A Writer's Moment: 'It's a search for order'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's a search for order':   “For me, poetry is always a search for order.”  – Elizabeth Jennings Jennings was born in England on this date in 1926 and was lauded f...

'It's a search for order'

 “For me, poetry is always a search for order.” – Elizabeth Jennings

Jennings was born in England on this date in 1926 and was lauded for her lyric poetry and mastery of form.  She started writing in her mid-20s after graduating from Queen Anne’s College and was published in such major journals as Oxford Poetry, New English Weekly, The Spectator and Poetry Review before her first book, Poems, – winner of the Arts Council of Great Britain’s award for “Best First Book of Poetry” – came out in 1953.

She followed it with A Way of Looking, winning the Somerset Maugham Award given to leading writers under the age of 35.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Jennings’,

Delay
The radiance of the star that leans on me
Was shining years ago. The light that now
Glitters up there my eyes may never see,
And so the time lag teases me with how

Love that loves now may not reach me until
Its first desire is spent. The star's impulse
Must wait for eyes to claim it beautiful
And love arrived may find us somewhere else.

A Writer's Moment: 'A most solitary occupation'

A Writer's Moment: 'A most solitary occupation':   “Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He or she must be alone, uninterrup...

'A most solitary occupation'

 

“Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He or she must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking." – Jessamyn West

 

Born in Indiana on this date in 1902, West wrote dozens of short stories and 20 novels, most notably her acclaimed The Friendly Persuasion – also made into an Academy Award “Best Movie” nominee – and its sequel, Except For Me and Thee, eventually made into a much-heralded television movie.

 

West started her adult life as an elementary teacher in California before contracting tuberculosis and being sent to a sanatorium for treatment.  While there, undergoing extensive treatment and rehabilitation, she began writing to pass the time and after regaining her health decided to continue pursuing writing as a career.

 

Her stories, loosely based on tales told to her by her mother and grandmother about their life in rural Indiana, often reflect West’s proclaimed love of bygone eras.

  

“The past,” she said, “is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.”

A Writer's Moment: Taking on 'the task of finding reality'

A Writer's Moment: Taking on 'the task of finding reality':   “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck” – Iris Murdoch   Born in Irel...

Taking on 'the task of finding reality'

 

“Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck” – Iris Murdoch

 

Born in Ireland on July 15, 1919 Murdoch grew up in London and first made her writing “commitment” with a series of philosophical essays and the blockbuster novel Under the Net that catapulted her onto the international literary scene in the early 1950s.  The novel ultimately was selected by both Time magazine and Modern Library as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.   

 

Murdoch went on to produce 25 more novels and many additional works of philosophy, poetry and drama, winning The Booker Prize for The Sea, The Sea, The Whitbread Literary Award for Fiction, and the James Tait Black Award for The Black Prince.  Shortly before her death in 1999, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature.”

 

Her literary life was further honored by two memoirs from her husband John Bayley -- the books serving as the basis for the movie Iris, featuring Kate Winslett and Judi Dench as the younger and older Murdoch.

 

“We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion,” Murdoch wrote.   “The great task in life is to find reality”

A Writer's Moment: 'Lke arranging pieces of music'

A Writer's Moment: 'Lke arranging pieces of music':   “Ordering is difficult. It's like arranging pieces of music in a concert: What do you put first? What do you put after the intermissio...

'Lke arranging pieces of music'

 

“Ordering is difficult. It's like arranging pieces of music in a concert: What do you put first? What do you put after the intermission? I want the reader to be sort of surprised, to come to each story freshly.” – Lydia Davis

Born in Massachusetts on July 15, 1947 Davis is primarily a short story writer, although she’s also published novels and essays and served as a translator from French and other languages.  She’s especially noted for her translations of French literary classics, including Proust's Swann’s Way and Flaubert’s Madame Bovary.  

 

 Winner of the Man Booker Prize for her lifetime body of work, Davis has been acclaimed for the brevity and humor of many of her short stories.   Davis has compared her shorter stories to skyscrapers, because, "They are surrounded by an imposing blank expanse."  Some of her stories have been labeled poetry, even though she insists they are not.  A number of her stories are highlighted in The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis.  Her most recent works are 2023’s Our Strangers: Stories and 2025’s Into the Weeds. 

 

While both her parents were writers and teachers, Davis gravitated toward a career in music, initially studying piano, then violin.  But she said it probably was inevitable that she would become a writer.

 

"I was probably always headed to being a writer, even though that wasn't my first love,” she said.  “I guess I must have always wanted to write in some part of me or I wouldn't have done it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Creating an appropriate past'

A Writer's Moment: 'Creating an appropriate past':   Isn't it amazing the way the future succeeds in creating an appropriate past?” – John Leonard   Born in Great Britain in July of 1...

'Creating an appropriate past'

 

Isn't it amazing the way the future succeeds in creating an appropriate past?” – John Leonard

 

Born in Great Britain in July of 1965, Leonard was raised and educated there but now makes his home in Australia.  The author of 5 poetry collections, his most recent work is the 2024 novel Shakespeare in Virginia.  For Saturday’s Poem, from his book Braided Lands, here is:

 

You Don't Write a Poem

You don't write a poem-

What you do is discover

That there is a world,

Quite similar to our own,

Except that it contains

This one extra poem.

 

And what you recognise

Is that this one poem

Makes all the difference

© John Leonard

A Writer's Moment: 'Just grow up and write'

A Writer's Moment: 'Just grow up and write':   “I don't mean it to sound egomaniacal, but in a way, for me, it was very useful to imagine that I was the only one who was taking pen ...

