cooper Has a Secret coming out in August.

  

“I love writing because it's the only time in my life when I feel I have complete control,” Fielding said.   “Nobody does or says anything I don't tell them to – although even this amount of control is illusory because there comes a point where the characters take over and tell you what they think they should say and do.” 

   

Fielding said she looks upon everything as a potential scene for a book, and everyone as a potential character.  While she occasionally gets ideas from magazines and newspaper articles – especially headlines – more often her ideas come from something that happens to her or someone she knows. 

 

“I don't enjoy doing a lot of research, preferring as a rule, to ‘make up my facts.’ That's why I write fiction,” she said.  “I firmly believe that if you want facts, you read non-fiction; you read fiction to discover truth.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The pleasure . . . of telling a story'

A Writer's Moment: 'The pleasure . . . of telling a story':   “The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating...

'The pleasure . . . of telling a story'

 

“The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating characters; the novel is such a wonderfully flexible form.  You learn a lot, writing fiction.” –  Penelope Lively

 

Born in Egypt (of British parents) on St. Patrick’s Day in 1933, Lively has authored dozens of books (fiction and nonfiction) for both adults and children, earning a Booker Prize for her adult novel Moon Tiger, and the Carnegie Medal for British Children's Books for The Ghost of Thomas Kempe.   She’s been honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and elected Vice-President of the Friends of the British Library, one of her main causes.

 

Beside novels and short stories, Lively has also written radio and television scripts, presented a radio program, and contributed reviews and articles to various newspapers and journals.

 

While she didn’t start writing until she was almost 40, the prolific Lively has written 32  children’s books, 5 nonfiction books and 22 adult novels or short story collections.  Her latest work Metamorphosis, a short story colletion, was published in 2022.

 

 “Every novel generates its own climate,” she said.  “You just have to get going with it.”  Also a dedicated reader, she added,  “Reading is of the most intense importance to me.  If I were not able to read, to revisit old favorites and experiment with names new to me, I would be starved - probably too starved to go on writing myself.”

A Writer's Moment: And the beat goes on

A Writer's Moment: And the beat goes on:   “The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, fi...

And the beat goes on

 “The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, finds mischief boring and avoids it. Without the hidden conspiracy of goodwill, society would not endure an hour.” – Kenneth Rexroth 

Born in March of 1905, American poet, translator and critical essayist Rexroth laid the groundwork for what would become the 1950s beat movement.  Dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time Magazine, he also was among the first U.S. poets to explore styles like haiku. 

  

For Saturday’s Poem here is Rexroth’s,

Yin and Yang

It is Spring once more in the Coast Range
Warm, perfumed, under the Easter moon.
The flowers are back in their places.
The birds are back in their usual trees.

The winter stars set in the ocean.
The summer stars rise from the mountains.
The air is filled with atoms of quicksilver.
Resurrection envelops the earth.

Goemetrical, blazing, deathless,
Animals and men march through heaven,
Pacing their secret ceremony.

The Lion gives the moon to the Virgin.
She stands at the crossroads of heaven,
Holding the full moon in her right hand,
A glittering wheat ear in her left.

The climax of the rite of rebirth
Has ascended from the underworld
Is proclaimed in light from the zenith.
In the underworld the sun swims
Between the fish called Yes and No.

 

A Writer's Moment: 'We're all amateur investigators'

A Writer's Moment: 'We're all amateur investigators':   “We're all amateur investigators. We scan bookshelves, we ogle trinkets left out in the open, we calculate the cost of furniture and s...

'We're all amateur investigators'

 “We're all amateur investigators. We scan bookshelves, we ogle trinkets left out in the open, we calculate the cost of furniture and study the photographs on display; sometimes we even check out the medicine cabinet.” – Lisa Lutz

Born in California on this date in 1970, Lutz started writing with an idea for a screenplay, which ultimately became the basis for a best-selling series of novels.    It was while working for a private investigation firm that she started writing the screenplay for a dark Mob-type comedy called Plan B.  

Ultimately published as the novel The Spellman Files, her book is about a family of private investigators named Spellman, who, while very close knit, are also intensely suspicious and spend much time investigating each other. 

That first book – nominated for half-dozen awards – has led to 8 books in the series, all with multiple honors.  Her most recent is 2022's The Accomplice.  She’s also authored a children’s book and several stand-alone thriller/mystery books, including the 2017 award-winning The Passenger.

While highly successful, she said, “My writing process is chaos.  I usually start with an overarching theme. Then I establish several story threads, but I don't outline. I just start writing and keep notes for what may come. It's an organic process that's usually pretty flexible.”

