A Writer's Moment: 'Nothing But Carpentry'

A Writer's Moment: 'Nothing But Carpentry':   “Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.” – Gabriel Ga...

'Nothing But Carpentry'

 

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

Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist Marquez, born on March 6, 1927 was one of the most significant authors of the 20th century and one of the best in the Spanish language.   Winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature, he actually started his career as a journalist and wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and journalistic short stories before trying fiction. 

But, he is best known for his novels, especially One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Love in the Time of Cholera.  And while he never shied away from criticism of Colombia’s intense and often corrupt political scene, at the time of his death in 2014 the President of Colombia called him “The greatest Colombian who ever live.”

Not one to be tied down by any particular style, he was a great admirer of other writers and their work and said the most important influences on his life and writing were two American authors.  “Faulkner is a writer who has had much to do with my soul,” he said, “but Hemingway is the one who had the most to do with my craft - not simply for his books, but for his astounding knowledge of the aspect of craftsmanship in the science of writing.” 

Marquez was a rare artist who succeeded in not only                 

chronicling his nation's life, culture and history, but also much of other South American nations’ with his keen eye for detail and his ability as a master storyteller.  “What matters in life is not what happens to you,” he said, “but what you remember and how you remember it.”

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: Make Those Words 'Flow'

A Writer's Moment: Make Those Words 'Flow':   “My job as an author is to tell the story in the best way possible, to make it flow seamlessly and get the reader to keep turning the pag...

Make Those Words 'Flow'

 

“My job as an author is to tell the story in the best way possible, to make it flow seamlessly and get the reader to keep turning the page.” – Patrick Carman

A native of Oregon who now lives in eastern Washington, Carman was in advertising until 2003 when he began writing for children and young adults – a prolific and award-winning venture.  Carman is a multimedia pioneer who uses technology, videos, and games to bring wired kids back to books. Millions of young readers have read, watched, and "played" books Carman has produced.

Also a noted public speaker, he presents at national events throughout the year including the National Book Festival, the LA Book Festival, and the School Library Journal Summit. He has also spoken to hundreds of thousands of students at over 1,200 schools across the country.   And, he started an annual event in his own hometown, “Walla Walla Kids Read,” as a blueprint for literacy in rural communities.

“I travel to a lot of schools, and I see firsthand that while we do still have a lot of traditional readers, we don't have as many as we used to. And we're missing an awful lot of kids entirely... Do I want to get rid of the Internet?    No.  Obviously, I don't want 

  that because of all the amazing things it brings.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'Landscape Shapes Our Cultures'

A Writer's Moment: 'Landscape Shapes Our Cultures':         In the Black Hills (Photo by Susan Jorgensen) “The natural world is the only one we have. To try to not ...

'Landscape Shapes Our Cultures'

 

   

  In the Black Hills (Photo by Susan Jorgensen)

“The natural world is the only one we have. To try to not see the natural world - to put on blinders and avoid seeing it - would for me seem like a form of madness. I'm also interested in the way landscape shapes individuals and populations, and from that, cultures.” - Rick Bass

Born in Texas on this date in 1958, Bass is the son of a geologist who studied petroleum geology at Utah State University before starting to write short stories on his lunch breaks while working in that industry.  Today he and his wife, artist Elizabeth Hughes Bass, live in a remote area where he writes and works on environmental issues and is a well-known lecturer and teacher often seen on television specials.                                          

Among his more than two dozen books are the award-winning Where the Sea Used to Be; his short story collection The Lives of Rocks; and his autobiographical Why I Came West.  He was also awarded the General Electric Younger Writers Award, a PEN/Nelson Algren Award Special Citation for fiction, and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.  While he has an equal number of nonfiction and fiction works, he said approaching non-fiction is a more delicate proposition.

“I think a (non-fiction writer) must be more tender with living or 'real' people,” he said.   “The moral imperative of having been entrusted with their story looms before you every day, in every sentence."

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: Poetry Is A Call To Action

A Writer's Moment: Poetry Is A Call To Action: “Poetry can tell us about what's going on in our lives - not only our personal but our social and political lives.” –   Juan Felipe Her...