'Just grow up and write'

 

“I don't mean it to sound egomaniacal, but in a way, for me, it was very useful to imagine that I was the only one who was taking pen in hand. I'd always been told that it was impossible to be published, so I was writing only for myself.” – Jane Hamilton

 

Born in Illinois in July of 1957, Hamilton was the youngest of five children and started writing early, accumulating prizes for poetry and short stories even before she was out of high school.    

 

 At Carleton College in Minnesota, she continued along her literary pathway, earning a degree in English and then heading off to an internship at Dell Publishing for Children.   But she got sidetracked enroute, meeting her husband-to-be in Wisconsin and deciding to forego book editing to join his apple growing business – something they still do.  But, since apple growing is “seasonal," she had time to pursue her writing during “off season.”

 

Her first novel, The Book of Ruth, won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award, and the Wisconsin Library Association Banta Book Award for Best First Novel.   She followed it with A Map of the World, firmly establishing her credentials.  Both books also became critically acclaimed films.   Much of her work (she now has 8 best-selling novels) reflects her personal experiences, settings and characters.  Her latest is 2025’s The Phoebe Variations.

 

Hamilton said she always thought that even though she was not a particularly good speller, writing was just something she was meant to do. 

 

“I just assumed that if you were a girl-child, you were supposed to grow up and write.”

A Writer's Moment: Writing 'a clear vision of life'

A Writer's Moment: Writing 'a clear vision of life':   “My joy as a writer is circling around and around and down and down to find out who the real person is. “ – Jill McCorkle   Born in Lu...

Writing 'a clear vision of life'

 

“My joy as a writer is circling around and around and down and down to find out who the real person is. “ – Jill McCorkle

 

Born in Lumberton, North Carolina on this date in 1958, McCorkle is an award-winning short story writer and professor of creative writing at North Carolina State University.   Winner of the Dos Passos Prize – given annually to a writer in the middle of his or her career who is deemed to be “under-recognized for his/her life’s work” – she also is a frequent speaker at regional and national book and author events.  

 

McCorkle has published seven novels and five collections of short stories, led by Going Away Shoes; Final Vinyl Days & Other Stories; and Life After Life.  Her most recent work is the 2024 collection Old Crimes.

 

“For me, a happy ending is not everything works out just right and there is a big bow,” she said about her stories.  “It's more coming to a place where a person has a clear vision of his or her own life in a way that enables them to kind of throw down their crutches and walk.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Just telling a good story'

A Writer's Moment: 'Just telling a good story':   “I get up at an unholy hour in the morning my workday is completed by the time the sun rises. I have a slightly bad back which has made an...

'Just telling a good story'

 

“I get up at an unholy hour in the morning my workday is completed by the time the sun rises. I have a slightly bad back which has made an enormous contribution to American literature.” –  David Eddings

 

Born in Spokane, Washington on this date in 1931, Eddings made that statement shortly before his death in 2009.  And the writings about which he spoke were several fantasy series’ mostly created in partnership with his wife Leigh.  

 Eddings grew up in the Puget Sound area and that rugged region became the setting for some of his early (and moderately successful) stories, like High Hunt, but it was in the Fantasy genre’ that he made his mark.   His call to the world of fantasy came from a doodled map he drew one morning over coffee - a doodle that became the geographical basis for a world he called Aloria.

 

A terrific chess player, too, Eddings took Leigh’s suggestion that he incorporate elements of chess into his books.  Combining that with the new world he imagined led to he and Leigh writing 5 best-selling series, starting in 1982.  Their last, The Dreamers, ended in in 2006 after she died following a series of strokes.   The Dreamers featured characters who could use their dreams to foresee visions of the future.  His tales often seemed prophetic but David pooh-poohed those who held him up as a visionary.

 

“I'm a storyteller, not a prophet,” he said.  “I'm just interested in telling a good story.”

A Writer's Moment: It's finding that 'right word' combination

A Writer's Moment: It's finding that 'right word' combination:   “Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary - how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one...

It's finding that 'right word' combination

 

“Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary - how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne
 

Born in July of 1804, Hawthorne became one of the prominent mid-19^th Century American writers, primarily through tales about his native New England. His fictional works, labeled by some as "Dark romanticism," have themes centering on the inherent evil and sin of humanity with moral messages and deep psychological complexity embedded in them.

 

His most prominent story that has lasted through the ages, is his tale of adultery, The Scarlet Letter.  It’s success catapulted him from near obscurity into the center of the New England writing movement that included such prominent writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  He took advantage of his new popularity to rapidly publish The House of the Seven Gables, Wonder Book for Girls and Boys, and a new version of Twice-Told Tales, which hadn't succeeded in its earlier release.

 

The great-great grandson of one of the judges at the Salem Witch Trials, Hawthorne wrote often about Puritanic themes and espoused being pure, accurate and meticulous, especially when it came to the power that writers' words can convey.   

“Accuracy," he said, "is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy of dishonesty.  Easy reading is damn hard writing.”

A Writer's Moment: The 'Ongoing Gleam' of hope

A Writer's Moment: The 'Ongoing Gleam' of hope:   Francis Scott Key, 1779-1843, was a lawyer and amateur poet from Georgetown, Washington, D.C., when he wrote the poem “The Defence of Fort...

