A Writer's Moment: 'When's the best time to read?'

A Writer's Moment: 'When's the best time to read?':   “The time to read is any time: no apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is necessary. It is the only art which can be practiced at ...

'When's the best time to read?'

 

“The time to read is any time: no apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is necessary. It is the only art which can be practiced at any hour of the day or night, whenever the time and inclination comes, that is your time for reading; in joy or sorrow, health or illness.” – Holbrook Jackson

 

A native of Liverpool, England, George “Holbrook” Jackson was born on this date in 1874 and while he initially followed a path toward a business career, he veered off sharply in his mid-20s toward editing and writing.  Ultimately, he earned the reputation as one of Britain’s – and perhaps the world’ for that matter – leading bibliophiles.

 

Starting with his 1899 book on the works of Edward Fitzgerald, he wrote extensively about books, book collecting, bibliographies and typography.  And he authored hundreds of essays on those topics and co-founded (with famed poet Ralph Hodgson and designer Claud Lovat Fraser) the Flying Fame Press in 1913.   

 

Jackson also held an editorial post on T. P. O'Connor’s T.P.'s Weekly, a newspaper with a strong literary emphasis, taking over as editor in 1914.  He later purchased and converted it into his own literary magazine.  Jackson, who died in 1948, was lauded for his extensive library, often used by other writers for research and reference.  

 

“Your library,” Jackson once said, “is your portrait.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's a unique and lasting approach'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's a unique and lasting approach': “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”  – Rudyard Kipling   Born to British parents in India on t...

'It's a unique and lasting approach'

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” – Rudyard Kipling

 

Born to British parents in India on this date in 1865, Kipling wrote one of literature’s most innovative tales, The Jungle Book.  But despite its lasting success, during his own lifetime (he died in 1936) it was not ranked at the top of the many great stories he authored.  In his day his novels Kim and Captains Courageous; his short story "The Man Who Would Be King;” and his poems "Mandalay,” and "Gunga Din” were considered even better and more popular.   Those works and many, many others by this great writer are not only still in print but also extensively studied in writing programs everywhere.

 

One of the most popular writers in the British Empire in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Kipling was also a journalist, travel writer, and  science fiction editor and writer.  His cumulative writing skills earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature at age 42, both the first English-language writer and the youngest person ever to earn this pinnacle writing award. 

 

“We are,” Kipling said, “the opening verse of the opening page of the chapter of endless possibilities.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Always thinking of the reader'

A Writer's Moment: 'Always thinking of the reader':   “Writers are not meant for action.” –  Manuel Puig    Born in Argentina on Dec. 28, 1932 Puig did not really practice what he preached...

'Always thinking of the reader'

 

“Writers are not meant for action.” – Manuel Puig

  

Born in Argentina on Dec. 28, 1932 Puig did not really practice what he preached, often taking action and angering those in power with the words he shared.  That activism led to some rousing good literature but also caused him to spend much of his adult life in exile.  

 

Puig is perhaps best known for his novel Kiss of the Spider Woman – which also won acclaim as both a movie and a play, the screenplay and play script also done by him.   While his writing was well received it was never in the “best seller” mode, much to his dismay, since he said he always wished to have one and “Live out life in the Tropics.”  Instead, he mostly made a living translating other writers’ works.

 

“I write novels,” he said shortly before his death in 1990, “because there is something I don’t understand in reality.  I like to put myself in the place of those who will be reading what I write.  Whenever I write, I’m always thinking of the reader.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The ability to create entire moments'

A Writer's Moment: 'The ability to create entire moments': “Poetry has the ability to create entire moments with just a few choice words. The spacing and line breaks create rhythm, a helpful musicali...

'The ability to create entire moments'

“Poetry has the ability to create entire moments with just a few choice words. The spacing and line breaks create rhythm, a helpful musicality; a natural flow. The separate stanzas aid in perpetuating a kind of incremental reading, one small chunk at a time.” – Jason Reynolds

 

Born in Washington, DC, in December of 1983, Reynolds writes both poetry and novels, primarily for Young Adult and Middle School audiences.  Among his many award-winning efforts are Ghost, a National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature, and When I Was The Greatest, winner of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent.  For Saturday’s Poem, here are Reynolds’ “I’ve Never Been” and “For Everyone.”

