A Writer's Moment: 'It's the great advantage of being a writer'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the great advantage of being a writer':   “The great advantage of being a writer is that you're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is usef...

'It's the great advantage of being a writer'

 

“The great advantage of being a writer is that you're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see - every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties.” – Graham Greene

 

Born in England in October of 1904, Greene is listed among the greatest English language writers of the 20th century.  Shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature, he produced 25 bestselling novels and wrote dozens of short stories, essays, plays and movie scripts while continuing to work as a journalist throughout his 67-year career. 

 

Born into a wealthy family, Greene studied history at Oxford but turned to journalism shortly after completing his education there.  He was working as an editor at The Times of London when his first novel, The Man Within, was published in 1929, earning him universal acclaim.  He went on to win Britain’s two oldest and prestigious literary prizes –  the Hawthornden Prize for his masterpiece The Power and the Glory and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Heart of the Matter. 

 

Also considered one of the most “cinematic” of 20^th century writers (nearly all of his novels and many of his short stories were made into movies or television shows), his characters are both interesting and controversial, for which Greene had a logical explanation.  

 

“(You know) the moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn't thought about.  At that moment he's alive and you just have to leave it to him to do whatever he prefers.”

A Writer's Moment: Just omit those 'dull bits'

A Writer's Moment: Just omit those 'dull bits':   “Fiction is life with the dull bits left out.” – Clive James   Born in Australia on this date in 1939, James was an author, critic, br...

Just omit those 'dull bits'

 

“Fiction is life with the dull bits left out.” – Clive James

 

Born in Australia on this date in 1939, James was an author, critic, broadcaster, poet and humorist who lived and worked in Great Britain most of his adult life. James broke into the writing world in the 1970s as a television critic for The Observer and gained a wide reading audience with his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs.  First published in 1980, the acclaimed series, also published as a book, provided terrific biographical sketches of many of the 20th century’s most famous figures.

 

James wrote 5 memoirs, 4 novels and 10 poetry collections – including The Book of My Enemy, a volume that takes its title from his earlier humorous poem "The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered” (a term used in bookselling to put books in a bargain basement bin).

 

He also wrote a well-received translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy and penned 7 “Epic” poems, the last “The River in the Sky” released just months before his death in 2019.

 

Humor, James said, is an essential part of every writer’s arsenal.  “Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds.  A sense of humor is just common sense . . . dancing.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the great general drama of human spirit'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the great general drama of human spirit':   “It may seem unfashionable to say so, but historians should seize the imagination as well as the intellect. History is, in a sense, a stor...

'It's the great general drama of human spirit'

 

“It may seem unfashionable to say so, but historians should seize the imagination as well as the intellect. History is, in a sense, a story, a narrative of adventure and of vision, of character and of incident. It is also a portrait of the great general drama of the human spirit.” – Peter Ackroyd

 

Born in London on Oct. 5, 1949 Ackroyd is a biographer, novelist and historian who has authored award-winning pieces on such luminaries as William Blake, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot and Charlie Chaplin.  He’s also earned The Somerset Maugham Award for The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, and Whitbread Awards for T.S. Eliot and the novel Hawksmoor.   His novel Chatterton was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

 

A seemingly tireless writer, Ackroyd has authored 42 nonfiction books; 19 novels and 4 books of poetry, including 2025's Forgotten London: Exploring the Hidden Life of the City and this year’s Auden, a biography on the British-American poet.    Ackroyd’s first novel was 1982’s The Great Fire of London, a reworking of Dickens’ Little Dorrit.  It not only put him on the writing map but set the stage for a writing style that showcases what he calls "the spirit of place.” 

  

“I don’t think I ever read a novel until I was 26 or 27.   I wanted to be a poet … (and) had no interest in fiction or biography and precious little interest in history.  But those three elements in my life," he said, "have become the most important.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Just like a magic carpet ride'

A Writer's Moment: 'Just like a magic carpet ride':   “A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way.” – Caroline Gordon   ...

'Just like a magic carpet ride'

 

“A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way.” – Caroline Gordon

 

Born in Kentucky on Oct. 6, 1895 Gordon was a novelist, literary critic and friend of nearly every famous writer of the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s.  