The 'Ongoing Gleam' of hope

 

Francis Scott Key, 1779-1843, was a lawyer and amateur poet from Georgetown, Washington, D.C., when he wrote the poem “The Defence of Fort McHenry” that gave us our nation’s national anthem. 

 

Key had been sent to negotiate the release of American prisoners aboard one of the British ships in the Baltimore Harbor but instead was detained aboard the ship as the British prepared to bombard Fort McHenry and capture the city.  Unable to do anything but watch the bombardment – on the night of September 13–14, 1814 – he saw at dawn that the American flag still flew above the embattled fort and excitedly reported the outcome to the other prisoners being held on the ship.

 

Then, inspired, he wrote his famous poem about the experience – the first stanza becoming our anthem.  For Saturday’s Poem, here are the first two stanzas (there are 4 stanzas in the complete poem) of Key’s later re-titled,

 

The Star Spangled Banner 

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,   

O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming;   

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;   

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave   

O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?       

 

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,   

Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes, 

What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,   

As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?   

Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,   

In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;   

‘Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it wave 

O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!       

A Writer's Moment: 'It was the key to success'

A Writer's Moment: 'It was the key to success':   “Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it is drawing from all the moments of you...

'It was the key to success'

 

“Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it is drawing from all the moments of your life.” – Neil Simon
 

Born in the Bronx, NY on July 4, 1927 Simon grew up during the Great Depression – a great shaper of both his life and his art.  Writing about “life” became the grist for his creative mill, beginning with work on comedy scripts for radio and then gravitating to the Broadway stage.

 

He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, earning more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer.   After breaking onto the playwriting scene with Come Blow Your Horn in 1961, Simon won his first Tony for the long-running and one of the most widely performed plays in history, The Odd Couple. 

 

The first playwright to earn 15 “Best Play” awards, he was given a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.   Simon, who died in 2018, also won a Pulitzer Prize for his play Lost in Yonkers, was named for the Mark Twain Prize, America’s top humor award, and was the first living playwright to have a Broadway theater named in his honor.    

 

While humor is at the heart of most of Simon’s works, his rich variety of entertaining, memorable characters also portray the human experience with serious themes.   His said he thought his willingness to try new things was a key to his success.   

 

“If no one ever took risks,” he said, “Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.”

A Writer's Moment: The foundation for 'the biggest stories'

A Writer's Moment: The foundation for 'the biggest stories':   “The biggest stories are written about the things which draw human beings closer together.” –   Susan Glaspell   Born on July 1, 1876 ...

The foundation for 'the biggest stories'

 

“The biggest stories are written about the things which draw human beings closer together.” –  Susan Glaspell

 

Born on July 1, 1876 Glaspell was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright as well as an actress, novelist and journalist who joined with her husband George Cram Cook to found the Provincetown Players, America’s first modern American theater company.    She also served in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as Midwest Bureau Director of the Federal Theater Project, created during the Great Depression as a relief measure for artists, writers, directors and theater workers to help keep regional theater alive.

 

A prolific writer, Glaspell wrote 9 novels, 15 plays, more than 50 short stories, and a biography, a leading writer on issues of gender, ethics, and dissent.  She has been recognized as a pioneering feminist writer and America’s first important modern female playwright.  Her one-act play Trifles, written in 1916, is frequently cited among the greatest works of American theater.  It also was adapted as a short story and 50 years later as a popular movie A Jury of Her Peers.

 

Inspired by the great investigative journalist Nellie Bly, she worked as a school newspaper reporter at  Drake University where she got her first taste of “being on-stage” as a leading member of the school's debate team.  She simultaneously worked at the Des Moines Daily News and became the paper's first full-time female reporter after graduation.

“I am glad I worked on a newspaper,” she said of that experience. “It made me know I had to write . . .  whether I felt like it or not.  And I loved it!”

A Writer's Moment: 'The difficult challenge of fiction'

A Writer's Moment: 'The difficult challenge of fiction':   “Truth is, every writer has to be a good editor, and you have to edit yourself. It's a skill every writer has to acquire.”  – Lisa Sco...

'The difficult challenge of fiction'

 

“Truth is, every writer has to be a good editor, and you have to edit yourself. It's a skill every writer has to acquire.” – Lisa Scottoline

 

Born in Philadelphia on this date in 1955, Scottoline grew up in Merion – site of many great pro golf tournaments – and earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.   On track toward a law firm partnership, she decided to try her hand at writing after the birth of her daughter and penned the award-winning crime mystery Final Appeal.  And, just like that, she switched careers.

 

Now the author of more than 30 books, her works have been translated into 30 languages and sold over 30 million copies.  Among her titles are Look Again and Don't Go, both reaching number 2 on the New York Times bestseller list.  Her most recent is 2024’s The Truth About The Devlins. 

 

An Edgar Award winner, Scottoline has served as President of the Mystery Writers of America and also has co-authored a number of bestselling non-fiction memoirs with her daughter (Francesca Serritella). 

 

“I love writing both fiction and memoir,” she said.  “Both have unique challenges; bottom line, fiction is hard because you have to come up with the credible, twisty plot, and memoir is hard because you have to say something true and profound, albeit in a funny way.”

A Writer's Moment: Chronicling his times in words and images

A Writer's Moment: Chronicling his times in words and images:   “With a photograph, you are left with the same modes of interpretation as you are with a book. You ask: 'What do we know about the aut...