 

                                       I’ve Never Been

                                             in an     earthquake.

                                             Don’t     know if this was

                                             Even     close to how they

                                             are,      but the ground

                                             defi      nitely felt like

                                             it o      pened up

                                             and      ate me.

 

For Everyone

Your dream is the mole

behind your ear,

that chip in your

front tooth,

your freckles.

 

It’s the thing that makes

you special,

but not the thing that makes

you great.

 

The courage in trying,

the passion in living,

and the acknowledgement

and appreciation of

the beauty happening around

you does that.

A Writer's Moment: 'Creating a make-believe world'

A Writer's Moment: 'Creating a make-believe world': “Being a novelist is the adult version of a kid creating a make-believe world. But unlike a child, a writer of fiction has to come up with a...

'Creating a make-believe world'

“Being a novelist is the adult version of a kid creating a make-believe world. But unlike a child, a writer of fiction has to come up with a structured story, one that has as much meaning for others as it has for her.” – Susan Isaacs

Born in New York City on this date in 1943, Isaacs worked as a freelance political speechwriter while simultaneously serving as an editor for Seventeen magazine before veering away to try her hand at fiction.  Good move.  Her first novel (and first attempt at fiction), Compromising Positions – out in 1978 – was chosen as a Book of the Month Club main selection and was a New York Times bestseller

Since then she’s authored 17 novels, numerous essays, screenplays, and a work of cultural criticism Brave Dames and Wimpettes: What Women are Really Doing on Page and Screen.   All of her books have been bestsellers and her works have been translated into 30 languages.   In addition to writing books and screenplays, Isaacs has reviewed fiction and nonfiction for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Newsday.  Isaccs’ latest novel, in her “Corie Geller’ series is Bad, Bad Seymour Brown.

 

 “There are days where I lose track of time, of place, of everything else,” she said of the writing process.  “I've been transported to another universe.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Scratching with my hands through granite'

A Writer's Moment: 'Scratching with my hands through granite': “The first four months of writing the book, my mental image is scratching with my hands through granite. My other image is pushing a train u...

'Scratching with my hands through granite'

“The first four months of writing the book, my mental image is scratching with my hands through granite. My other image is pushing a train up the mountain, and it's icy, and I'm in bare feet.” – Mary Higgins Clark

 

Born in The Bronx, NY, on Christmas Eve 1927, Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins Clark said she just seemed destined to become a writer.  She started a daily journal and wrote her first poems by age 7, then crafted plays for her family and friends when she was 8.

  

Despite her penchant for writing, she started her adult career as a copy editor and then became an airline stewardess for Pan Am Airlines. But after marrying and starting her family, she took a writing workshop and returned to writing, although not with overnight success.  Her first short story, Stowaway, was rejected 40 times before finally being picked up in 1956, opening the door to hundreds more her short stories being published around the globe. 

 

In 1975 she decided to try her hand at mystery-suspense.  Her debut novel in the genre, Where Are The Children? has been continuously in print since then, now in its 78^th printing.  Ultimately, Higgins-Clark wrote some 50 novels and at least 30 have been adapted into movies or television programs. 

 

Among her many awards were the Horatio Alger Award, the Passionists’ Ethics in Literature Award, and the National Arts Club’s Gold Medal in Education. She also was awarded 18 honorary doctorate degrees from some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities.

Top of Form

 

Bottom of Form

“If you want to be happy for life,” she said shortly before her death in 2020, “love what you do.”

 

A Writer's Moment: 'What exactly is an author?'

A Writer's Moment: 'What exactly is an author?':   “An author is somebody who writes a story. It doesn't matter if you're a kid or if you're a grown-up, it doesn't matter if...

'What exactly is an author?'

 

“An author is somebody who writes a story. It doesn't matter if you're a kid or if you're a grown-up, it doesn't matter if the book gets published and lots of people get to read it, or if you make just one copy and you share that book with one friend.”  –Jarrett J. Krosoczka

 

Krosoczka started writing and drawing while in elementary school and still calls upon some of those early ideas in his book creations.  Born in Massachusetts on this date in 1977, he is the author and illustrator of 28 books, 10 in his award-winning “Lunch Lady” series.  His 2018 book, Hey, Kiddo, was a finalist for The National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and winner of the 2019 Harvey Award (Book of the Year recognition for a graphic novel).  

