A Writer's Moment: 'I write because I can'

A Writer's Moment: 'I write because I can':   “We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can.    We have some impulse within us ...

'I write because I can'

 

“We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can.   We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings.  That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone, that’s why we write – because we have the impulse to explain who we are.” – Maya Angelou

 Angelou was an author, poet, dancer, actress, and singer.  Born in St. Louis on this date in 1928, she authored 7 autobiographies, 3 books of essays, and many books of poetry.  She also wrote a long list of plays, movies, and television shows, received dozens of awards and was presented with 50 honorary degrees.   

 

It was her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, written in 1968 at the urging of fellow writer James Baldwin and cartoonist Jules Feiffer that brought her worldwide attention and started her on the pathway to success.

Angelou  "performed" many of her poems and essays at public readings and talks.  I had the good fortune to hear her at one on the campus of Augsburg College and also be part of a small group gathering before the event.  I asked her if she wrote first for herself and then to share, or the other way around.

“I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader,” she said.  “I do.  But I write for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say.  So I write for myself and that reader who will pay his or her dues.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Making you want to go there'

A Writer's Moment: 'Making you want to go there':   "That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing th...

'Making you want to go there'

 

"That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there." – Anne McCaffrey

Born on April Fool's Day in 1926, McCaffrey was an actress and singer for 15 years before she started writing.  Her first short story was published in the late 1950s and her first novel in 1967 after her three children were off to school each day and she made more time for her writing.    

 

That first novel, Restoree, was written as a protest against what she termed “absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in science fiction novels in the 1950s and early 1960s.”  That opened the gates to a spectacular writing career, particularly with her series' The Ship Who Sang and the Dragonriders of Pern.   Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first Sci-Fi books to be listed on the New York Times Bestseller list.

 

The first woman to win Hugo and Nebula awards for fiction and science fiction, she also was honored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as a “Grand Master” and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

 

 McCaffrey used emotion as a writing tool, something she developed during her years on the stage.  Known for her vivid scenes and settings, she also never hesitated to put problematic elements into her work.  “(My worlds) contain scary things; problems, but also a sense of rightness that makes them alive and makes us want to live there,” she said.

A Writer's Moment: 'Where true language lives'

A Writer's Moment: 'Where true language lives':   “Language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the meaningless noise and silence of nature and history.” ...

'Where true language lives'

 

“Language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the meaningless noise and silence of nature and history.” – Octavio Paz
 

Born on March 31, 1914 Mexican writer Octavio Paz Lozano held the rare distinction of being both a diplomat and a writer.  He won three major writing awards capped by the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.

 

Paz wrote the first of his long, ambitious poems "Between the Stone and the Flower" at age 23.  The work explores the situation of Mexican peasants under the domineering landlords of the day.  From that point Paz served his country as both a diplomat and an  eloquent and bold writer about life, the land, and the people around him.

 

"The poetry of Octavio Paz," wrote the critic Ramon Xirau, "does not hesitate between language and silence; it leads into the realm of silence where true language lives."  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Paz’s,

  

The Bridge

Between now and now,
between I am and you are,
the word bridge.

Entering it
you enter yourself:
the world connects
and closes like a ring.

From one bank to another,
there is always
a body stretched:
a rainbow.
I'll sleep beneath its arches.

A Writer's Moment: 'Walking into the unknown'

A Writer's Moment: 'Walking into the unknown':   “With a novel, there is no hurrying it. You're constantly walking into the unknown.” – Tobias Hill   Born in North London on thi...