Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 81
July 6, 2024
'These Poems - are you ready?'
“Poetryis a political act because it involves telling the truth.”– June Jordan
The daughter of Jamaican immigrants, Jordan was born in Harlem on this date in1936. In her relatively short lifetime (she died of illness in 2002), she was the recipient of dozens ofwriting honors, including a Rockefeller grant, a National Endowment for theArts poetry fellowship, and an Achievement Award for International Reporting.
Often called "The Poet of the People," she founded the “Poetry forthe People” program at UC-Berkeley with the goal of empowering students to usepoetry as a means of artistic expression. For Saturday’s Poem, here isJordan’s,
These Poems
These poems
they are things that I do
in the dark
reaching for you
whoever you are
and
are you ready?
These words
they are stones in the water
running away
These skeletal lines
they are desperate arms for my longing and love.
I am a stranger
learning to worship the strangers
around me
whoever you are
whoever I may become.
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July 5, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'Take a walk and get back on your writing track'
'Take a walk and get back on your writing track'
"Writersdisplace their anxiety on to the tools of the trade. It's better to say thatyou haven't got the right pencil than to say you can't write, or to blame yourcomputer for losing your chapter than face up to your feeling that it's betterlost.” – Hilary Mantel
Born in England on July 6, 1952 (shedied following a stroke in 2022) Mantel was the first woman to win the BookerPrize twice – for the first two novels in her fictional trilogy of ThomasCromwell’s rise and fall in the court of Henry VIII. Both novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, won a basketful ofwriting awards and were adapted as plays and BBC Masterpiece Theaterproductions. The third installment, The Mirror and the Light also was longlisted for the Booker. The trilogy hasgone on to sell more than 5 million copies.
Mantel was agreat historical writer, biographer and autobiographer writing 12 novels, two collections of shortstories, a personal memoir, and numerous articles and opinion pieces. Several of her novels were semi-autobiographical in nature including the excellent Eight Months on Ghazzah Street,which drew on her time living in Saudi Arabia.
Shortly before her death she said she had perfected aformula for overcoming writer’s block, the bane of many authors:
“If you getstuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make apie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise,” she advised. “Whatever you do, don't just stick therescowling at the problem. Don't maketelephone calls or go to a party; (because) if you do, other people's wordswill pour in where your own lost words should be.”
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July 3, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'Fiction with a life of its own'
'Fiction with a life of its own'
“Oneof the things that writing has taught me is that fiction has a life of its own.Fictional places are sometimes more real than the view from our bedroom window.Fictional people can sometimes become as close to us as our loved ones.”– Joanne Harris
Born in England on this date in 1964, Harris's novel Chocolat won literary acclaim and adaptation intoan Oscar nominated film starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench and Johnny Depp. Her nearly three dozen books – both fiction and nonfiction – have won numerousawards and been published in more than 50 countries.
Harrisstarted writing in elementary school and had stories published while still inhigh school. Her early novels oftenfocused on mysticism, literary ghost stories and magic. But since Chocolat’ssuccess, she's branched into a wide range of genres, including several books ofshort stories, a couple of cookbooks, fantasies basedon Norse mythology, and several psychological thrillers.
Her latest novels are 2023's Broken Light and Maiden, Mother, Crone, and she is a frequentcontributor of travel articles and articles on literary themes to newspapersand magazines around the globe. She’s also made a name for herself as aliterary judge for a number of major writing awards. In2020 she wrote Ten Things About Writing,a well-received self-help book for writers.
“I like literature that you respondto in some way,” she said. “You laugh,you cry, you turn the light on - that's great, it's eliciting a response byproxy. If you can actually get someone to sit on the edge of their seat andfeel nervous if there's a knock at the door, then you've done something prettyterrific as a writer.”
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July 2, 2024
A Writer's Moment: The 'foundation' for the biggest stories
July 1, 2024
The 'foundation' for the biggest stories
“Thebiggest stories are written about the things which draw human beings closertogether.” – Susan Glaspell
A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright,actress, novelist, and journalist, Glaspell founded – along with husband GeorgeCram Cook – the Provincetown Players, America’s first modern American theatercompany. And, during theGreat Depression she served in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) asMidwest Bureau Director of the Federal Theater Project, created as a reliefmeasure to employ artists, writers, directors and theater workers during thatterrible ordeal.
Born on this date in 1876, Glaspellwas a prolific writer, producing 9 novels, 15 plays, over 50 short stories, anda biography, often setting her semi-autobiographical stories in her nativeIowa. She is often cited as ourcountry’s first important modern female playwright, and her one-act play Triflesis considered one of the greatest works of American theater. Written in 1916, it was adapted as a shortstory and 50 years later as a movie under the title A Jury of Her Peers.
Inspired by the great Nellie Bly,Glaspell started her journalistic career at age 18, working first at a weeklynewspaper and then as the Des MoinesDaily News’ first full-time female reporter while also studying at DrakeUniversity.
“I am so glad I worked on a newspaper,” she later said, “because it made me know I had to write whether I felt like it ornot. And I loved it!”
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June 29, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'De-create and re-create'
'De-create and re-create'
“Weparticipate in the creation of the world by de-creating ourselves.”– Anne Carson
Born in Canada in June of 1950Carson is a poet, essayist, translator and professor. She has taught at universities across theU.S. and Canada, including McGill, Michigan and Princeton. The author of more than 20 books, she is therecipient of three of the most distinguished and richest writing awards – theGuggenheim, the MacArthur, and the Lannan. For Saturday’s Poem here isCarson’s,
Short Talk on Chromo-Luminarism
Sunlightslows down Europeans. Look at all those
spellboundpeople in Seurat. Look at Monsieur,
sittingdeeply. Where does a European go when he
is‘lost in thought'? Seurat has painted that
place—theold dazzler! It lies on the other
sideof attention, a long lazy boatride from here.
It is A Sunday rather than A Saturdayafternoon
there.Seurat has made this clear by a special
method."Ma méthode," he called it, rather testily,
whenwe asked him. He caught us hurrying through
thechill green shadows like adulterers. The
riverwas opening and closing its stone lips.
Theriver was pressing Seurat to its lips.
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