  

Raised by his maternal grandparents, Krosoczka honed his artistic and writing talents at the Rhode Island School of Design.   His first book contract came shortly after graduation and he’s had a steady stream of successes since.  A few years ago, he used part of his book earnings to recognize the role his grandparents played in his life, establishing the Joseph and Shirley Krosoczka Memorial Youth Scholarships at the Worcester (Mass.) Art Museum.  

 

“When I look back at my career as an author,” he said, “I don't look at the first book that was ever published as to where my career began.  I look to the first book that I ever wrote.   You never know when your ideas are going to come back to you.”

Learning 'the weight of words'

 

“Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the head of the reader.  You learn the weight of words and how they sound to the ear.” – Helen Dunmore

I wrote about Dunmore and her award winning work -- novels, children's literature and poetry -- earlier this week    For "Saturday's Poem" here is an abridged version of Dunmore's,  

Smiles Like Roses All down my street smiles opened like roses sun licked me and tickled me sun said, Didn’t you believe me when I said I’d be back? I blinked my eyes, I said, Sun, you are too strong for me where’d you get those muscles? Sun said, Come and dance. All over the park smiles opened like roses babies kicked off their shoes and sun kissed their toes. . . .

A Writer's Moment: 'Every story is a beginning'

A Writer's Moment: 'Every story is a beginning':   “When you are in your teenage years you are consciously experiencing everything for the first time, so adolescent stories are all beginnin...

'Every story is a beginning'

 

“When you are in your teenage years you are consciously experiencing everything for the first time, so adolescent stories are all beginnings. There are never any endings.” – Aidan Chambers

 

Born in England in December of 1934, Chambers won both the British Carnegie Medal and the American Printz Award for Postcards from No Man's Land.   The author of many bestselling children's and Young-Adult novels, he also was named for the Hans Christian Andersen Award for his contributions to children’s literature.

 

After starting his adult life as a teacher, Chambers spent several years at an Anglican Monastery before leaving to pursue freelance writing.  His Young Adult novel Now I Know -  part of an award-winning 6-book series called The Dance Sequence - is based partly on his experiences as a monk. 

 

Chambers and his wife Nancy founded Thimble Press and the magazine Signal to promote literature for children and young adults, and the publishing house's many successes earned them the Eleanor Farjeon Award for outstanding services to children's books. Chambers died earlier this year - at age 90 - and said he never wrote down to his young readers

  

“At age 15, people can handle the same language as me," he said.  "They're just as complicated as me and are very interested in thinking about important questions for the first time.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A container into which you pour your story'

A Writer's Moment: 'A container into which you pour your story':   “As individuals, we are shaped by story from the time of birth; we are formed by what we are told by our parents, our teachers, our intima...

'A container into which you pour your story'

 

“As individuals, we are shaped by story from the time of birth; we are formed by what we are told by our parents, our teachers, our intimates.” – Helen Dunmore

 

Born in England in December of 1952, Dunmore grew up in a large family (her parents also came from large families), a great influence, she said, on her writing.  She wrote 15 novels, 9 Young Adult books, a couple dozen children’s books and 12 collections of poetry, many of them winners of some of the world’s most prestigious writing prizes. 

 

Her novel A Spell of Winter was the very first winner of the Orange Prize, and her final two books – the novel Birdcage Walk and the poetry collection Inside The Wave – both won her the prestigious Costa Book Award (formerly the Whitbread). Both books came out in 2017, the year of her death from cancer.

 

Among her clever children’s books are Aliens Don’t Eat Bacon Sandwiches and Go Fox, two of several of her works taught in British elementary schools.  

 

“A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to pour your story into,” she said.  “I would like people to come into my Dreamworld and then choose to stay.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The right words every time'

A Writer's Moment: 'The right words every time':   “When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.” –  William Safire    Born in New York City on this date in ...

'The right words every time'

 

“When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.” – William Safire 

 

Born in New York City on this date in 1929, just days after the Great Stockmarket Crash, Safire grew up in the turmoil of the 1930s to become one of America’s best-known authors and columnists.  He also was an off-and-on speechwriter, including for President Nixon and Vice President Agnew.  He is noted for penning the famous Agnew line describing those opposing Nixon-Agnew policies as “Nattering Nabobs of Negativism.”