Chronicling his times in words and images

 

“With a photograph, you are left with the same modes of interpretation as you are with a book. You ask: 'What do we know about the author and their background? What do I know about the subject?'” – Joel Sternfeld

 

Born in Brooklyn, NY on this date in 1944, Sternfeld is noted for his large-format documentary pictures and for helping establish color photography as a respected artistic medium.  With many works in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, he has influenced generations of photographers.

 

His essays and writings alongside his photos also have made him an important chronicler of his life and times.  American Prospects, perhaps Sternfeld's most known book, explores the complexity and irony of human-altered landscapes in the United States, often leading to devastating results.  His book On This Site: Landscape in Memoriam depicts sites where tragedies occurred, supplemented by his thoughtful text about the events that happened there.

A longtime professor of photography at New York’s Sarah Lawrence University, his books of photos and essays on photography are part of the photographic teaching lexicon at colleges and universities worldwide.  His most recent book is 2024’s Our Loss reflecting on the climate crisis and nature’s resilience in the face of environmental harm.

 

“A photographer,” he said, “must choose a palette just as painters choose theirs.”   

A Writer's Moment: Taming those 'unruly' novels

A Writer's Moment: Taming those 'unruly' novels:   “I noticed, when I taught elementary school, how true the squeaky wheel thing is, and how endearing squeaky wheels can be! Because when yo...

Taming those 'unruly' novels

 

“I noticed, when I taught elementary school, how true the squeaky wheel thing is, and how endearing squeaky wheels can be! Because when you're being a squeaky wheel, you're also really letting people know who you are.” – Aimee Bender

 

Born in California on June 28, 1969 Bender is known for her surreal stories and characters.   She’s authored 6 books, led by her first collection of short stories The Girl in the Flammable Skirt.  Her numerous short stories have been published in magazines and journals ranging from Harper's, McSweeney's and The Paris to inclusion in a number of anthologies, and her story Faces was a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense.  

 

Also the winner of two Pushcart Prizes for her writing, her novels include The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and her most recent, The Butterfly Lampshade. 

 

“Novels are so much unrulier and more stressful to write,” she said in comparing her writings of short stories .  “A short story can last two pages and then it's over, and that's kind of a relief. I really like balancing the two.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's how we become participants'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's how we become participants':   “We participate in the creation of the world by de-creating ourselves.”  – Anne Carson   Carson, born in Canada on June 21, 1950 is a ...

'It's how we become participants'

 

“We participate in the creation of the world by de-creating ourselves.” – Anne Carson

 

Carson, born in Canada on June 21, 1950 is a poet, essayist, translator, and teacher at universities in both the U.S. and Canada.   She also is the winner 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.

A Writer's Moment: 'You have to search yesterday'

A Writer's Moment: 'You have to search yesterday':   “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”  – Pearl Buck   Born in the backwoods of West Virginia on this date i...

'You have to search yesterday'

 

“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.” – Pearl Buck

 

Born in the backwoods of West Virginia on this date in 1892, Buck spent many of her “growing up years" in China where her parents were missionaries.   Over her lifetime she penned 40 novels, led by the massive best-selling The Good Earth, lauded for its compelling depiction of Chinese peasant life.    Over her 50-year writing career she also wrote numerous short stories and several nonfiction works, earning every major writing award capped by the 1938 Nobel Prize, becoming the first American woman to win the award. 

 

She also spoke and wrote against injustice whenever and wherever she saw it, and after winning the Nobel she utilized the prize money to establish the Pearl S. Buck Foundation to address humanitarian issues, especially in support of overcoming crushing poverty faced by children.  She saw the world unfolding around her and chronicled it in a writing style that melded the past and present with clarity and intensity. 

 

“In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on,” she said.  “A ream of paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book.  I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.”

A Writer's Moment: 'What about a fourth apple?'

A Writer's Moment: 'What about a fourth apple?':   “Armenian folklore has it that three apples fell from Heaven: one for the teller of a story, one for the listener, and the third for the o...

'What about a fourth apple?'

 

“Armenian folklore has it that three apples fell from Heaven: one for the teller of a story, one for the listener, and the third for the one who 'took it to heart.' What a pity Heaven awarded no apple to the one who wrote the story down.” – Nancy Willard

 

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on this date in 1936, Willard was a novelist, poet and author/illustrator of children’s books. She won the coveted Newbery Medal for her combination poetry-prose children’s book A Visit To William Blake’s Inn.   Her children's book Sailing to Cythera, and other Anatole Stories also won many awards and has been listed among the all-time best in the genre'.

Growing up “surrounded by stories and storytellers,” she studied writing at the University of Michigan where she earned both her B.A. and Ph.D. (sandwiched around a Master’s degree from Stanford).   After teaching writing at Vassar, she branched off to her own writing, particularly children’s and young adult books, but continued to combine writing and teaching throughout her life.   Willard authored 4 novels, 4 nonfiction books, 18 books of poetry, and 43 children’s books, the last one, Gum, published just months before her death in 2017.  

 

 Among her many awards besides the Newbery Medal were an O. Henry Prize, 2 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships, and a Devins Award for Poetry.

 

“When I was growing up,” Willard said, “I loved stories in which a girl sets out on a quest . . . to rescue a prince instead of the other way around.”

A Writer's Moment: 'When every page contains a gem'

A Writer's Moment: 'When every page contains a gem':   “I like the idea that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It's probably what I love most about writing - that words can be ...

'When every page contains a gem'

 

“I like the idea that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It's probably what I love most about writing - that words can be used in a way that's like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around.” –  Markus Zusak

 

When I read The Book Thief and then later saw the movie, I thought it had to have been written by a grizzled old writer who had the story in his or her mind for decades, or who had the experiences in a longstanding family history and then finally put them into a book before death got in the way and left the story untold.