A Writer's Moment: Words that 'peek out in an emotional way'

A Writer's Moment: Words that 'peek out in an emotional way':   “I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others.”   – James Taylor Born in Boston ...

Words that 'peek out in an emotional way'

 “I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others.”  – James Taylor

Born in Boston on March 12, 1948 Taylor is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  He advises writers – whether it be of songs, poems or literature – to remember that what is artistic is really nothing more than people’s very creative and inventive ways out of impossible situations

“It is a process of discovery,” he said.  “It’s being quiet enough and undisturbed enough for a period of time so that the words can begin to sort of peek out … in an emotional way.” 

Taylor’s first breakthrough in writing songs was his hit “Fire and Rain,” and his first number one was the amazing “You’ve Got a Friend,” a recording that still gets thousands of airplays each month around the globe.  He also had a huge hit with the joyful “Your Smiling Face" and won Grammys for all three.

“Though 'Fire and Rain' is very personal, for other people it resonates as a sort of commonly held experience,” he said.  “And that's what happens with me. I write things for personal reasons, and then in some cases it becomes a shared experience.” 

Here’s a link to “Smiling Face.”  Happy writing!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giB8gZ2L6hA

A Writer's Moment: Supernatural tales sending shivers up the spine

A Writer's Moment: Supernatural tales sending shivers up the spine:   “A strong emotion, especially if experienced for the first time, leaves a vivid memory of the scene where it occurred.”  – Algernon Blackw...

Supernatural tales sending shivers up the spine

 

“A strong emotion, especially if experienced for the first time, leaves a vivid memory of the scene where it occurred.” – Algernon Blackwood

  

Born in England on this date in 1869, Blackwood was a short story writer and novelist and one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He also was a journalist and broadcasting narrator.    A gifted storyteller, even in childhood, he said he always amazed friends and neighbors with his ability to spin yarns about the supernatural.  

 

Blackwood authored 14 novels, several children's books, a number of plays and at least 3 dozen original short story collections before his death in 1951.   A highly sought-after speaker and broadcaster as well, he became known as “Master of the Genre.”  Among his most well-known tales were The Willows and The Wendigo.   Most of his stories elicited a sense of “awe” or the “what if?” factor, making them perfect for such broadcast shows as “Suspense” and “Night Gallery.”   

 

Blackwood said the secret to his writings’ success was leaving his reader with a nagging sense that something yet might happen.  “Those little things that pierce and burn and prick for years to come.“

A Writer's Moment: 'Focus? Who needs to focus?'

A Writer's Moment: 'Focus? Who needs to focus?':   “There's nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, 'Well, okay, today I'm going to do something of high art...

'Focus? Who needs to focus?'

 

“There's nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, 'Well, okay, today I'm going to do something of high artistic worth’.” – Douglas Adams

 

Born in Cambridge, England on this date in 1952, Adams is perhaps best known for writing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which he originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy.  Ultimately, he turned it into a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, a feature film and a bestselling series of book that sold over 15 million copies. 

 

Adams, who died of a heart attack at age 49, was a true Renaissance Man, known as an advocate for environmental and conservation causes, racing fast cars, and for his acting, singing and standup comedy routines.  He also created several top-selling computer games.

                                                                                      

His writing began with a piece published at age 10, and by age 13 he had a humorous short story published in a national youth magazine.  His first nationally published short story came at age 22.    But it was Adams’ work on “Hitchhiker’s Guide” that made him a superstar and got him enshrined in The UK Radio Academy’s Hall of Fame.

 

“I seldom end up where I want to go,” he said about his constant movement among careers and opportunities and seeming lack of focus.  “But I almost always end up where I need to be.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Biding time . . . gets you nowhere'

A Writer's Moment: 'Biding time . . . gets you nowhere':   “If you can't laugh at your own characters, or shed a tear for them, or even get angry at one of them, no one else will either.”  – Jo...

'Biding time . . . gets you nowhere'

 

“If you can't laugh at your own characters, or shed a tear for them, or even get angry at one of them, no one else will either.” – Johanna Lindsey

 

Born in Frankfurt, West Germany on this date in 1952, Lindsey had a legitimate claim as “Queen of American historical romance writers,” writing more than 60 Number One New York Times bestsellers in the genre, starting with 1977’s Captive Bride.  Her last book, Temptation’s Darling, came out just before her death (from lung cancer) in 2019.

 

Born into a U.S. military family, she had the usual “Army Brat” experience of numerous moves before settling in Hawaii, living and writing there and in New England where she died. 

