Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 82
June 28, 2024
Taming those 'unruly' novels
“When language istreated beautifully and interestingly, it can feel good for the body: It'snourishing; it's rejuvenating.” – Aimee Bender
Born on this date in 1969, Bender is a novelist and shortstory writer who studied creative writing at the University of San Diego andCalifornia Irvine then went into simultaneous careers as a writer andteacher. She teaches creative writing atthe University of Southern California and was Director of the USC PhD inCreative Writing & Literature for several years.
Known for her stories about young people,Bender said, “I love to write about people in their 20s. It's such a fraughtand exciting and kind of horrible time.” The winner of two Pushcart Prizes, her novel An Invisible Sign of MyOwn, was named as a Los Angeles Times “Pick of the Year.” Her collection of short stories, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, spentseveral months on both the New York Timesand Los Angeles Times bestsellerlists. Her latest novel is 2020's The Butterfly Lampshade.
Despite the success of her novels, she said she prefers short stories. “Novels are so much unrulier and morestressful to write. A short story can last two pages and then it's over, andthat's kind of a relief. But, I really like balancing the two.”
Bender said she enjoys writing. “The human being'sability to make a metaphor to describe a human experience is just reallycool.”
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June 27, 2024
'They must be felt with the heart'
“Themost beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must befelt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
June 27th is Helen Keller Day, firstproclaimed in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter in commemoration of theanniversary of her birth (in Alabama) on this date in 1880. Author, political activist, and lecturer, shewas the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree and alongtime writer, first being published at age 12.
The story of how her teacher AnneSullivan broke through Keller’s wall of silence and isolation imposed by a nearcomplete lack of language and leading to Helen’s learning to communicate isdepicted in the wonderful book, play and movie, The Miracle Worker. Ultimately,Keller authored a dozen books, hundreds of essays and many stories, andinspired countless others with her writing and speaking skills.
In 1964 Keller was a recipient of ThePresidential Medal of Freedom. Posthumously (she died in 1968) she was inducted into the Alabama Women'sHall of Fame (in 1971) and was one of 12 inaugural inductees into the AlabamaWriters Hall of Fame (2015).
“When we do the best that we can,”she said, “we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life ofanother. I seldom think about mylimitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague,like a breeze among flowers.”
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A Writer's Moment: 'They must be felt with the heart'
June 25, 2024
A Writer's Moment: 'So, who wrote that story down?'
'So, who wrote that story down?'
“Armenianfolklore has it that three apples fell from Heaven: one for the teller of astory, one for the listener, and the third for the one who 'took it to heart.'What a pity Heaven awarded no apple to the one who wrote the story down.”– Nancy Willard
Willard, born in Ann Arbor, MI, onthis date in 1936 was a novelist, poet and both author/illustrator ofchildren’s books. She won the coveted Newbery Medal for her combinationpoetry-prose A Visit ToWilliam Blake’s Inn.
Growing up “surrounded bystories and storytellers,” she studied writing at the University of Michigan,where she earned both her B.A. and Ph.D. (sandwiched around a Master’s degree from Stanford). She started her career teaching writingat Vassar and then branched off to her writing, particularly children’s andyoung adult books, combining writing and teaching throughout her life. Over the years she authored 4 novels, 4nonfiction books, 18 books of poetry, and a remarkable 43 children’s books, thelast one, Gum, published just monthsbefore her death in 2017.
Among her many awards besides theNewbery were an O.Henry Prize, 2 National Endowment for the ArtsLiterature Fellowships, and a Devins Award for Poetry.Always looking to write stories with a twist, she noted, “When I was growing up, I loved stories in which a girl sets out on aquest to rescue the prince instead of the other way around.”
June 24, 2024
A Writer's Moment: Projecting that 'What If?' factor
Projecting that 'What If?' factor
“Iloved to read, and if I could've been a professional reader, that's probablywhat I would've wanted to be!“ – Kathryn Lasky
Perhaps best-known for her “Diaries” tales – where she builds a story around the diary of her protagonist –Lasky was born in Indiana on this date in 1944 and now makes her home in Massachusetts. She is the recipient of numerous writing honors. including the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers'Literature and a Newbery Prize. Her writing, she said, isoften triggered by both current events and a “What if?” mentality. The author of overone hundred books, her most notable series is Guardians of Ga’Hoole.
“When I was growing up I lovedreading historical fiction, but too often it was about males; or, if it wasabout females, they were girls who were going to grow up to be famous likeBetsy Ross, Clara Barton, or Harriet Tubman. No one ever wrote about plain,normal, everyday girls. I always wondered what it was like to be just a normalkid growing up in trying times or during a great moment in history.” That "What If?" factor, if you will.
“Whether you are a 12-year-oldprincess or a 12-year-old regular kid, you need to know you are loved andrespected.”
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June 22, 2024
'Plausible stuff; transformative words'
“Somevery plausible stuff is being written by women in a way that most men are notdoing.” – Amy Clampitt
Born June 15,1920 Clampitt was a reference librarian at the Audubon Society when herfirst poem was published (by The New Yorker) in 1978. In 1983, she published her first full-lengthcollection, The Kingfisher. Untilher death from cancer in 1994, Clampitt published five books of poetry,including the award-winning What the Light Was Like.
So transformative was her work thatshe was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Grant in 1992 while working on whatwould become her final book, A SilenceOpens. For Saturday’s Poem, here is Clampitt’s,
Beach Glass
While you walk the water's edge,
turning over concepts
I can't envision, the honking buoy
serves notice that at any time
the wind may change,
the reef-bell clatters
its treble monotone, deaf as Cassandra
to any note but warning. The ocean,
cumbered by no business more urgent
than keeping open old accounts
that never balanced,
goes on shuffling its millenniums
of quartz, granite, and basalt.
It behaves
toward the permutations of novelty—
driftwood and shipwreck, last night's
beer cans, spilt oil, the coughed-up
residue of plastic—with random
impartiality, playing catch or tag
or touch-last like a terrier,
turning the same thing over and over,
over and over. For the ocean, nothing
is beneath consideration.
The houses
of so many mussels and periwinkles
have been abandoned here, it's hopeless
to know which to salvage. Instead
I keep a lookout for beach glass—
amber of Budweiser, chrysoprase
of Almadén and Gallo, lapis
by way of (no getting around it,
I'm afraid) Phillips'
Milk of Magnesia, with now and then a rare
translucent turquoise or blurred amethyst
of no known origin.
The process
goes on forever: they came from sand,
they go back to gravel,
along with treasuries
of Murano, the buttressed
astonishments of Chartres,
which even now are readying
for being turned over and over as gravely
and gradually as an intellect
engaged in the hazardous
redefinition of structures
no one has yet looked at.