 

A “free spirit” (her term for herself), she and husband Alan Tate often hosted major writers in their Kentucky home where “writing was the talk from dawn ‘til dark.”  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, T.S. Eliot, Robert Penn Warren and Ford Madox Ford, the writer she considered her “mentor,” were frequent visitors. 

 

Winner of both a 1932 Guggenheim Fellowship following publication of her first novel Penhally, and a 1934 O. Henry Award for her short story Old Red, later the lead work for her bestselling Old Red and Other Stories, she authored 10 novels and dozens of short stories.

 

Most of her works were set in the South and many of them autobiographical in nature, providing the world with an in-depth look at the region and the times.  The Collected Stories of Caroline Gordon, published at the time of her death in 1981, was lauded by Warren “for enriching our literature uniquely in this century.” 

Gordon said she thought of her writing as a form of art.  “And art,” she said, “should never be judged.  It should be the judge of us.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Yes, you know what he means'

A Writer's Moment: 'Yes, you know what he means':   “People are always giving you credit for really wanting to say more than you said. What you've got to say, you say.” – Shel Silverste...

'Yes, you know what he means'

 

“People are always giving you credit for really wanting to say more than you said. What you've got to say, you say.” – Shel Silverstein

 

Born in Chicago on Sept. 30, 1930 Silverstein was a poet, singer-songwriter, cartoonist, screenwriter, children’s book author and illustrator, whose works have been translated into 30 languages and sold over 20 million copies.  His best-known book – continuously in print since its publication in 1964 – is The Giving Tree. Silverstein won two Grammy Awards, including one for Johnny Cash’s mega-hit A Boy Named Sue, and one for the song I’m Checking Out.   Among his many award-winning poems are “Where The Sidewalk Ends,” “Clarence Lee From Tennessee,” and “A Light in the Attic.” For Saturday’s Poem, here is Silverstein’s,

     The Little Boy and the Old Man

Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."

                        Said the old man, "I do that too."

 

The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."

                        "Well, I do that too," laughed the little old man.

 

                        Said the little boy, "I often cry."

                        The old man nodded, "So do I." 

 

"But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems

                        Grown-ups don't pay attention to me.”

 

And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.

                        "I know what you mean," said the little old man.

A Writer's Moment: The key to 'transporting her readers'

A Writer's Moment: The key to 'transporting her readers':   “I don't believe in writing anything that I don't know about or haven't researched about personally. I like to transport the r...

The key to 'transporting her readers'

 

“I don't believe in writing anything that I don't know about or haven't researched about personally. I like to transport the reader to places, and in order to do that I have to do the research.” –  Jackie Collins

 

Born in Hampstead, England in October of 1937, Collins was the author of 32 novels, all of which appeared on The New York Times bestseller lists.  Her books, many still going strong, have sold over 500 million copies and been translated into 40 languages.

A naturalized U.S. citizen who also maintained her British citizenship, she started writing in 1968, encouraged by her husband who called her “a born storyteller.”  And so she began writing, turning out the bestselling The World is Full of Married Men on her first try.  From that point on she never really stopped writing, her final book The Santangelos released just before her death from breast cancer in 2015.  

 

Eight of Collins' novels have been adapted for the screen, either as films or television miniseries and others are still under consideration.  And while her books often were lambasted by critics and even fellow writers, the public loved them.

 

 “Inspiration is all around me,” she said of her prolific output.  “I can read a newspaper article and come up with an idea for a book.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Those stories behind the truth'

A Writer's Moment: 'Those stories behind the truth':   “I can't speak for readers in general, but personally I like to read stories behind which there is some truth, something real and abov...

'Those stories behind the truth'

 

“I can't speak for readers in general, but personally I like to read stories behind which there is some truth, something real and above all, something emotional. I don't like to read essays on literature; I don't like to read critical or rational or impersonal or cold disquisitions on subjects.” – Laura Esquivel

 

Born in Mexico City on this date in 1950, Esquivel wrote the worldwide bestselling novel and award-winning screenplay Like Water for Chocolate.  The book is the all-time bestselling novel in Mexico and the film the winner of more than two dozen international awards.   It was the first of 10 novels for Esquivel, whose latest is the Spanish language My Black Past. 

