Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 63
October 26, 2024
'Near the heart of poetry'
“Poetryis not easy. Or should I say, real poetry is not easy.”– Robert Pinsky
Born in New Jersey in October of1940, Pinsky is the United States’ first three-term Poet Laureate. A “Distinguished” Professor of English atBoston University, he’s authored more than 20 books of poetry including thisyear’s Proverbs of Limbo: Poems.
In addition to his poetic works,he’s written the highly regarded TheSounds of Poetry, A Brief Guide. WhilePinsky’s poems are not available for reprinting, you can read some or to listen to him reading them at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/search?query=Robert%20Pinsky&page=5
A musician as well as a writer,Pinsky once noted: “A sentence is like a tune. A memorable sentence gives its emotion a melodic shape. You want to hearit again, say it—in a way, to hum it to yourself. You desire, if only in thesound studio of your imagination, to repeat the physical experience of thatsentence. That craving, emotional and intellectual but beginning in the bodywith a certain gesture of sound, is near the heart of poetry.”
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A Writer's Moment: 'Near the heart of poetry'
October 24, 2024
A Writer's Moment: A deep - and wide - writing career
A deep - and wide - writing career
“Everyone admits that love is wonderfuland necessary, yet no one agrees on just what it is. Love is the best school, but the tuition ishigh and the homework can be painful.”– Diane Ackerman
Born in October 1948, Ackerman is theauthor of One Hundred Names for Love, also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She also wrote The Zookeeper’s Wife (made into apopular movie as well) and A Natural History ofthe Senses, adapted into a 5-part NOVA television series called “TheMystery of the Senses.” Ackerman also writes nature books for children.
A native of Pennsylvania, sheearned her Bachelor’s degree in English from Penn State University then went onto earn 3 degrees, including a Master of Fine Arts and a Ph.D., from CornellUniversity. In addition to her manybooks, she has written essays and stories for magazines and journals around theglobe, taught at several colleges and universities, and done wide-rangingpoetic explorations of the natural world.
“Idon't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the lengthof it,” she said about her seemingly boundless energy. “Iwant to have lived the width of it as well.”
October 23, 2024
'Whole worlds to share'
“Books makegreat gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them. And it's muchcheaper to buy somebody a book than it is to buy them the whole world.” - Neil Gaiman
Gaiman, a native of Portchester, England, was born in November of 1960 He is the author of hundreds of articles, short stories and books, including the award-winning Sandman series and themulti-award-winning The Graveyard Book, a great exampleof a really interesting idea being brought to life (so to speak) through a story. Gaiman's protagonist in The Graveyard Book isa young boy who lives in a graveyard where he’s being raised by the occupants(yep, those "occupants"), proving again that storytelling is limited only by the depth of a writer's imagination. So if you've been thinking of trying to write, there's no time like the present and remember, it might be all in your imagination - and that's a good thing.
“The one thing that you have thatnobody else has is you,” Gaiman said. "Yourvoice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and playand dance and live as only you can.”
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October 22, 2024
'Help the world make a little more sense'
“IfI can write a book that will help the world make a little more sense to a teen,then that's why I was put on the planet.” – Laurie HalseAnderson
Born in Potsdam, NY on Oct. 23, 1961Anderson is a recipient of both the American Library Association’s Margaret A.Edwards Award and the international Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, both forcareer contributions to YA and Children’s literature.
The author of a dozen YA novels andtwo dozen Children’s books, Anderson began her writing career as a freelancerand then reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. She started writing creatively in themid-1990s and her third book, the YA novel Speak,put her on the writing map. Winner of the Golden Kite Award, the EdgarAllan Poe Award and the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize, the shattering novel portrays a 13-year-old sexual assault victimwho loses her ability to speak after being attacked. Also made into a movie, Speak has been translated into 16 languages.
Among her other top award winners isFever 1793, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Junior Library Guildselection, and Chains, a National Book Award finalist and winner of theScott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.
“The most painstaking aspect of being a teen, (is) figuring out what the world really lookslike,” she said. “If you find someone ina book, you know you're not alone and that's what's so comforting about books.”
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A Writer's Moment: 'Help the world make a little more sense'
October 21, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'A safe, sterile lab to try ideas'
'A safe, sterile lab to try ideas'
“Iget a lot of moral guidance from reading novels, so I guess I expect my novelsto offer some moral guidance, but they're not blueprints for action, ever.”–Ursula K. Le Guin
Born in California on this date in1929, Le Guin has been called "A major voice in American letters," but she said if asked to label herself, she would just say "American Novelist." Among her most notable works are the Earthsea fantasy series, The Dispossessed, and The Left Hand of Darkness.
Le Guin authored 20 novels, more than 100 short stories and many children's books in a wide variety of genres over a 60-year career. She's been cited as a key influence onwriters like Salman Rushdie, David Mitchell, and Neil Gaiman. Winner of Hugo, Nebula, Locus and World FantasyAwards – each more than once – she was honored with the National BookFoundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2014. She died in 2018.
“The task of science fiction is notto predict the future. Rather, itcontemplates possible futures,” Le Guin said. “Writers may find the future appealingprecisely because it can't be known, a black box where ‘anything at all can besaid to happen without fear of contradiction from a native. The future is asafe, sterile laboratory for trying out ideas in, a means of thinking about reality,a method.’”
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