Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 496

Facing life and history with your words

“Poetry is not only a set of words which are chosen to relate to each other; it is something which goes much further than that to provide a glimpse of our vision of the world.” – Tahar Ben Jelloun
Despite being a Moroccan whose first language is Arabic, poet and writer Ben Jelloun has established his writing chops with work entirely in French. Born on this day in 1944, he started to write articles and reviews for the French newspaper Le Monde, while earning a doctorate degree in social psychiatry. In 1985 he published his first novel The Sand Child, which was widely celebrated, and in 1987 his second novel The Sacred Night won the major French writing award the Prix Goncourt.  Both novels have now been translated into 43 languages, and having read Sand ChildI have to add my own accolades to those already given.
He also has earned acclaim for his efforts [image error]to foster peace and friendship among the Arabic and non-Arabic worlds and to fight injustice and racism through his essays and poetry, a medium he finds particularly powerful and recommends to all writers.
"I came to poetry through the urgent need to denounce injustice, exploitation, humiliation. I know that's not enough to change the world. But to remain silent would have been a kind of intolerable complicity,” he said.   “For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history.” Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.

Always looking to the horizon

“There's another horizon out there, one more horizon that you have to make for yourself and let other people discover it, and someone else will take it further on, you know.” – Gordon Parks
Born on this date in a small Kansas community, Parks was drawn to photography after seeing a series of heart-rending images featuring Dust Bowl migrant workers.  At the age of 25 he bought his first camera for $12.50 and embarked on a career that would last for the next 70 years (until his death in 2006).   His first big break came when he did fashion shots for a women’s clothing store in St. Paul, MN.  One of the people who saw and admired his work was Marva Louis, wife of heavyweight champion Joe Louis.  She encouraged him to move to Chicago and open a portrait studio there.  He earned renown for his photographs of society women, but on the side he took an extensive and award-winning collection of photos portraying “life on the streets” and life experiences of African Americans.  
A 1948 photographic essay on a young gang leader won Parks a staff job as a photographer and writer with Life magazine.  He worked there 20 years as both a photographer and writer on subjects ranging from fashion, sports and Broadway to  poverty and racial segregation.  His portraits of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Muhammad Ali and Barbra Streisand cemented his reputation as "one of the most provocative and celebrated photojournalists in the United States."
 [image error][image error][image error]Gordon Parks and two of his award-winning photosThe multi-talented Parks also was a novelist, poet and screenwriter and then branched into film production before becoming the first major Black director in the late 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.  But, photography was always his first love and topics for his camera were as varied as his tastes.“The subject matter,” he said modestly, “is what matters, and is so much more important than the photographer.”   

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Always look to the honrizon

“There's another horizon out there, one more horizon that you have to make for yourself and let other people discover it, and someone else will take it further on, you know.” – Gordon Parks
Born on this date in a small Kansas community, Parks was drawn to photography after seeing a series of heart-rending images featuring Dust Bowl migrant workers.  At the age of 25 he bought his first camera for $12.50 and embarked on a career that would last for the next 70 years (until his death in 2006).   His first big break came when he did fashion shots for a women’s clothing store in St. Paul, MN.  One of the people who saw and admired his work was Marva Louis, wife of heavyweight champion Joe Louis.  She encouraged him to move to Chicago and open a portrait studio there.  He earned renown for his photographs of society women, but on the side he took an extensive and award-winning collection of photos portraying “life on the streets” and life experiences of African Americans.  
A 1948 photographic essay on a young gang leader won Parks a staff job as a photographer and writer with Life magazine.  He worked there 20 years as both a photographer and writer on subjects ranging from fashion, sports and Broadway to  poverty and racial segregation.  His portraits of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Muhammad Ali and Barbra Streisand cemented his reputation as "one of the most provocative and celebrated photojournalists in the United States."
 [image error][image error][image error]Gordon Parks and two of his award-winning photosThe multi-talented Parks also was a novelist, poet and screenwriter and then branched into film production before becoming the first major Black director in the late 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.  But, photography was always his first love and topics for his camera were as varied as his tastes.“The subject matter,” he said modestly, “is what matters, and is so much more important than the photographer.”   