 

Also noted for her essays on life, love and food – based on the culture of Mexico but resonating around the globe – Esquivel’s compilation of many of her best were published in another huge bestselling book Between Two Fires.   She characterizes the kitchen as the most important part of the house; “a pleasurable source of knowledge and understanding.” 

 

When asked if she likes fiction or film better, she leaned into fiction.

“In film you can use images exclusively and narrate a whole story very quickly, but you don't always so easily find the form in cinema to dig deeper into human thoughts and emotions,” she explained.  “In a novel you can much more easily express a character's inner thoughts and feelings.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Write what you most enjoy'

A Writer's Moment: 'Write what you most enjoy':   “Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn't planned on, and then I have to...

'Write what you most enjoy'

 

“Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn't planned on, and then I have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I'm not recommending it as a way to write . . . but it works for me.” – Barbara Mertz

 

Born in Canton, IL on this date in 1927, Mertz wrote under her own name and the pseudonyms Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels.  A noted academic, she held multiple degrees in ancient history and Egyptology, including a Ph.D. in the latter field, and one of her mystery series (written as Peters) focuses on a professor who holds a degree in Egyptology.

 

Mertz wrote 71 mostly mystery and suspense books, although two of her nonfiction books on ancient Egypt also are still in print. More than a dozen of her books were nominated for or won best novel or best mystery awards, led by Trojan Gold; Naked Once More; The Last Camel Died at Noon; and Night Train to Memphis.

                                  

Named an Anthony Awards Grandmaster for mystery writing in 1986 and Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster in 1998, she wrote bestsellers right up until her death in 2013.   When asked why she liked writing mysteries, suspense and thrillers instead of “scholarly” works, she replied that it was what she most enjoyed. 

 

“There are lots of things to write about,” she said, “but I think it would be difficult to write books I don't like to read.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A great path to vicarious living'

A Writer's Moment: 'A great path to vicarious living':   “Fiction, for me, is sort of a protracted way of saying all the things I wished I said the night before.” – Christopher Buckley   The...

'A great path to vicarious living'

 

“Fiction, for me, is sort of a protracted way of saying all the things I wished I said the night before.” – Christopher Buckley

 

The only child of conservative author and speaker William F. Buckley, Christopher was born in New York City on this date in 1952 and made his own way in the writing world as a noted humorist and satirist.   He has written 20 novels, published in 16 languages.  Among his best-known books are The White House Mess, No Way To Treat A First Lady and Thank You For Smoking – the latter made into a popular movie as well.  His most recent satirical novel is Has Anyone Seen My Toes?

 

Buckley’s journalistic pieces have appeared in many top magazines and newspapers, and he also has done considerable work in public relations.  “In public relations,” He said, “you live with the reality that not every disaster can be made to look like a misunderstood triumph.” 

 

Buckley says writing is a great way to live a life you might only imagine.  “You live vicariously through your characters.”

A Writer's Moment: Another catalyst for inspiration

A Writer's Moment: Another catalyst for inspiration:   Every writer knows autumn begins when the stirrings of nature and its changes cause us to write things down.  For some, it creates a condi...

Another catalyst for inspiration

 

Every writer knows autumn begins when the stirrings of nature and its changes cause us to write things down.  For some, it creates a condition of melancholy; for others exuberance.  Regardless, it provides yet another catalyst for inspiration.

 

Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus, more often known for melancholy, was so moved by an autumn walk that he wrote, “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”   And, for Saturday’s Poem, here’s another viewpoint from award-winning writer Judith Viorst.   

       Summer’s End
One by one the petals drop
There's nothing that can make them stop.
You cannot beg a rose to stay.
Why does it have to be that way?

The butterflies I used to chase
Have gone off to some other place.
I don't know where. I only know
I wish they didn't have to go.

And all the shiny afternoons
So full of birds and big balloons
And ice cream melting in the sun

Are done.
I do not want them done.

A Writer's Moment: 'The habit that leads to writing success'

A Writer's Moment: 'The habit that leads to writing success':   “What it takes is to actually write: not to think about it, not to imagine it, not to talk about it, but to actually want to sit down and ...

'The habit that leads to writing success'

 

“What it takes is to actually write: not to think about it, not to imagine it, not to talk about it, but to actually want to sit down and write. I'm lucky I learned that habit a really long time ago. I credit my mother with that. She was an English teacher, but she was a writer.” – Luanne Rice

The prolific Rice, born in New Britain, CT on this date in 1956, has practiced what she preaches turning out three dozen bestselling novels.  Many of her books also have been adapted into successful movies or television series.  And she reaches a worldwide audience with translations in some 30 languages. 