 

Translated into over a dozen languages, Lindsey's books span various eras of history, but by far the most popular are her stories about the Malory-Anderson family.  Set in the 1700s and 1800s, the series ended with 2017’s massive bestseller Beautiful Tempest, released about the same time she was diagnosed with cancer.   She didn’t let the illness stop her, writing constantly until her death and releasing 3 more books during that time.

 

 “Biding time is easy,” Lindsey said, “and gets you nowhere.”

A Writer's Moment: The poetic 'songs of life'

A Writer's Moment: The poetic 'songs of life':   “Whether you listen to a piece of music, or a poem, or look at a picture or a jug, or a piece of sculpture, what matters about it is not w...

The poetic 'songs of life'

 “Whether you listen to a piece of music, or a poem, or look at a picture or a jug, or a piece of sculpture, what matters about it is not what it has in common with others of its kind, but what is singularly its own.” – Basil Bunting

 

Bunting was born to start the century (March of 1900) in which he became one of Great Britain’s most significant modernist poets.  He started writing poetry as a child, cementing his reputation with his 1966 autobiographical masterpiece Briggflatts   He wrote and published right up to his death in 1985.

 

A lifelong music lover, he often emphasized the sonic qualities of poetry and liked reading his poetry aloud.  Many recordings of him reading are widely available.  For Saturday’s Poem – from Briggflatts – here is Bunting’s,

 

                                    CODA

A strong song tows
us, long earsick.
Blind, we follow
rain slant, spray flick
to fields we do not know.

Night, float us.
Offshore wind, shout,
ask the sea
what’s lost, what’s left,
what horn sunk,
what crown adrift?

Where we are who knows
of kings who sup
while day fails? Who,
swinging his axe
to fell kings, guesses
where we go?

 

 

 

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Life . . . As We See It'

A Writer's Moment: 'Life . . . As We See It':   “The function of the novelist . . . is to comment upon life as he sees it.”  – Frank Norris   Born in Chicago in March of 1870, Norris ...

'Life . . . As We See It'

 

“The function of the novelist . . . is to comment upon life as he sees it.” – Frank Norris
 

Born in Chicago in March of 1870, Norris wrote as a “naturalist,” shocking many readers with his sometimes brutal and graphic depictions.    

 

The author of 11 novels, 3 nonfiction books and numerous essays, he is perhaps best known for his trilogy The Octopus, The Pit, and The Wolf  -- the latter only partially completed when he suddenly and unexpectedly died in 1902 from complications while in surgery.  The 3 stories follow the journey of a crop of wheat from its planting in California to its ultimate consumption as bread in Western Europe.  Along the way, much suffering and death follow the storyline and its key characters as greed and harsh conditions often stand in their way.

 

Sometimes criticized for his depictions of suffering caused by corrupt and greedy turn-of-the-century corporate monopolies, he stood solidly behind his writing for both its in-depth research and for being morally correct and truthful.   And, he is credited with having an impact on influential leaders like Theodore Roosevelt, who cited Norris in his efforts to reform the big corporations.

 

“Truth,” Norris wrote, “is a thing immortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty that fades not away in time.”

 

 

 

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the carpentry of it all'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the carpentry of it all':   “Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.”  – Gabriel Gar...

'It's the carpentry of it all'

 

“Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist Marquez, born on this date in 1927, was one of the most significant authors of the 20th century.   Winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature, he actually started his career as a journalist, writing many acclaimed nonfiction works and journalistic short stories before turning to fiction. 

 

Best known for his novels One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, he also was a fierce critic of Colombia’s intense and often corrupt political scene and not afraid to skewer politicians in his writings.

 

He often said the most important influencers on his writing were American authors William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway.   “Faulkner is a writer who has had much to do with my soul,” he said, “but Hemingway is the one who had the most to do with my craft - not simply for his books, but for his astounding knowledge of the aspect of craftsmanship in the science of writing.”   Marquez was equally lauded by fellow writers for his keen eye to detail and skill as a master storyteller. 

 

“What matters in life is not what happens to you,” he said, “but what you remember and how you remember it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A favorite novel for each stage of life'

A Writer's Moment: 'A favorite novel for each stage of life':   “I think ever since I started to read, there have been favorite novels for different stages of my life. And one is never bumped out of pla...

'A favorite novel for each stage of life'

 

“I think ever since I started to read, there have been favorite novels for different stages of my life. And one is never bumped out of place to yield to another. Instead, I just add to my favorite shelves.” – Robin Hobb

 

Born in California on this date in 1952 Hobb is actually Margaret Astrid Lindholm, who decided she’d rather be known by the names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm while writing.   Since 1995 she’s written five different series set in the "Realm of the Elderlings", for which she earned the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2021. 