 

So, I was shocked to learn that this heart-wrenching novel about the awful years in Germany during the late 1930s and through World War II were, in fact, presented to the world by a writer who wrote it in his late 20s and had it published just before his 30^th birthday.  Winner of dozens of awards, The Book Thief has been translated into more than 40 languages.

 

Born in Australia on June 23, 1975 Zusak wrote his first book The Underdog in 1999, the first of 5 books he had published before age 30.  Challenging The Book Thief for “best book” honors among those 5 was his 2003 multiple award-winner The Messenger (I Am the Messenger in the U.S. version), adapted in 2023 as a television series.   To date, he has authored 7 novels and a nonfiction (“memoir-type”) book Three Wild Dogs and the Truth, out in 2024.

 

His third book When Dogs Cry was actually his first writing effort.  He started it as a teenager and it took 7 years to get accepted.  Since then it’s sold continuously and won many awards around the globe, as has Zusak, who was named for the American Library Association’s Margaret Edwards Award in 2014 for his contribution to Young Adult literature.    

 

“I try hard and aim big,” Zusak said. “People can hate or love my books but they can never accuse me of not trying.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's that funny thing about memory'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's that funny thing about memory':   “Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow.”  – Tobias Wolff Born in Birming...

'It's that funny thing about memory'

 

“Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow.” – Tobias Wolff

Born in Birmingham, AL in June of 1945, Wolff is a short story writer, memoirist, novelist, and teacher of creative writing especially known for This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army.  His short story collection The Barracks Thief won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and he's been honored for his lifetime body of work with a National Medal of the Arts award.

 

A Vietnam veteran (Special Forces), he completed several tours of duty there before heading back to school to study creative writing and ultimately beginning his award-winning career.  Wolff said he had wanted to be a writer since age 14 but work and then the military always got in the way.  He has used many of his "life" experiences in his writing and is especially noted for using autobiographical elements in his short stories.   

 

 After earning several degrees, Wolff started teaching creative writing in the late 1980s, first at Syracuse and then at Stanford.  Dozens of successful writers trace their beginnings to classes and mentoring provided by Wolff, who has counseled and taught them in all genres.  That being said, it is short story writing that remains his favorite.

 

“Everything," he said, "has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Programmed to be Curious'

A Writer's Moment: 'Programmed to be Curious':   “Why do we read biography? Why do we choose to write it? Because we are human beings, programmed to be curious about other human beings, a...

'Programmed to be Curious'

 

“Why do we read biography? Why do we choose to write it? Because we are human beings, programmed to be curious about other human beings, and to experience something of their lives. This has always been so - look at the Bible, crammed with biographies, very popular reading.” – Claire Tomalin

 

Born in London on June 20, 1933 Tomalin is best known for her biographies of such luminaries as Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Jane Austin.    She did not set out to be a writer but jumped into the field to support her family of 5 children after her journalist husband Nicholas Tomalin was killed while working as a war correspondent.   Starting in 1973, she worked as an editor of the New Statesman and at The Sunday Times before trying her hand at biography. Her very first effort, The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, not only was a popular bestseller but set her on a writing path that has produced 11 bestselling biographies and won her more than a dozen top prizes.

 

While she has scaled back her writing – her most recent book is 2021’s The Young H.G. Wells: Changing The World  -- she is still active as a vice president of both the Royal Literary Fund and The Royal Society of Literature. 

 

Among her books, she said she very much enjoyed writing Charles Dickens: A Life, considered one of the best ever on the author and his works . 

 

“Dickens was a part of how the whole celebration of Christmas as we know it today emerged during the 19^th century,” she said.  “Dickens is (was) a lover of human beings; a relisher of human beings.”

A Writer's Moment: To hear 'we just need to listen'

A Writer's Moment: To hear 'we just need to listen':    "The earth is a place of beauty, and we must cherish it.  Nature speaks in whispers; we just need to listen." - Amy Clampitt Bo...

To hear 'we just need to listen'

 

 "The earth is a place of beauty, and we must cherish it.  Nature speaks in whispers; we just need to listen." - Amy Clampitt

Born in New Providence, Iowa on June 15, 1920 Clampitt was a librarian at the Audubon Society in New York City when her first poem was published in 1978.  She went on to write 3 nonfiction books and 9 poetry collections, led by.The Kingfisher in 1983.   So transformative was her poetry that she was awarded a MacArthur (Genius) Grant in 1992.  She used that “no strings attached” grant to work on her final collection, A Silence Opens, published in 1994 (the same year as her death from cancer).  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.

A Writer's Moment: 'How to have more of what you love'

A Writer's Moment: 'How to have more of what you love':   "Take something you love, tell people about it, bring together people who share your love, and help make it better. Ultimately, you...

'How to have more of what you love'

 

"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

Born in The Bronx, NY on this date in 1915, Schwartz was DC Comics' primary editor for stories about the company's flagship superheroes Superman and Batman and is credited with helping found the iconic comic book hero group known as The Justice League of America. 

 

He single-handedly helped expand the reach and love for science fiction by organizing the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939 and then worked to make it a “must attend” annual event.   Inducted into the comics' industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame, he also was honored by the Science Fiction Writers Association with its lifetime contributions award.