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Each has a life of its own

“With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that the books have a life of their own, quite apart from me.  A book comes and says, 'Write me.' My job is to try to serve it to the best of my ability, which is never good enough, but all I can do is listen to it, do what it tells me and collaborate.” – Madeleine L’Engle

A native of New York City, L’Engle was born this day in 1918.  Her “collaboration” with her writing muse led to the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, the National Book Award-winning A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. 
She was a writer whose works reflected both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science – not a “usual” combination, but one that she had no issue with combining.  Science and religion are not at odds with each other, she said.  They can be and should be complimentary.
Although she wrote her first story at the age of 5, she didn’t write A Wrinkle In Time – her first novel – until age 42.  In 2012 the book was voted by  Library Journal readers as the Number 2 children’s book of all time (behind Charlotte’s Web).   The book was rejected 30 times before acceptance.   [image error]Of course, once accepted, it opened the floodgates for her as a writer.  She wrote dozens of books for both children and adults in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.  And, it mattered not to her whether it was for one age group or the other.   “You have to write the book that wants to be written,” she said. “And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you simply write it for children.”

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Like building your own wings

“Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world, you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.” – Ray Bradbury
One of the most celebrated 20th- and 21st-century American genre writers, Bradbury won numerous awards for his science fiction, including a 2007 Pulitizer Citation.  He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space.  Many of his works were adapted to comic book, television and film formats.   And, of course, he wrote the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and the series The Martian Chronicles. On his death in 2012,  [image error]The New York Times called Bradbury "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream."
One of our country’s strongest advocates for the public library system, he once noted that he spent three days a week for 10 years educating himself in the public library, “And it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories.”


As for his willingness to tackle new writing ideas and projects, he said he enjoyed the risk. “Living at risk,” he said,  “is like jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.”
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An 'energy' lift

“Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.” – Marilyn Hacker
American poet, translator and critic Hacker, born on this date in 1942, won the National Book Award for Presentation Piece, and also is the author of Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons, and Going Back to the River.   In 2013 she was a finalist for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation for her translation work on the Moroccan poet Rachida Madani.

“The pleasure that I take in writing gets me interested in writing a poem,” she said. “It’s not a statement about what I think anyone else should be doing.  For me, it’s an interesting tension between interior and exterior.”
A retired writing professor (at City College of New York), she is a native of New York City and continues to make her home there and in Paris while also continuing to write her own poetry.  She said poetry provides an outlet of [image error]expression that she hasn’t found in other ways.
“Each poem is fixed in a moment,” she said about her writing style.  “All those moments written or read together take on the movement and architecture of a narrative.”
To see some of Marilyn Hacker’s poetry check out this link: http://www.poemhunter.com/marilyn-hacker/poems/
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A Writer's Thanksgiving Memory

Today, by request, I am reprising a piece I wrote on a previous Thanksgiving about a time from my childhood.  I hope you enjoy the story and also have a truly wonderful Thanksgiving. – Dan Jorgensen***
I was 9 or 10 and we were celebrating Thanksgiving on our South Dakota farm with a meal made from the fruits and vegetables we had harvested, and a goose my dad had shot just a week before.  After tough times, this was going to be a feast beyond any we’d had for several years.
The chores were done and it was lightly snowing when we gathered in the kitchen to help get the table ready.  My 4 brothers and I were driving mom half crazy as we bounced around the table and in-and-out of the living room and from outside, hoping to “will” my dad’s arrival with his Uncle George, a bachelor farmer mom had sent him to fetch so he wouldn’t be alone.  Adding to the festive scene were a young couple who had recently moved into a neighboring farm and also would have been alone – not going to happen once mom found out.
Just as mom announced that the goose was ready to come out of the oven and we all rushed inside to see, we heard the car pull up and then my dad and Uncle George came in, brushing off the light snow.  “Everybody’s here!” mom smiled and then looking past my dad to the door, she got a confused look on her face.
“Oh, this is Andy,” my dad announced, stepping back and half pulling a middle-aged man past the threshold and into the kitchen.  “Found him walking down the road about half-mile from here.”  He smiled.  “Looked like he could use a little warming up, and something to eat.”  Everybody grew quiet as if unsure what to say, and then my mom hurried forward and held out her hand in welcome. 
“You’re in luck,” she said.  “More than enough food to go around this year, so the more eaters the merrier.”  She grabbed my dad’s hand, too.  “Dean, you didn’t get cleaned up before you went to pick up George.  Why don’t you wash up.”  She nodded to the homeless man, who in those days we all called “bums” and said, “and maybe Andy wants to get washed up too while we finish getting the meal on the table?”
The man smiled gratefully as my dad led the way to the nearby washbasin, removing his coat and hat at my dad’s urging and letting us boys take it back out to the entryway.
I don’t remember all the details of how long Andy was there that day, but I do remember how – like the rest of us – he ate and ate (it was Thanksgiving after all) and there was lots of laughter during that meal and after.  And aside from the surprise of seeing him when he first arrived, I remember also being surprised to see a grown man with tears in his eyes when he finished and got ready to leave and my dad offered to give him a ride all the way into town.
“Does Andy have a family?” I asked mom as she watched them drive away.  “Yes,” she answered. “At least he does today.”  Nearly six decades later the memory still lingers as one of the warmest in my growing up years, and especially at Thanksgiving. 
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Helping generate a generation of readers

