A Writer's Moment: First 'doing the living'

A Writer's Moment: First 'doing the living':   “Life has a practice of living you, if you don't live it.”  – Philip Larkin Born in Coventry on Aug. 9, 1922, Larkin was one of post...

First 'doing the living'

 

“Life has a practice of living you, if you don't live it.” – Philip Larkin

Born in Coventry on Aug. 9, 1922, Larkin was one of post-war England’s most famous poets and was commonly referred to as “England’s other Poet Laureate” until his death in 1985.  His best-known and most popular collections – The Less Deceived, The Whitsun Weddings, and High Windows – present “a poetry from which even people who distrust poetry . . . can take comfort and delight.”  For Saturday’s poem, here is Larkin’s,

        Summer is fading
The leaves fall in ones and twos
From trees bordering
The new recreation ground.
In the hollows of afternoons
Young mothers assemble
At swing and sandpit
Setting free their children.

Behind them, at intervals,
Stand husbands in skilled trades,
An estateful of washing,
And the albums, lettered
Our Wedding, lying
Near the television:
Before them, the wind
Is ruining their courting-places

That are still courting-places
(But the lovers are all in school),
And their children, so intent on
Finding more unripe acorns,
Expect to be taken home.
Their beauty has thickened.
Something is pushing them
To the side of their own lives.

A Writer's Moment: 'Seeing what you meant'

A Writer's Moment: 'Seeing what you meant':   “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”  – E.M. Forster   Born in London in 1879, Forster, best known for his novels A Ro...

'Seeing what you meant'

 

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” – E.M. Forster

 

Born in London in 1879, Forster, is best known for his novels A Room With a View, Howards End and A Passage to India – all also made into successful films after his death in 1970.

 

A prolific notetaker, he became the author of numerous short stories, essays, speeches and plays despite the fact that he intended his career to be a historian or classicist, studying both disciplines at Cambridge University.   But writing "got in the way" and his voluminous career in that profession followed. 

 

Following the success of his bestselling novels and short stories – Forster went to work for the BBC and in the 1930s and 1940s and became one of Great Britain’s most notable broadcasters, also producing and narrating a popular weekly book review program. 

 

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned,” Forster said, “so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

A Writer's Moment: 'Words working their magic'

A Writer's Moment: 'Words working their magic':   “There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spide...

'Words working their magic'

 

“There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.” ― Diane Setterfield

 

Born in Great Britain in August of 1964, Setterfield started her career as a teacher before diving headfirst into writing with The Thirteenth Tale, a New York Times No. 1 best-seller translated into 40 languages.    The book, also made into a movie, has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

 

Since winning the 2007 Quill Award as Debut Author of the Year, she has authored several more bestsellers, including her latest The Right Sort of Man^.   

 

Setterfield says she’s constantly oscillating between writing and putting herself inside the head of the reader, asking herself questions such as:  How effective is this to my reader? and Have I achieved what I set out to?  But reading, something she advises every author to do, is at the heart of her days.

 

“If I cannot escape for an hour or two every day by reading for pleasure,” she said, “then small problems seem to grow large, and I begin to feel enormously burdened.”

A Writer's Moment: It's how to reach 'the center of life'

A Writer's Moment: It's how to reach 'the center of life':   “Writing is a way of getting at the things most people would prefer to escape.   Writing takes me to the center of life.   That’s my invit...

It's how to reach 'the center of life'

 

“Writing is a way of getting at the things most people would prefer to escape.  Writing takes me to the center of life.  That’s my invitation to my readers as well.” – Steven Millhauser

 

Born in New York City on Aug. 3, 1943 Millhauser is the author of 4 novels, 3 novellas and 7 collections of short stories, winning a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Martin Dressler and The Story Prize for his collection We Others.    His most recent book is 2023’s Disruptions: Stories.

