A Writer's Moment: ‘Like Taking A Little Journey’

A Writer's Moment: ‘Like Taking A Little Journey’:   “I'm trying to write poems that involve beginning at a known place, and ending up at a slightly different place. I...

‘Like Taking A Little Journey’

 “I'm trying to write poems that involve beginning at a known place, and ending up at a slightly different place. I'm trying to take a little journey from one place to another, and it's usually from a realistic place, to a place in the imagination.” – Billy Collins 

Two-time poet laureate of the U.S., Collins has a basketful of  awards for his poems – which range from humorous to thought-provoking to deeply moving, like “On Rhyme," “After the Funeral,” and “Thanksgiving.”    

After witnessing a lunar eclipse this past week, 
it seeemed appropriate for the following Collins’ offering for our
Saturday’s Poem.                              

  Invention  

                                                      

Tonight the moon is a cracker,
with a bite out of it
floating in the night,

and in a week or so
according to the calendar
it will probably look

like a silver football,
and nine, maybe ten days ago
it reminded me of a thin bright claw.

But eventually --
by the end of the month,
I reckon --

it will waste away
to nothing,
nothing but stars in the sky,

and I will have a few nights
to myself,
a little time to rest my jittery pen.

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'One Writes . . . to Write'

A Writer's Moment: 'One Writes . . . to Write':   “One of the amazing things about writing fiction is that you do get to be other people.”   – Deborah Eisenberg Born on Nov. 20, 1...

'One Writes . . . to Write'

 “One of the amazing things about writing fiction is that you do get to be other people.”  – Deborah Eisenberg

Born on Nov. 20, 1945, Eisenberg is a short-story writer who also is a teacher and an actress, another career choice that gives her the opportunity to “be” other people.

A native of Illinois, she moved to New York City early in her adult life to take a job as an editorial assistant at The New York Review of Books, a position that put her squarely in touch with writing of all types.  While she worked on lots of books, she said doing books was never on her radar screen.  Instead, she wanted to just write stories.  “Writing does change you, and of course it feels good to do things, so you could say writing is de facto therapeutic. But really, one writes to write.”

Eisenberg taught at both the University of Virginia (for nearly 20 years) and now at Columbia University in Manhattan where she resides. Meanwhile, she also ended up publishing several books of her short stories for which she’s won several honors, including the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg and (in 2015) the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story.   She also has written a play, Pastorale, which was produced at Second Stage in New York City.                                      

As for her writing advice:  “It's much easier to read the stories that have a lot of dialogue . . .they flow much more easily into speech.”

 

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A Writer's Moment: Sharing A 'Fire and Curiosity'

A Writer's Moment: Sharing A 'Fire and Curiosity':   “Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to s...

Sharing A 'Fire and Curiosity'

 “Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say.” – Sharon O'Brien 

 

“The best (sentences) always take you by surprise. They sneak into your head while you’re walking down the aisles at a supermarket, or flat-out assault you when you’re at your grandmother’s funeral, and you have to scramble to give the thought life before it’s gone forever. Cocktail napkins, palms, text messages sent to yourself.” – Adi Alsaid

 

Writers, of course, come in all ages but despite their age differences often share commonalities in what gets them going.   These two quoted here – who have decades between them in both experience and age – are good examples.

 

O’Brien was a Professor at Dickinson College (in Carlisle, Pa.) with many years of writing and teaching experience.   A leading scholar on the American writer Willa Cather and author of Willa Cather: The Emerging Voice, she intended to be only a writer of scholarly works but also has earned acclaim for her creative writing and essays.  

 

O'Brien said Cather was fond of saying it’s the journey, not the arrival that matters.   “This image of discovery characterizes both my writing career and the form the creative process takes.”

 

Alsaid's debut 2015 novel Let’s Get Lost was a YALSA Teens' Top Ten Nominee.  His second novel, Never Always Sometimes, was nominated as a Kirkus Reviews Best Book.  Born and raised in Mexico City, he currently lives (and writes) in Chicago.  His most recent title is Come On In: 15 stories about Immigration & Finding Home.

Although separated by age, gender, cultural background and the type of writing that they do, these two, nonetheless, share the internal fire and curiosity that eventually leads every aspiring writer to “Writer’s Moments”. . . and terrific quotes about the process as well.  

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Hers For The Reading'

A Writer's Moment: 'Hers For The Reading':   “The world was hers for the reading.” – Betty Smith   Smith, who wrote one of the all-time...