A Writer's Moment: 'Ultimately . . . You Get to Decide'

A Writer's Moment: 'Ultimately . . . You Get to Decide':   “Because characters are your creations, you are the one who ultimately gets to decide their fate.” – Alexandra Adornetto   A child prodi...

'Ultimately . . . You Get to Decide'

 “Because characters are your creations, you are the one who ultimately gets to decide their fate.” – Alexandra Adornetto
 

A child prodigy, Adornetto was born in Melbourne, Australia on this date in 1994 and began writing for children and young adults at age 13.  Her best-known works are The Strangest Adventures series, the Halo trilogy and The Ghost House Saga.

 

The daughter of an English teacher and a drama teacher she grew up in Melbourne's inner east district, won the State Legacy Public Speaking Competition at age 12 and was 13 when she decided to become a recluse and write her first book.  The result, The Shadow Thief, was inspired by Peter Pan with the two main characters based on herself and her cousin and their own adventures together as children.  An instant hit, it put her on track to successful writing and acting careers (She has acted in half-a-dozen movies so far).

On the writing side, Adornetto has had six more successful novels and commented in print on politics and other matters while working on degrees at the U. of Mississippi.

 

“Imagination makes us aware of limitless possibilities,” she said.  “How many of us haven't pondered the concept of infinity or imagined the possibility of time travel? In one of her poems, Emily Bronte likens imagination to a constant companion, but I prefer to think of it as a built-in entertainment system.”

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: Portrayer of the Time

A Writer's Moment: Portrayer of the Time: “Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.” –   John Herse...

Portrayer of the Time

“Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.” –  John Hersey

 

Born on this date in 1914, Hersey is best known for two amazing pieces of writing.  In 1944, he published the bio-novel A Bell for Adano, and in 1946, he wrote an account of the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.  In the span of two years he won the Pulitzer Prize for the novel, and then wrote the journalistic piece later judged  “the finest piece of American journalism of the 20th century” by a 36-member panel associated with New York University’s journalism department.

Adano (just one of 25 books Hersey authored) won the 1945 Pulitzer.  It’s the story of an Italian-American officer who wins the respect and admiration of the people of Adano, Sicily, by helping them find a replacement for the town bell that the Fascists had melted down for rifle barrels.   The tale grew directly out of his experiences as a war correspondent traveling, living with and writing about the troops in the field.

That book alone would have made his career, but in August, 1946, commemorating the anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945, dropping of the first atomic bomb, The New Yorker published his most notable work, a 31,000-word article "Hiroshima.”  The story occupied almost the entire issue – something The New Yorker had never done before, nor has since.  Told from the viewpoint of 6 survivors it is, perhaps, the first example of what was to become called “New Journalism,” in which fiction storytelling techniques are adapted to non-fiction reportage. 

                                               

                                                              Hersey in the late 1940s and in the early 1990s

Shortly before his 1993 death, Yale (his alma mater) honored Hersey by creating an annual lecture series in his name.  In dedicating the series, fellow Yale alum, the author David McCullough, had this to say about Hersey.   Hersey "portrayed our time,” McCullough observed, "with a breadth and artistry matched by very few. He has given us the century in a great shelf of brilliant work, and we are all his beneficiaries."

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'To Embark on a (Writing) Quest'

A Writer's Moment: 'To Embark on a (Writing) Quest': “To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute th...

'To Embark on a (Writing) Quest'

“To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them. That's a very romantic project. Like Edvard Munch's strange dreamlike canvases where people are stylized, like 'The Scream.' Munch must have had that vision in a dream; he never saw it.” –  Joyce Carol Oates

Born on this day in 1938, Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over 40 novels, a number of plays and novellas, many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and been a frequent reviewer of others’ works.  A long-time professor of writing, she still serves as a Visiting Professor.

She is the winner of many writing awards, including the National Book Award for her novel Them, two O. Henry Awards, and the National Humanities Medal.    Five of her books have been nominated for Pulitzer Prizes and she’s considered a “short lister” for the Nobel Prize in Literature. 

Despite her remarkable and prolific output, she says she never rushes the completion process for each of her works.   “My reputation for writing quickly and effortlessly notwithstanding, I am strongly in favor of intelligent, even fastidious revision, which is, or certainly should be, an art in itself."                                        

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Writing What You Know, Live and Dream'

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing What You Know, Live and Dream': “I wrote about a bird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. The story was so good that my teacher could not believe that...