Hobb’s initial writing successes were in children’s stories, writing as Megan Lindholm, the name she continued using when she moved into short stories set in the Fantasy world.  But when she decided to go to longer, epic-style Fantasy, she took on the Robin Hobb title.

 

Lindholm has lived in Alaska since age 10 with just a one-year move to Denver when she started her college studies.  She has been writing since her teen years and is noted for a style that is built from the main character outward.

 

“As the character talks and moves, the world around him is slowly revealed, just like dollying a camera back for a wider look at things,” she explained.  “So all my stories start with a character, and that character introduces setting, culture, conflict, government, economy... all of it, through his or her eyes.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Fasten your seat belt and write on'

A Writer's Moment: 'Fasten your seat belt and write on':   “I think we have a great deal of mythology around writing. We believe that only a few people can really do it. I wrote a book called  The ...

'Fasten your seat belt and write on'

 

“I think we have a great deal of mythology around writing. We believe that only a few people can really do it. I wrote a book called The Right to Write.  In it, I argued that all of us have the capacity to write. That it's as normal to write as it is to speak.” – Julia Cameron

 

Born in Libertyville, IL on this date in 1948, Cameron has been a teacher, artist, poet, playwright, filmmaker, composer, journalist and author, most famous for her books on writing and creativity.  The Artist's Way, her first book and massive bestseller, came out in 1992 and she has now written a remarkable 36 nonfiction books, 2 novels, 6 plays, 4 books of poetry and many short stories, essays and screenplays.

 

Bookending her first success, she published Living the Artist’s Way: An Intuitive Path to Greater Creativity in 2024 on the heels of another successful “How To” book Write for Life: A Toolkit for Writers in 2023.

 

Cameron started her writing career at the Washington Post before moving over to Rolling Stone magazine.  It was there that she met director Martin Scorsese and after a somewhat tumultuous marriage, they divorced but continued a close relationship, including collaborating on three films.

 

“I have learned, as a rule of thumb, never to ask whether you can do something,” she said.  “Say, instead, that you are doing it. Then fasten your seat belt. The most remarkable things follow.“

A Writer's Moment: 'A dance for success'

A Writer's Moment: 'A dance for success': “My inspiration for writing (was) all the wonderful books that I read as a child.   For those of us who write, when we find a wonderful book...

'A dance for success'

“My inspiration for writing (was) all the wonderful books that I read as a child.   For those of us who write, when we find a wonderful book written by someone else, we don't really get jealous, we get inspired, and that's kind of the mark of what a good writer is.” –  Patricia MacLachlan

 

Born in Cheyenne, WY on this date in 1938, MacLachlan won the Newbery Medal her inspiring novel (and series of books) Sarah, Plain and Tall, also adapted into a “Hallmark Hall of Fame” television movie.

 

The author of some three dozen books, the last published in 2022 the year of her death, she was a longtime board member of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance and tireless spokesperson on behalf of literacy, literature, and libraries,

 

MacLachlan said growing up “on the prairie” shaped both who she was and how she learned to portray things.    And while her “Sarah” series earned her the most acclaim, her 2015 novel The Truth of Me also earned many awards.  That book is a celebration how unique "small truths" make each of us magical and brave in our own ways, and a wonderful example of her poetic and poignant style that won her legions of followers.

“I have great editors and I always have,” she modestly said of her writing success. “Somehow, great editors ask the right questions or pose things to you that get you to write better. It's a dance between you, your characters, and your editor.”

A Writer's Moment: 'From the deep thickets of self'

A Writer's Moment: 'From the deep thickets of self':   “One reason to write a poem is to flush from the deep thickets of the self some thought, feeling, comprehension, question, music, you didn...

'From the deep thickets of self'

 

“One reason to write a poem is to flush from the deep thickets of the self some thought, feeling, comprehension, question, music, you didn't know was in you, or in the world.” – Jane Hirshfield

 

Born in New York on Feb. 24, 1953, Hirshfield has authored 10 award-winning books of poetry.  Her most recent is 2023’s The Asking: New & Selected Poems.  She also has done a number of major translations and wrote or edited several collections of essays.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Hirshfield’s,

 

                             A Person Protests to Fate

 

                                 A person protests to fate:

                                    "The things you have caused
                                    me most to want
                                    are those that furthest elude me."

                                    Fate nods.
                              Fate is sympathetic.

                                To tie the shoes, button a shirt,
                                are triumphs
                                for only the very young,
                                the very old.

                             During the long middle:

                                conjugating a rivet
                                mastering tango
                                training the cat to stay off the table
                                preserving a single moment longer than this one
                                continuing to wake whatever has happened the day before

                             and the penmanships love practices inside the body.