 

A stickler for language uses and demands, he authored the weekly "On Language" in the New York Times Magazine; the enormously successful book The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time; and a nationally syndicated column, seen in hundreds of newspapers.  

 

The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner disdained fellow journalists who used “insiderisms” to try to dazzle readers.  “Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms,’” he once noted.  “Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of journalistic jargon, are drawn to such arcane spellings as 'lede' (a journalistic term for the opening lines of a story).   I say, ‘Where they lede, do not follow.’”   He delighted in adding a key “nugget” of information later in his own stories – “To keep my readers on their toes.”

  

A longtime supporter of the arts, he noted: “One challenge to the arts in America is the need to make the arts, especially classic masterpieces, accessible and relevant to today's audience.”

A Writer's Moment: The effectiveness of a 'pregnant' pause

A Writer's Moment: The effectiveness of a 'pregnant' pause: "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." — Mark Twain Born in Missour...

The effectiveness of a 'pregnant' pause

"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." — Mark Twain

Born in Missouri in 1835, Twain abhorred flowery adjectives in those descriptions just as he disdained using them in his own writing.  “Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in,” he advised.

 

“(Adjectives) give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.”

 

Twain, often listed among America’s greatest novelists, said you should write using plain, simple language, short words, and brief sentences.  And while he was pleased when he coined a word or phrase that others liked to use (mentioning that it came from him, of course), he also noted that the use of “a pregnant pause” also could be a great writing style.  

 

“The right word may be effective,” he said, “but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”

A Writer's Moment: Tracking toward 'the destination'

A Writer's Moment: Tracking toward 'the destination':   “Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one.   I do feel that if you can write one goo...

Tracking toward 'the destination'

 

“Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one.   I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up with a good story.” – Amy Hempel

 

Born in Chicago on Dec. 14, 1951 Hempel spent her formative years in California, the setting for much of her award-winning short fiction.  She has written for some of the U.S.’s most prestigious magazines, newspapers and journals while also teaching creative writing at colleges and universities ranging from The New School to Harvard, Princeton and (currently) the University of Texas.

 

Hempel’s very first short story is 1983’s "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried", one of the most anthologized stories in contemporary U.S. fiction.  The story can be found in The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, one of 8 collections she’s had published, the most recent being Sing To It.

“I’ve always known when I start a story what the last line is,” she said about her writing style.  “It’s always been the case . . . I don’t know how it’s going to get there, but I seem to need that destination.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Captured, like in a photograph'

A Writer's Moment: 'Captured, like in a photograph':   “I like the idea that you can jar a moment, capture it like a photograph . . .  If we all just scribbled down a poem whilst on the bus, th...

'Captured, like in a photograph'

 

“I like the idea that you can jar a moment, capture it like a photograph . . .  If we all just scribbled down a poem whilst on the bus, the world would be a better place.” – Liam Wilkinson

 

Born in England in December of 1981, Wilkinson is a poet, songwriter and singer noted for his "spontaneous" writing, especially the poems he creates.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Wilkinson’s,

 

                                                            Sunday 

I.                    

Sunday is made of crisp paper
and coffee
so I’m happy to be here
out in the world
carrying the news
home
and savoring
the Americano on my tongue.

II.
The shop assistant
had no idea
how much I loved her today.
Or how much
I loved the gorgeous line
of fresh orange juice
in the fridge
and the low low price
of economy cat litter.

III.
The stillness of the seventh day
is only beautiful in things
as it happens.
sad
to think Monday
will soon be here
in the tears
of tomorrow’s frozen vegetables. 

A Writer's Moment: 'First and foremost, create silence'

A Writer's Moment: 'First and foremost, create silence':   “The biggest achievement is to create silence. I think every real writer who has a passion to do justice to the world thinks this way.”  –...

'First and foremost, create silence'

 

“The biggest achievement is to create silence. I think every real writer who has a passion to do justice to the world thinks this way.” – Peter Handke

 

Born in Austria in December of 1942, Handke is the 2019 Nobel Prize-winner in literature, recognized for the breadth of his work as a novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter.

He first broke onto the international writing scene with his 1960s award-winning play Offending the Audience and novel The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick.   His play Wings of Desire and his semi-autobiographical novel A Sorrow Beyond Dreams also have earned rave reviews.  