 

In addition to his editing work, Schwartz wrote the bestselling Man of Two Worlds: My Life In Science Fiction and Comics and was a much sought-after literary agent, representing a “who’s who” of science and comic writers, including Alfred Bester, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury and H.P. Lovecraft.

 

Schwartz won numerous awards for his editing, including Best Editor several times before his death in 2004.  Inscribed on his tombstone is a statement reflecting what nearly every writer and editor strive to achieve: “He met the deadline.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's something you can't wear out'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's something you can't wear out':   “Honesty is something you can't wear out.”  – Waylon Jennings   Born in Littlefield, TX on June 15, 1937 Jennings learned how to pl...

'It's something you can't wear out'

 

“Honesty is something you can't wear out.” – Waylon Jennings
 

Born in Littlefield, TX on June 15, 1937 Jennings learned how to play guitar by the time he was 8 and started in the entertainment business at age 12 – working as a DJ at a local radio station.   In 1954 he befriended rising star Buddy Holly who also became his mentor, collaborating with him on songs and helping produce Waylon’s first record that year.  Among his "most played" hits were Lonesome and Luckenbach, Texas.  He recorded hundreds of songs and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and given Country's "Lifetime Achievement Award" before his relatively early death at age 64.

  

Jennings also became a fill-in player for Holly’s group The Crickets and was with him in Iowa on his final tour in the winter of 1959, ending in Holly’s death in a plane crash.  Jennings was supposed to be on that plane with Holly but at the last minute gave up his seat to The Big Bopper because the latter was suffering from a bad cold.

 

Ultimately, Jennings became one of the great songwriters and singers of country, country rock, and a new genre – founded with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Jessi Coulter – called “Outlaw Country.”   He, Willie, Johnny Cash and Kristofferson also formed a group known as The Highwaymen and had recorded several hit songs together before he died in 2002 of complications from diabetes.

 

Known for his support of many social issues and causes, Jennings said that was an easy choice.  “A lot of times people don't want to hear it.  But you know, if some good is done to you, you should pass it on.”

A Writer's Moment: Opening those 'magic portals'

A Writer's Moment: Opening those 'magic portals':   “All of us create our own versions of an event, of our lives, even, not because we're liars, necessarily, but because we can only see ...

Opening those 'magic portals'

 

“All of us create our own versions of an event, of our lives, even, not because we're liars, necessarily, but because we can only see and understand the truth from our own viewpoint, and a shifting viewpoint at that.” – Deb Caletti

 

Born in California on June 16, 1963 Caletti is an award-winning writer, primarily of young adult fiction, although she has several adult novels to her credit as well.   Caletti studied journalism at the University of Washington, received some recognition for playwriting, but always wanted to try novels.  "When my son was two,” she said, “I got serious about writing. I didn’t want to be one of those people who talked about their dream but never did anything about it.” 

 

All of her works are set in the Pacific Northwest and her YA books are noted for tackling difficult issues related to relationship dynamics, family (including stepfamilies), change and resilience, and  connections between human and animal nature.

 

A National Book Award finalist (for Honey, Baby, Sweetheart), and a Michael L. Printz Honor Book medalist (for her most recent book A Heart in a Body in the World), she said she’s been a passionate reader and writer from an early age and speaks glowingly about libraries.  

 

“I understood right from the start that every set of library doors were the sort of magic portals that lead to other lands,” she said.  “My God, right within reach there were dinosaurs and planets and presidents and girl detectives!“

A Writer's Moment: An action that's 'worthy of reaching for'

A Writer's Moment: An action that's 'worthy of reaching for':   "I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection.  Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business." -  Mic...

An action that's 'worthy of reaching for'

 "I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection.  Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business." -  Michael J. Fox

Born in Edmonton, Alberta on June 9, 1961 Fox is staying exceptionally busy despite his ongoing battle with Parkinson's Disease, working on causes ranging from finding a cure for the illness to eradicating hunger and housing shortages.

Probably one of the most iconic faces in acting, especially for the two roles for which he always will be remembered - the young Republican Alex Keaton on Family Ties and teen adventurer extraordinaire Marty McFly in the Back to the Future movies - Fox also is a gifted writer.  Using his writing skills to do essays and bio pieces about the disease from which he suffers, he exudes optimism that with enough attention and support a cure can be found.

His book Lucky Man, about dealing with the disease, is a must read for those interested in how to overcome the deepest of odds.  His newest book (out in 2025) is Future Boy:  Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum.

Fox's acting career almost got sidelined from the start.  The director of Family Ties wanted him for the Alex role, but producer Brandon Tartikoff felt Keaton was "too short" (he's 5-foot-4) and not the kind of face you'd like to see on your kid's lunchbox."  But they tried him in the pilot and he was so well-received that he went on to be the key figure in the show, winning three Emmy Awards for his acting.

At the series' end, he presented Tartikoff with a lunchbox emblazoned with his face on the cover.

"I like to encourage people to realize that any action is a good action," Fox said, "IF it's proactive and there is a positive intent behind it."

A Writer's Moment: Who makes for good friends?

A Writer's Moment: Who makes for good friends?:   “Poetry and music are very good friends. Like mommies and daddies and strawberries and cream - they go together.”  –  Nikki Giovanni   ...

Who makes for good friends?

 

“Poetry and music are very good friends. Like mommies and daddies and strawberries and cream - they go together.” –  Nikki Giovanni

 

Born in Knoxville, Tenn., in June of 1943, Giovanni was a poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator.   One of the world’s best-known African American poets, her work covered topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature.  Giovanni, who died in 2024, won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and NAACP Image Award.   