“I don't think anything's more rewarding than hearing that you've helped someone gain a love of reading.” – James Dashner 
Dashner's books are primarily written for teens and young adults and he said that their acceptance of his work and enthusiasm for reading because of it has been the most gratifying part of his career.   His work is typically within the adventure, survival, and science-fiction genres, perhaps best represented by The Maze Runner, his most widely-distributed book.
The Maze Runnerreached 100 weeks' standing on the New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Series on September 21, 2014, two days after the release of the motion picture adaptation of the book.  If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, I highly commend both of them.  His writing has been [image error]recognized with a number of major awards including the American Library Award for Best Fiction for Young Adults.
While creating characters that are both compelling and unforgettable, he said in the end it’s the story that matters most.  His advice for writers:  “Be unpredictable, be real, and be interesting,” he said.  “And first and foremost, tell a good story.”

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Those rambunctious 'characters'

“I think about the characters I’ve created, and then I sit down and start typing and see what they will do.  There’s a lot of subconscious thought that goes on. It amazes me to find out, a few chapters later, why I put someone in a certain place when I did.”  - Tom Clancy
I thought of Clancy’s quote today while working on my newest novel and realizing that the characters I was working with were once again advancing my story nicely without that much extra effort by me.  I know this is a phenomenon that affects most writers of fiction, but it’s still always a surprise when the words, actions and places in which they are happening connect in this way.
Writers are, of course, immersed in the lives of their fictional characters while doing the actual writing.  But they tend to find that the activities and actions of the people in their real lives also are creating ongoing ideas and situations that might become the next segments within those stories they are telling.  “My characters are fictional,” said S.E. Hinton when talking about the process.  “But I get ideas from real people.”
It’s this merging of the real world with the fictional one that makes a writer’s life both interesting and exasperating.   And, of course, makes for so many writer’s moments.     [image error][image error]Tom Clancy                                    S.E. Hinton
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Just 'keep on moving'

“As long as you have ideas, you can keep going. That's why writing fiction is so much fun: because you're moving people about, and making settings for them to move in, so there's always something there to keep working on.”– Guy Davenport
Writer, translator, illustrator, painter, intellectual, and teacher, Davenport was born on this day in 1927 and grew up in the South Carolina foothills of Appalachia.  He said he didn’t learn to read until he was nearly 10, but once he got started he felt like he couldn’t stop.  And when he wasn’t reading, he was writing and drawing.  By age 11 he had started a neighborhood newspaper, which he both wrote and illustrated.
He focused on his art for many years, but started writing essays while in college at Duke University.  After college, he began a teaching career at the University of Kentucky and became both a noted professor and author.  He wrote 16 novels, 10 translations of other works, 5 books of poetry and more than 400 essays, the last one just days before his death in 2005.  All the while he continued doing art, both drawings and paintings.
Despite his many successes in both the art and literary worlds, he still said his work [image error]as a professor was perhaps the most satisfying of his life, particularly when teaching about literature.
“My view, as one who taught it,” he said,  “is that the whole purpose of a literary education should be to tell people that these things exist. I don't think any teacher should try to 'teach an author,' but rather simply describe what the author has written. And this is what I tried to do.”


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