 

 “An artist,” he said, “is only an exemplary person if you can see in his works how life goes.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the living memory of nations'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the living memory of nations':   “Literature transmits incontrovertible condensed experience … from generation to generation.  In this way literature becomes the living me...

'It's the living memory of nations'

 

“Literature transmits incontrovertible condensed experience … from generation to generation.  In this way literature becomes the living memory of a nation.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 

Solzhenitsyn, born in Russia on this date in 1918, wrote some of the great pieces of world literature in his historic novels The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.  The books are both Classics and classes in great writing that unfold in the conversations and images around the horrors facing ordinary people who dared to confront the evils of totalitarianism. 

Solzhenitsyn spent nearly half his life in prison, work camps, or exile for his willingness to stand for those ordinary people in the works he created.   After being exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974, he lived for a number of years in the U.S. where he continued to turn out amazing literature until  he returned to Russia in 1994, where he lived out his days. He died in Moscow in 2008. 

Awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature” Solzhenitsyn had this advice for writers willing to stand for social justice:  

“Own only what you can always carry with you; (and) know languages, know countries, know people.  Let your memory be your travel bag.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A magical moment when words begin to pour'

A Writer's Moment: 'A magical moment when words begin to pour':   “The values transmitted through oral history are many - courage, selflessness, the ability to endure, and to do so with humor and grace. I...

'A magical moment when words begin to pour'

 

“The values transmitted through oral history are many - courage, selflessness, the ability to endure, and to do so with humor and grace. I got those values listening to my dad's stories about the Depression and how their family survived. It gave me courage that I, too, could survive hard times.” – Ann Turner

 

Born in Northampton, MA on this date in 1945, Turner has authored 44 novels, picture books and poetry collections for children and Young Adults in a career that actually began when she was a student at Bates College.

 

While there she won first prize in the Atlantic Monthly’s college creative writing contest, sparking an interest in writing that never left.    An education major, she tried her hand at teaching but ultimately was drawn back to her dream of writing.   Her first novel A Hunter Comes Home was an American Library Association “Notable Children's Book” and her first picture book, Dakota Dugout, received the same honor.  Since then she has won dozens of awards in every category in which she writes.   

 

Among her multiple award-winning books are Abe Lincoln Remembers and Through Moon and Stars and Night Skies.  Her most recent YA novel is Father of Lies, a suspense-filled (and bestselling) retelling of the Salem Witch Trials from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl.

 

“There is the magical moment when words begin to pour out onto the page — words which surprise and confound even me,” Turner said of her writing successes.  “I am as interested in seeing what happens to my characters as any reader; that is why I tell kids that writers write for the same reason readers read - to find out the end of the story.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A thing with feathers'

A Writer's Moment: 'A thing with feathers':     “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.” – Emily Dic...

'A thing with feathers'

 

 “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson  

Born on Dec. 10, 1830 in Amherst, MA, Dickinson was not famous in her own short lifetime (she died at age 56).  It was only after her death that her sister discovered nearly 1,800 poems written by this reclusive writer.

 

While Dickinson was a prolific writer, fewer than a dozen of her poems were published while she was alive, and that work was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time.   Written in short lines, Dickinson's poems often lack formal titles, contain unconventional capitalization and punctuation, and often use slant rhyme (a type of rhyme formed by words with similar but not identical sounds, also called approximate rhyme).   All unique for her era.

 

The first collection of her poetry was published in 1890, four years after her death.  A complete collection The Poems of Emily Dickinson was not published until 1955.

 

Dickinson studied at Amherst Academy for 7 years, spent a short time at Mount Holyoke’s “Female Seminary” and then returned to the family home where she spent most of her life.  Just before she died, it is believed she penned the famous lines, often seen and used both in and out of the writing world:  

“Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; the carriage held but just ourselves, and immortality.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'It just needs editing'

A Writer's Moment: 'It just needs editing':   “I like to start with the ordinary, and then nudge it, and then think, 'What happens next, what happens next?'” – James Tate   ...

'It just needs editing'

 

“I like to start with the ordinary, and then nudge it, and then think, 'What happens next, what happens next?'” – James Tate

 

Born on Dec. 8, 1944 Tate won both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for his poetry.  Growing up with the goal of becoming a gas station attendant, he struggled in high school, overcame being in a gang, and fell in love with writing while taking college classes on a dare.  Ultimately he earned three college degrees, taught poetry and creative writing in several major colleges, and became one of America’s greatest poets, authoring 16 books of poetry and 30 books altogether.  He died in 2015. 