 

A resident of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. where he taught writing at Skidmore for 30 years, Millhauser has earned numerous accolades for his stories.  And his tale Eisenheim the Illusionist was made into the critically acclaimed movie The Illusionist.   Among his published essays, is “The Ambition of the Short Story” in the New York Times Book Review.   

                        

 “I like the way something small can expand into something large.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'Removing those other possibilities'

A Writer's Moment: 'Removing those other possibilities':   “The best thing that can happen to people entering creative professions is the dwindling of all other possibilities.”  –  Dennis Lehane ...

'Removing those other possibilities'

 

“The best thing that can happen to people entering creative professions is the dwindling of all other possibilities.” –  Dennis Lehane

'Born in Boston on this date in 1965, Lehane has had striking success with both his novels (15) and screenplays (more than two dozen, including for hit series like The Wire and Boardwalk Empire).  His most recent success is the 2025 Apple TV series Smoke.  Many of his own novels also have been made into successful films, led by the multiple award-winning Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River. 

 

Lehane said his initial plan was not to be a writer, “But from the moment I took my first writing workshop, I was a writer,” he said.  Since achieving literary success he also has taught writing, including being a writer-in-residence at Eckerd College (Florida) where he has co-directed the Writers in Paradise Conference.  

 

“I love to write,” he said, “so it rarely seems like work - even when it gets arduous.”

A Writer's Moment: Writing 'Across the Generations'

A Writer's Moment: Writing 'Across the Generations':   “Writing basically breaks down to relationships between people and that is what you write about.”  – Leon Uris   Born in Baltimore on ...

Writing 'Across the Generations'

 

“Writing basically breaks down to relationships between people and that is what you write about.” – Leon Uris

 

Born in Baltimore on this date in 1924, Uris started reading at age 3, writing by age 4, and writing creatively by age 8.  But it wasn’t until after he came out of World War II (he enlisted at age 17 and spent 4 years in the Marines) that he started his successful career, working for newspapers and also writing short stories before publication of his first novel Battle Cry in 1951.   The book also was made into a popular 1955 movie.  

 

Known for his deep research, Uris wrote a dozen bestselling historical novels, including the mega-bestsellers Exodus, The Haj and Topaz, all made into successful movies.  And he wrote several historical and political nonfiction works, often to provide deeper context for the historical events depicted in his novels.

 

Uris wrote continuously for 50 years until he was struck down by kidney failure in 2003.  He said he always was proud that what he wrote in 1950 was just as much read as the writing he produced 30 or 40 years later.   

 

“You can try to reach an audience, but you just write what comes out of you and hope that it is accepted,” he said.   “You do not – and should not – write specifically to a generation.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'The old remember; the young listen'

A Writer's Moment: 'The old remember; the young listen':   “If the very old will remember, the very young will listen.” – Chief Dan George    Born in British Columbia in the last week of July in 1...

'The old remember; the young listen'

 

“If the very old will remember, the very young will listen.” – Chief Dan George

 

 Born in British Columbia in the last week of July in 1899, First Nation actor, poet and author George is perhaps best-known for his semi-autobiographical book My Heart Soars, a line he also frequently uttered in the movie Little Big Man.   George authored many books, poems and songs, and for Saturday's Poem, here is his thoughtful,

                                      To A Grandchild

Heed the days
when the rain flows freely,
in their greyness
lies the seed of much thought
The sky hangs low
and paints new colors
on the earth.
 
After the rain
the grass will shed its moisture,
the fog will lift from the trees,
a new light will brighten the sky
and play in the drops
that hang on all things.
Your heart will beat out
a new gladness
- if you let it happen.
 
In the midst of a land
without silence
you have to make a place for yourself.
Those who have worn out
their shoes many times
know where to step.
It is not their shoes
you can wear
only their footsteps
you may follow,
- if you let it happen.

A Writer's Moment: 'Your writing enemy'

A Writer's Moment: 'Your writing enemy':   "'Shun security,' I advise aspiring novelists when they complain to me that they are stuck.  'Get disoriented.'  Ma...