 

Rice was first published (a poem in the Hartford Courant) at age 11, had her first short story published in American Girl magazine when she was 15, and began writing novels in her late 20s.  Her debut novel Angels All Over Town won several awards and established her as a major writing talent.  Among her most well-known titles are The Lemon Orchard, Little Night, The Silver Boat, and Sandcastles.  Her most recent, Until Midnight, has just been released.

Rice said extensive research, creation of characters who are based on “real people she has met and been inspired by,” and her dreams all make up her stories. 

 

“While novels are fiction,” she said, “mine are usually very close to my heart.”

A Writer's Moment: "It's what belongs to literature'

A Writer's Moment: "It's what belongs to literature':   “God would not give us the same talent if what were right for men were wrong for women.” – Sarah Orne Jewett   Born in Maine in Septem...

"It's what belongs to literature'

 

“God would not give us the same talent if what were right for men were wrong for women.” – Sarah Orne Jewett

 

Born in Maine in September of 1849. Jewett was a novelist, short story writer and poet, best known for her local color works set along or near Maine’s southern seacoast and recognized as an important practitioner of American Literary Regionalism.

 

Educated in Boston, where she met many of New England’s leading writers while still in her teens, Jewett was first published in Atlantic Monthly in 1868 and went on to become one of the most-read short story writers of the 1870s and ‘80s.  Fellow author William Dean Howells said Jewett possessed “an uncommon feeling for talk — I hear your people.”

 

Best known among her 20 books (many still in print today) are A White Heron, which is a collection of her best short stories; A Country Doctor: and the children’s book Betty Leicester.  Many of her best poems are collected in the book simply known as Verses.  

 

Jewett, who died in 1909, said she often contemplated whether her works deserved recognition. 

 

“The thing that teases the mind over and over for years and at last gets itself put down rightly on paper,” she said, “is whether – little or great – it belongs to Literature.”

 

A Writer's Moment: 'It's how you achieve a sense of wonder'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's how you achieve a sense of wonder':   “Ultimately, theatre is about creating a sense of wonder, and I think wonder is achieved not by a kind of wide-eyed silliness but by being...

'It's how you achieve a sense of wonder'

 

“Ultimately, theatre is about creating a sense of wonder, and I think wonder is achieved not by a kind of wide-eyed silliness but by being available to that which is most unknown, inside the material and inside yourself.” – George C. Wolfe

 

Born in Frankfort, KY on this date in 1954, Wolfe is a playwright and director in both theater and film, and an occasional actor.  He won Tony Awards for directing Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and for the musical Bring in 'da Noise/Bring in 'da Funk.  Most recently he has directed the Eugene O'Neill revival The Iceman Cometh (with Denzel Washington) and the musical Gypsy (with Audra MacDonald).  He also was seen as an actor in the hit movie The Devil Wears Prada 2.

 

Wolfe started writing both poetry and prose while still in high school and first tried his hand at writing plays while studying at Pomona College in California.  He went on to earn his MFA in dramatic writing and musical theater at New York University before embarking on an award-filled writing, producing and directing career.  In 2013 he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

 

“Confidence," he said, "comes in going on personal journeys in a public arena and feeling as though you have a right to do that.  You have to give yourself permission to discover what you need to discover and not worry about how pretty the journey is.  If you're aware of the pretty, you're not going to dig into the mess.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The essence of ideas'

A Writer's Moment: 'The essence of ideas':   “Human history in essence is the history of ideas.” – H. G. Wells Born in England on Sept. 21, 1866 Wells has been called “The Father o...

'The essence of ideas'

 

“Human history in essence is the history of ideas.” – H. G. Wells

Born in England on Sept. 21, 1866 Wells has been called “The Father of Science Fiction" (although some argue that it was Jules Verne).  Prolific in many genres, including the novel, history, and social commentary, he authored such Sci-Fi classics as The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and The War of the Worlds, made even more famous after a 1938 radio broadcast by actor Orson Welles.