 

Her poetry has ranged from the somber, such as the chant-poem she delivered at the memorial for the Virginia Tech shooting victims, to thoughtful, to whimsical.  For Saturday’s Poem here is Giovanni’s  

I wrote a good omelet

I wrote a good omelet...and ate
a hot poem... after loving you
Buttoned my car...and drove my
coat home...in the rain...
after loving you
I goed on red...and stopped on
green...floating somewhere in between...
being here and being there...
after loving you
I rolled my bed...turned down
my hair...slightly
confused but...I don't care...
Laid out my teeth...and gargled my
gown...then I stood
...and laid me down...
To sleep...
after loving you.

A Writer's Moment: Start with 'a great appetite for the curious'

A Writer's Moment: Start with 'a great appetite for the curious':   “One of the most adventurous things left us is to go to bed. For no one can lay a hand on our dreams.”  – E. V. Lucas   Born in Eltham...

Start with 'a great appetite for the curious'

 

“One of the most adventurous things left us is to go to bed. For no one can lay a hand on our dreams.” – E. V. Lucas

 

Born in Eltham, England on this date in 1868, Lucas was a humorist, essayist, playwright, biographer, publisher, poet, novelist, short story writer and editor.  Despite that massive resumé, he achieved  most acclaim as editor of the works (and biographer) of Charles Lamb, and for his  decades-long contributions to the British humor magazine Punch.

 

Considered one of the greatest humorists of the first half of the 20^th century, Lucas “. . . had a great appetite for the curious, the human, and the ridiculous,” said fellow wrier Frank Swinnerton.  “If he were offered a story, an incident or an absurdity, his mind instantly shaped it with wit and form.”  

 

His 150-plus titles include Life of Charles Lamb, considered the seminal work on the author; several novels, biographies and plays; 30 collections of light essays; and dozens of travel books and books about painters.   Of the last he said, “I know very little about pictures, but I like to write about them for the benefit of those who know less.”

 

“The art of life is to show your hand,” Lucas said.  “There is no diplomacy like candor. You may lose by it now and then, but it will be a loss well gained if you do.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Falling into the right hands'

A Writer's Moment: 'Falling into the right hands':   “A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life. With a novelis...

'Falling into the right hands'

 

“A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life. With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence.” – Saul Bellow

 

Born in Canada on June 10, 1915 Bellow became a naturalized U.S. citizen after attending the University of Chicago and Northwestern University where he studied writing and English and 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 many award-winning books.  

  

He may be best known for his Adventures of Augie March, often labeled “The 20^th Century Don Quixote.”   Bellow won every major writing award, including the Nobel Prize and is the only writer to win the National Book Award for Fiction 3 times.  He also was honored with the 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—William Faulkner and Saul Bellow,” noted novelist Philip Roth.  “Together they are the Melville, Hawthorne, and Twain of the 20th century." 

Well-liked for his wry sense of humor, he once noted “You know, you never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write down.” 

A Writer's Moment: A champion for social justice and human rights

A Writer's Moment: A champion for social justice and human rights:   “I've always loved writing, and the impulse for me is storytelling. I don't sit down and think: 'What political message can I ...

A champion for social justice and human rights

 

“I've always loved writing, and the impulse for me is storytelling. I don't sit down and think: 'What political message can I sell?' I love the creativity of it.” – Randa Abdel-Fattah

 

Born in Sydney, Australia in June of 1979, Abdel-Fattah is of Palestinian-Egyptian heritage, bringing an interesting cultural mix to her writing.  She had her first short story published at age 11, wrote numerous short stories as a teenager, and completed the first draft of her debut novel Does My Head Look Big in This? at age 18.   The story about life choices, bias and abiding friendships, the book also spawned a play and both versions were winner of numerous awards.

 

In addition to her writing, Abdel-Fattah is an attorney and champion for social justice and human rights issues.  A frequent speaker and regular broadcast commentator on those topics, she has continued to produce short stories and essays and (to date) a dozen books.  Her most recent is 2025’s Discipline.

 

Abdel-Fattah's writing also touches on celebratory events from all cultures and religions. 

 

“Religious celebrations,” she said, “and the good will, high spirits and generosity that mark them, are wonderful occasions for understanding the potential of 'everyday multiculturalism,’ and how people from diverse faiths can connect and show they care, rather than go down parallel, sometimes hostile, roads.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The task of a writer'

A Writer's Moment: 'The task of a writer':   “The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.”  – Thomas Mann   Born in Lubeck, Germany on June 6, 18...

'The task of a writer'

 

“The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.” – Thomas Mann

 

Born in Lubeck, Germany on June 6, 1875 Mann was a journalist, novelist, short story writer, philanthropist and essayist who started writing in the mid-1890s while living in Munich.   Winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, he was one of the most outspoken critics of Adolph Hitler, ultimately having to flee to Czechoslovakia and then the United States where he became a naturalized American citizen and lived until shortly before his death in 1955.

 

His successful creative writing career, which began with his novel Buddonbrooks – about a merchant family and reflective of his own childhood roots – was marked primarily by his short stories, which were popular throughout his lifetime and continue to be studied in writing classes today. 

 

"In books we never find anything but ourselves,” Mann said.  “Strangely enough, that always gives us great pleasure, and (yet) we say the author is a genius."

A Writer's Moment: 'It's in the heart of me'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's in the heart of me':   "The three foundations of judgement: Bold Design, Constant Practice, and Frequent Mistakes." –   John Masefield   Born in Ledbur...