 

“Poetry is everywhere,” Tate said.  “It just needs editing.”   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Tate’s,

 

                                        Teaching The Ape To Write Poems

                                             They didn’t have much trouble

                                             Teaching the ape to write poems:

                                             First they strapped him into the chair,

                                             Then tied the pencil around his hand

                                             (The paper had already been nailed down).

                                             Then Dr. Bluespire leaned over his shoulder

                                             And Whispered into his ear:

                                             “You look like a god sitting there.

 

                                             Why don’t you try writing something?”

A Writer's Moment: 'The act of saying I'

A Writer's Moment: 'The act of saying I':   “Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course you can rewrite, but the or...

'The act of saying I'

 

“Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course you can rewrite, but the original strokes are still there in the texture of the thing.” – Joan Didion

 

Born in Sacramento, CA on this date in 1934, Didion blended a career in journalism, creative writing, nonfiction and screenwriting, earning many accolades along the way, particularly for her acute attention to fine detail and for honing each and every sentence into a work of art.  She was the winner of a National Book Award for Nonfiction for her much-acclaimed The Year of Magical Thinking, also made into a Broadway play.

 

The author of 19 books and 6 plays or screenplays, Didion died of complications from Parkinson’s Disease in December of 2021 just as her (ultimately) best-selling collection of essays Let Me Tell You What I Mean was released.  This year, her journal/diary Notes to John – discovered in 2022 – has been published by her literary trustees. 

 

Didion started writing at age 5 but claimed that she never saw herself as a writer until she went to work for Vogue magazine in the 1950s and had her first articles published.  Her first novel Run, River, a critical and popular success, was published in 1963.   She recommended reading great writers like Hemingway – whose work she idolized – as “good tutoring in the writing arts.”
 

“In many ways,” she noted, “writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying, 'Listen to me, see it my way, change your mind.' It's an aggressive, even a hostile act.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the greatest university of all'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the greatest university of all':   “In every phenomenon, the beginning remains always the most notable moment.  Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, bu...

'It's the greatest university of all'

 

“In every phenomenon, the beginning remains always the most notable moment.  Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.” – Thomas Carlyle  

 

Born in Scotland on this date in 1795, Carlyle was a philosopher, teacher and journalist whose writing influenced the development of Victorian-era writers like Charles Dickens and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Mesmerized by how “heroes” in our world shaped people’s hopes and aspirations, he not only was an award-winning essayist for several major newspapers, but also wrote a dozen books, the most famous being On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. 

 

Away from his work, Carlyle championed the establishment of great libraries and was instrumental in founding the London Library to make books available to a broader reading public.  

 

“In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream,” he said.  “The greatest university of all is a collection of books.”  

A Writer's Moment: It's 'a kind of magic'

A Writer's Moment: It's 'a kind of magic':   “Writing is literally transformative. When we read, we are changed. When we write, we are changed. It's neurological. To me, this is a...

It's 'a kind of magic'

 

“Writing is literally transformative. When we read, we are changed. When we write, we are changed. It's neurological. To me, this is a kind of magic.” – Francesca Lia Block

 

Born in Los Angeles on Dec. 3, 1962 Block is the author of 31 books (both fiction and non-fiction) and a dozen collections of short stories and poems, many of which have been translated into a wide range of languages around the globe.  

 

Among her many writing awards are the Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, the Spectrum Award and the Phoenix Award as well as citations from the American Library Association, the School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly.    She is best known for her Weetzie Bat Young Adult series – for which she’s also written a screenplay – and the novel Blood Roses.  Her most recent book is House of Hearts.

          

A frequent writing workshop instructor, Block has taught creative writing at the University of Redlands and Antioch University, and for UCLA Extension.  She also has served as writer-in-residence at Pasadena City College.

 

 “Read what you love,” she advises.  “(Then) write what you love.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'Best endings . . . or new beginnings?'

A Writer's Moment: 'Best endings . . . or new beginnings?':   “I think the best endings bring you back in rather than close things off with absolute finality. I'm not saying they necessarily have ...