 

Born into a poor family, Wells suffered a broken leg at age 9 and while recuperating spent almost all his time reading books from the free library, deciding then and there he wanted to be a writer.  After putting himself through secondary school – overcoming financial and personal hardship in the process – he went on to earn a college degree in the sciences and begin his long, successful writing career.   

 

His scientific background stood him in good stead when he started writing his “fantastical” stories that became the foundation for what would be termed “science” fiction.  Also an artist, Wells made part of his living doing sketches but noted “I had rather be called a journalist than an artist” since it was also during that time – in his late 20s and 30s – that he started writing social commentary for newspapers and magazines.  But, while he was widely read in other genres, it was his science fiction that made him famous.

 

Wells noted that an author should always strive to make a story as credible as possible, even if both the writer and the reader know certain elements might be impossible.  That, he said, allows a reader to accept the ideas as something that might really happen.  

 

“What really matters,” he said, “is what you do with what you have.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's that place to belong'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's that place to belong':   “I just love writing. It's magical, it's somewhere else to go, it's somewhere much more dreadful, somewhere much more exciting...

'It's that place to belong'

 

“I just love writing. It's magical, it's somewhere else to go, it's somewhere much more dreadful, somewhere much more exciting. Somewhere I feel I belong, possibly more than in the so-called real world.” – Tanith Lee

 

Born in London in September of 1947, Lee authored nearly 100 novels, 300 short stories, 1 children's picture book (Animal Castle), and many poems. She also wrote two episodes of the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7 and was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award’s best novel for her book Death's Master – the second in her “Flat Earth” series.

 

Vibrant and exotic are often words used by critics when describing her writing but perhaps the best thing that might be said about her style is that it can’t be categorized.  Thus, she attracted a broad readership for her works.   

 

Lee, who died of breast cancer in 2015, said that while her own vivid imagination shaped her writing style, she also was influenced by writers “across the board . . . by many.”   In 2024 Lee was honored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) with their Infinity Award, which posthumously honors creators who died before they could be considered for the organization’s coveted Grand Master Award. 

 

“At an early school, when I was about 5, they asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Everyone said silly things, and I said I wanted to be an actress. So that was what I wanted to be.  But what I was, of course, was a writer.”

A Writer's Moment: Where loyalty lies

A Writer's Moment: Where loyalty lies:   “If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything.”  – Claude McKay   Born in Jamaica in September of...

Where loyalty lies

 

“If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything.” – Claude McKay

 

Born in Jamaica in September of 1889, McKay was the son of peasant farmers, mostly self-taught and highly successful with his writing.  His 1912 book of poems, Songs of Jamaica, about Jamaican peasant life, established his credentials as a leading black poet, and his 1928 Home To Harlem is arguably considered the first commercially successful novel by a black writer.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is McKay’s,

To A Poet

There is a lovely noise about your name,
Above the shoutings of the city clear,
More than a moment's merriment, whose claim
Will greater grow with every mellowed year.

The people will not bear you down the street,
Dancing to the strong rhythm of your words,
The modern kings will throttle you to greet
The piping voice of artificial birds.

But the rare lonely spirits, even mine,
Who love the immortal music of all days,
Will see the glory of your trailing line,
The bedded beauty of your haunting lays.

A Writer's Moment: Low aspirations, soaring results'

A Writer's Moment: Low aspirations, soaring results':   “When I settled to writing seriously, which would be in my 30s, I did expect to be published eventually, but my aspirations weren't ve...

Low aspirations, soaring results'

 

“When I settled to writing seriously, which would be in my 30s, I did expect to be published eventually, but my aspirations weren't very high. A published book and a few appreciative readers was my idea of heaven.” – Jo Beverley

 

Born in England in September of 1947, Beverley started late but once she got going became a very prolific writer with millions of those “appreciate readers.”  Writing in historical, science fiction and romance genres, she produced 43 novels and 18 novellas lauded as well researched, filled with historical details, and peopled by communities of interesting interlinked characters.

 

After moving to Canada in 1976 she became a founding member of the Ottawa Romance Writers' Association (ORWA) in 1985 and in 1988 became the first “romance” writer to be a finalist in the "L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future" Science Fiction contest.    

 

Beverley won dozens of writing prizes and two Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times, The Golden Leaf Award and the Readers' Choice Award.  She also is the sole Canadian romance author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame.    Shortly before her death in 2016 she was asked if she could meet someone from the past, who might that be?