'It's in the heart of me'

 

"The three foundations of judgement: Bold Design, Constant Practice, and Frequent Mistakes." –  John Masefield

 

Born in Ledbury, England on June1, 1878 Masefield was longtime Poet Laureate of Great Britain and remains one of those poets who had the uncommon sense to take every ordinary thing and make it shine.   Masefield loved the sea and wrote of it often in both prose and poetry.  His “Sea Fever” with the famous line “I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky” is probably one of the most quoted lines in poetry.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is another of Masefield’s terrific short poems,

The Wanderer

A wind’s in the heart of me, a fire's in my heels, 

I am tired of brick and stone and rumbling wagon-wheels; 

I hunger for the sea's edge, the limit of the land, 

Where the wild old Atlantic is shouting on the sand.

Oh I'll be going, leaving the noises of the street, 

To where a lifting foresail-foot is yanking at the sheet; 

To a windy, tossing anchorage where yawls and ketches ride, 

Oh I'll be going, going, until I meet the tide.

And first I'll hear the sea-wind, the mewing of the gulls, 

The clucking, sucking of the sea about the rusty hulls, 

The songs at the capstan at the hooker warping out, 

And then the heart of me'll know I'm there or thereabout.

Oh I am sick of brick and stone, the heart of me is sick, 

For windy green, unquiet sea, the realm of Moby Dick; 

And I'll be going, going, from the roaring of the wheels, 

For a wind's in the heart of me, a fire's in my heels.

A Writer's Moment: 'Seeing your life in a different way'

A Writer's Moment: 'Seeing your life in a different way':   I wasn't one of those kids who grew up wanting to write or who read a particular book and thought: 'I want to do that!' I alwa...

'Seeing your life in a different way'

 

I wasn't one of those kids who grew up wanting to write or who read a particular book and thought: 'I want to do that!' I always told stories and wrote them down, but I never thought writing was a career path, even though, clearly, someone was writing the books and newspapers and magazines.” – Gayle Forman 

 

Born in Los Angeles on this date in 1970 Forman has authored 14 books led by the YA novel If I Stay, which both topped the New York Times bestseller list and also was made into a popular film.   The story is about a 17-year-old girl named Mia who has been involved in a tragic car accident and lies in a coma fully aware of what is going on around her.  It earned Forman several "book of the year" awards..

 

Forman began her career writing for Seventeen, with most of her articles focusing on young people and social concerns.   For a number of years, in addition to her YA writing, she has been a successful freelance journalist for publications like Glamour, The Nation, and Elle.   Her most recent book is 2025’s After Life.

 

Now a resident of Brooklyn, NY, married and the mother of two girls, Forman said she found her niche in YA writing by zeroing in on themes that give you an in-depth and often wrenching look at her protagonists’ lives.

 

“I think we like movies and books that give us this emotionally moving experience,” she said. “Where you feel like a slightly different person, and you see the world a little different after you finish. It lets you see your own life in a different way, and it actually makes you feel really good.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Control of the final results'

A Writer's Moment: 'Control of the final results':   “ The one thing that makes writing a better pastime than reading is that you can make things turn out the way you want in the end!”  –  Ge...

'Control of the final results'

 

“The one thing that makes writing a better pastime than reading is that you can make things turn out the way you want in the end!” –  Geraldine McCaughrean

 

Born in London on June 6, 1951 McCaughrean has written more than 170 books and been translated into 45 languages.  But despite that success, she may be best known for writing the authorized sequel to Peter Pan.   She believes her books appeal to kids because they empower them.  “The chief thing is to make children feel good about themselves,” she said. “They want to step into the shoes of a hero who is bigger and stronger, to face tremendous dangers and come home safely for tea.”

 

She said her love of writing has been sparked by a desire to escape from an unsatisfactory world and “live” her motto:  Do not write about what you know, write about what you want to know. 

 

Among her dozens of writing prizes are Whitbread Awards for her children’s books A Little Lower Than the Angels, Gold Dust, and Not The End of the World, and Carnegie Medals for her teen book A Pack of Lies and the YA book Where the World Ends.

 

“I never dreamt I could be an author when I grew up,” she said.  “It just didn't occur to me, because I thought you had to be a) academic, so go to university, things like that, and I didn't think I was clever, or b) dead because I just assumed all the authors in the library were dead.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Words are our life'

A Writer's Moment: 'Words are our life':   “Words are our life. We are human because we use language. So I think we are less human when we use less language.” – Carol Shields   ...

'Words are our life'

 

“Words are our life. We are human because we use language. So I think we are less human when we use less language.” – Carol Shields

 

Born in Oak Park, IL on June 2, 1935 Shields grew up in America but spent much of her adult life in Canada.  She was a full-time writing professor, novelist, playwright and short story writer and won both the Pulitzer Prize and Canada’s equivalent, The Governor General’s Award, for her novel The Stone Diaries – the only writer to ever win both awards for the same book.   She died from cancer in 2003.

 

Shields’ short story collections, including Various Miracles and Dressing Up for the Carnival, also were much-honored and are part of the Collected Stories of Carol Shields published after her death.   Her nonfiction book on author Jane Austin also won several major awards.   And her plays, particularly "Departures and Arrivals" and "Thirteen Hands" have been performed countless times by amateur and professional theater companies around the globe.

 

Shields was an advocate of using life experiences in writing, but only selectively.  “There are chapters in every life which are seldom read,” she explained, “and certainly not aloud.”