'Your writing enemy'

 "'Shun security,' I advise aspiring novelists when they complain to me that they are stuck.  'Get disoriented.'  Maybe your agonizing writing block isn't agonizing enough.  Your enemy is comfort." - John Burdett

Born in London in July of 1951, Burdett is a former lawyer who lived and worked in Hong Kong for 12 years where he started writing, producing the sensational first novel, The Last Six Million Seconds, a murder mystery set in 1997 Hong Kong. 

 

Burdett never really wanted to be a lawyer.  He actually studied English and American Literature at Warwick University where he specialized in the unique combination of Shakespeare and metaphysical poetry.  But, out of despair during the British economic and political crises of the 1970s, he switched to Law.  

 

But, the draw of writing was too great and he abandoned law to pursue a career as a novelist, given a great setting and time – when Hong Kong was being transferred from Great Britain to China – to write  that first bestseller.  His most recent book Death Effect, features an unlikely partnership between a bumbling sheriff and a principled medical examiner in rural Alabama.  Despite setting his first book in Hong Kong and most recent in the U.S., many of his works are set in Thailand.

 “In essence, the Thai people are not materialistic at all. They're not in the least driven by the kind of ambition that drives us. The more I got to know them, and the more time I spent with them, the more I understood that this was a totally legitimate attitude to life, and why not?"

A Writer's Moment: 'It's like developing a photo'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's like developing a photo': "Something happens between a novel and its reader which is similar to the process of developing photographs, the way they did it befo...

'It's like developing a photo'

"Something happens between a novel and its reader which is similar to the process of developing photographs, the way they did it before the digital age.  The photograph, as it was printed in the darkroom, became visible bit by bit.  As you read your way through a novel, the same chemical process takes place." -- Patrick Modiano

  

Born in France on this date in 1945, Modiano is the 2014 Nobel Prize winner, author of more than 40 novels, and noted leader of a style of writing known as “Autofiction,” a combination of autobiography and historical fiction.   Modiano’s analogy of the development of the novel “before our eyes” gives us a bit of a look into his writing style.  He lets the picture slowly unfold, sometimes leaving us startled, sometimes satisfied, sometimes angry, but always interested in what’s coming next.

 

Beginning with 1968’s La Place de l’Etoile, his books delve into the puzzle of identity in ways seldom seen.  And, he tackles a time in France – the German occupation during World War II – that evokes both heroism and shame depending on whose point of view each tale is being told. His most recent work is 2023’s Ballerina.

The winner of almost every major European and French writing award, he was honored for his life’s body of work even prior to winning the Nobel and was – up until that award – one of the few international writers whose work had never been translated into English. Despite his great output and success, he said writing has never been an easy process.  

 “I quickly realized that it is difficult to get started when writing a novel,” he said.  “You have this dream of what you want to create, but it is like walking around a swimming pool and hesitating to jump in because the water is too cold.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Traveling with the characters'

A Writer's Moment: 'Traveling with the characters':   “When I read good stories, I want to write good stories too.” – Sharon Creech   Born in Ohio on this date in 1945, Creech grew up outs...

'Traveling with the characters'

 

“When I read good stories, I want to write good stories too.” – Sharon Creech

 

Born in Ohio on this date in 1945, Creech grew up outside of Cleveland but also spent a lot of time during her formative years visiting family in Kentucky where her time there helped shape both characters and setting for a number of her award-winning books.  Among those are Walk Two Moons, winner of the Newbery Medal, and The Wanderer, a Newbery Honor book shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.  

 

She won the British Carnegie for her book Ruby Holler and was the first American to win both the American Newbery Medal and the British Carnegie.   Also an award-winning poet, Creech started writing while still in college and then taught English and creative writing for several years before writing her first children’s book.   Her most recent book – her 25^th – is One Time.

 

“I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey,” Creech said.  “You open it, and off you go. You are changed in some way, large or small, by having traveled with those characters.”