“I'd pick Jane Austen," she said, "because I'd like to know what really made her tick. It's my opinion that she was inhibited by her family and a desire to do the right thing. Away from all that, I believe she'd show new facets and enjoy the adventure.”

A Writer's Moment: Mastering those 'puzzly' plots

A Writer's Moment: Mastering those 'puzzly' plots:   “The funny thing is, though I write mysteries, it is the one genre in adult fiction I never read.   I read Nancy Drew, of course, when I w...

Mastering those 'puzzly' plots

 

“The funny thing is, though I write mysteries, it is the one genre in adult fiction I never read.  I read Nancy Drew, of course, when I was a kid, but I think the real appeal is as a writer because I'm drawn to puzzly, complicated plots.” – Elise Broach

  

Born in Georgia on this date in 1963 (she now lives in Connecticut), Broach earned acclaim as a writer of Children’s and YA mystery tales.  Her dozen best-selling titles are led by her award-winning Shakespeare's Secret, Desert Crossing, and the Masterpiece series.   Her most recent “Masterpiece” offering is A Trip to the Country for Marvin & James.

 

Broach also has authored 10 Picture Books for young children, including When Dinosaurs Came with Everything, voted a Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association, and My Pet Wants A Pet.   But writing mysteries seems to be at the top of her list.

 

 “I'm most interested in the relationship between the characters,” she said. “I'm trying to create characters who not only are solving a mystery but are solving the riddle of their own personal relationships.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Expansive, intelligent and non-medicinal'

A Writer's Moment: 'Expansive, intelligent and non-medicinal':   “The best novels are those that are important without being like medicine; they have something to say, are expansive and intelligent but n...

'Expansive, intelligent and non-medicinal'

 

“The best novels are those that are important without being like medicine; they have something to say, are expansive and intelligent but never forget to be entertaining and to have character and emotion at their heart." – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

Born in Nigeria on Sept. 15, 1977 Adichie earned a bachelor’s degree at Eastern Connecticut University, where she began her writing career before going on to earn masters’ degrees from Johns Hopkins and Yale.  Since then she not only has been published in the world’s leading English language publications but also translated into more than 30 languages.

 

Winner of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (Genius Grant”), she is the author of the award-winning novels Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun.  Her latest is Dream Count, published in 2025.  Adichie also has written numerous short stories and nonfiction pieces and has been honored with such prizes as the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, The Reader’s Digest Author of the Year, and a PEN Pinter Prize. 

 

“I am drawn, as a reader, to detail-drenched stories about human lives affected as much by the internal as by the external,” she said.  “(It’s what) Jane Smiley nicely describes as 'first and foremost about how individuals fit, or don't fit, into their social worlds.’”

A Writer's Moment: 'Small door; enormous room'

A Writer's Moment: 'Small door; enormous room':   “A picture book is a small door to the enormous world of the visual arts, and they're often the first art a young person sees.” – Tomi...

'Small door; enormous room'

 

“A picture book is a small door to the enormous world of the visual arts, and they're often the first art a young person sees.” – Tomie dePaola

  

Born in Meridian, CT on this date in 1934, dePaola created more than 200 children's books, authoring works ranging from his famous Strega Nona series to memoirs, legends, folk tales and religion.   He was honored for his lifetime contribution to American children’s literature with the prestigious Laura Ingalls Wilder Award and also was a several-time finalist for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award.   He died in 2020.

 

DePaola studied to be an art teacher, earning several degrees. in art while teaching at a number of colleges and universities.  But, after his books became successful, he left the teaching world in 1978 to concentrate full time on his adopted profession.   His lush artistic style earned him legions of followers – kids and their parents alike.   And, he also earned accolades for his fine art, creating numerous significant pieces that are displayed at museums and religious centers around the country.

 

DePaola credits his family with encouraging his development as an artist and influencing the themes of his works. 

 

 “I remember feeling guilty that I had a good childhood,” he said. “I thought everybody who is famous had to have a desperate childhood and work his way out of it, but I had a great one.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the scaffold beneath the structure'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the scaffold beneath the structure': “The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and th...

'It's the scaffold beneath the structure'

“The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and then letting imagination build the structure that fills in those things we can never find out for sure.” – Geraldine Brooks

 

Born in Sydney, Australia on this date in 1955, Brooks –  now a citizen of both Australia and the United States – started her career as an award-winning journalist, primarily writing for the Wall Street Journal.  Her first novel, Year of Wonders, set in a 1666 village stricken by the bubonic plague, was a massive international bestseller and started her along a creative writing path. 

 

Her second novel, March – imagining the Civil War service of the “absent” father in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women – won her the Pulitizer Prize for Fiction.   She has now written 6 novels and 4 nonfiction books, her most recent being 2025’s Memorial Days: A Memoir. 

  

“Writing is like bricklaying,” Brooks said.  “You put down one word after another. Sometimes the wall goes up straight and true and sometimes it doesn't and you have to push it down and start again, but you don't stop; it's your trade.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Words like music'

A Writer's Moment: 'Words like music':   “I consider myself kind of a reporter - one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself ...

'Words like music'

 

“I consider myself kind of a reporter - one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write.” — Mary Oliver

 

Earlier this week I posted about Oliver - born on Sept. 10, 1935 in Ohio - and the impact she had on poetry and writing in general.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Oliver’s,

                                     A Dream of Trees

There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,
With only streams and birds for company,
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.

There is a thing in me still dreams of trees.
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world's artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.

I would it were not so, but so it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?

A Writer's Moment: 'Incredibly important images for kids'

A Writer's Moment: 'Incredibly important images for kids':   "The illustrations in picture books are the first paintings most children see, and because of that, they are incredibly important. Wh...

'Incredibly important images for kids'

 

"The illustrations in picture books are the first paintings most children see, and because of that, they are incredibly important. What we see and share at that age stays with us for life."  – Anthony Browne

  

Born in Sheffield, England on this date in 1946, Browne said he started drawing and writing when he was 5 and “never really stopped.”  With more than 50 books to his credit – headed by the multiple award-winning Gorilla – he is perhaps the preeminent member of the genre today.  He’s twice won the Kate Greenaway Medal (for his illustrations) and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international honor that can be bestowed on creators of children's books.

 

His first book Through the Magic Mirror and another of his award-winners A Walk in the Park remain worldwide favorites, especially with his works translated into more than two dozen languages.  His most recent book is Our Girl.

 

While he enjoyed art as a boy and used to draw with his father, Browne also was active in sports, playing rugby, soccer and cricket.  He said as a teenager his goals were to be either a journalist, a cartoonist, or a boxer, but he always gravitated back to writing and illustrating things for kids and he’s glad he reaches a worldwide audience.  

 

 “I don’t like narrowing my readers down – there’s not a particular age or gender or nationality,” he said.  “I suppose I’m aiming at the child I was. I never want to make a child worried or afraid, and I don't think I do.  My pictures are born from the belief that children are far more capable and aware of social complexities than we give them credit for.”

A Writer's Moment: It's 'our duty as writers'

A Writer's Moment: It's 'our duty as writers':   “I love the line of Flaubert about observing things very intensely. I think our duty as writers begins not with our own feelings, but with...

It's 'our duty as writers'

 

“I love the line of Flaubert about observing things very intensely. I think our duty as writers begins not with our own feelings, but with the powers of observing.” – Mary Oliver

 

Born in Maple Heights, Ohio on this date in 1935, Oliver said people want poetry and that’s why she started writing it, becoming one of the best ever in the genre.  “They need poetry. They get it. They don't want fancy work,” she said.

Oliver won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for her poetic stylings, and The New York Times described her as "far and away, [America's] best-selling poet.”

 

She began writing poetry at age 14, and at 17 visited the home of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay in upstate New York where she and the poet's sister Norma became friends.   Oliver "more or less lived there for the next six or seven years, running around the 800 acres like a child, helping Norma, or at least being company to her," and assisting with organizing St. Vincent Millay's papers – another writing obsession.

 

Oliver's poetry often turned to nature for its inspiration, describing the sense of wonder it instilled in her.  She wrote 33 books of poetry and 4 nonfiction books, the first No Voyage, and Other Poems published in 1963 and the last Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver in 2017.  She died in 2019.

 

"When it's over," she said, "I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement.  I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms."

A Writer's Moment: 'A process of discovering'

A Writer's Moment: 'A process of discovering':   “Writing is a process of discovering. I could never outline a narrative; that just sounds boring. There's no joy of discovery in what ...

'A process of discovering'

 

“Writing is a process of discovering. I could never outline a narrative; that just sounds boring. There's no joy of discovery in what you're doing if that's your strategy.” –  Bob Shacochis
 

Born in Pittston, PA on this date in 1951, Shacochis is a novelist, short story writer, literary journalist and longtime creative writing professor at Florida State University. His most recent book is Kingdoms in the Air, a collection of his travel and adventure essays. 

 

Educated at the University of Missouri and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Shacochis jumped right into the creative writing world with a 1985 National Book Award-winning short story collection Easy in the Islands.   His novel Swimming in the Volcano also was a finalist for a National Book Award, and another, The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction. 

 

“I'm asked all the time, 'Doesn't it feel great to finish the novel?',” he said.  “And the answer to that is, 'No.' It's sort of a loss to stop a 10-year project, which is an imaginary project in the sense that it's a work of my imagination.”

A Writer's Moment: 'No regrets, just success'

A Writer's Moment: 'No regrets, just success':   “I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.” – D.H. Lawrence   Born in England on Sept. 11, 1885 David Herbert ...

'No regrets, just success'

 

“I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.” – D.H. Lawrence

 

Born in England on Sept. 11, 1885 David Herbert Lawrence said he had few regrets from his writing life, especially after rising from poverty as the son of nearly illiterate parents to become one of the best-known writers of the 20^th Century.   

 

Lawrence earned both renown and condemnation for such novels as Sons and Lovers, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley's Lover but also was lauded for his striking poetry and thoughtful short stories.  Away from the creative writing side, he penned many essays and countless letters, many gathered into several published volumes.

 

Among his most praised collections of short stories are The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, and The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories, both massive best sellers.   Constantly at odds with British authorities and critics, he decided to travel and live around the globe, including time at the Kiowa Ranch in New Mexico where his ashes are interred and a memorial stands in his name.

 

“I can never decide whether my dreams are the result of my thoughts,“ he mused shortly before his death from tuberculosis at age 44, “or my thoughts are the result of my dreams.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A joy full of excitement'

A Writer's Moment: 'A joy full of excitement':   “Learning should be a joy and full of excitement. It is life's greatest adventure; it is an illustrated excursion into the minds of th...

'A joy full of excitement'

 

“Learning should be a joy and full of excitement. It is life's greatest adventure; it is an illustrated excursion into the minds of the noble and the learned.” – Taylor Caldwell

 

Born in England this date in 1900, Caldwell emigrated to the U.S. in 1907 and spent many of her formative years living in poverty after her father died.  That experience, she said, not only shaped her values but also her expectations – to never again live in fear of want.

 

A writer even before leaving England (where she won a Charles Dickens Prize for young writers) Caldwell began her prolific professional writing career after earning a degree from the University of Buffalo.  Her first novel Dynasty of Death was an instant bestseller and established her as a major new writer.  Over the next 50 years – she died in 1985 – Caldwell published some 50 books under her own name and the pen names Marcus Holland, Max Reiner and J. Miriam Reback.

 

Noted for masterful blending of historical events with her own vivid imagination, she wrote such bestsellers as Dear and Glorious Physician (about Saint Luke), The Earth is the Lord's (about Genghis Khan), and Captains and the Kings.   Her books have sold upward of 40 million copies worldwide. 

She believed firmly in education and hard work.  “I wanted to acquire an education, work extremely hard, and never deviate from my goal to make it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'To cherish the earth'

A Writer's Moment: 'To cherish the earth':   “To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.”  –  Wendell Berry   In Thurs...

'To cherish the earth'

 

“To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.” –  Wendell Berry

 

In Thursday’s post I wrote about Berry’s many contributions to literature and the environment.  The author (who died Monday) created more than 50 books of fiction, essays and poetry – led by award-winning works like The Broken Ground and The Country of Marriage.  He wrote about the turning of the seasons, routines of the farm, life of the family, and the spiritual aspects of the natural world, urging mankind to live in harmony with the earth, or perish.

 

For Saturday’s Poem, from his Collected Poems: 1957-1982, here is Berry’s,

        The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.   I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light.    For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.