Beth Kephart's Blog, page 158
October 21, 2012
City of Light: a link to my Inquirer essay on resurgent Philadelphia
Every now and then you find a home for the stories you love to write, and I have found that home recently at the Inquirer, with an occasional piece in the Sunday Currents section. Today my story on Philadelphia runs with four of my photographs. Here are two others, in color. Our city, alive.
The story begins like this:
Resurgent Philadelphia is cinched with light. Walking, you'll find the
sun smacked up against the Drake, and the eyebrow of the moon hooking
the Schuylkill during its ascent to higher sky. You'll find a pinker
dawn behind the lonesome hawks and a fringe of gold on the window-box
flowers, hung like so many pairs of drapes on Delancey, Spruce, and
Pine.
Celebrating Brooklyn, Friendship, Love, and Truth
Yesterday was loveliness. A few moments stolen with my gorgeous son, a tour of Brooklyn with my friend Reiko (we always have so much to say, we know each other so well, and her new home is bountiful, artful), and time with my former student, Kim, the lovely creature in gold, who sits beside her own Big G during a celebration of their engagement.
This photograph was sent to me this morning by Kim's mom, Bonnie, whom you can see in the right edge of the mirror. Bonnie is reading from Handling the Truth—Bonnie is, in fact, the first out-loud reader of Handling the Truth. The words she reads are words Kim had written in my classroom a few years, words I loved so much that I include them in Handling, a book about the making of memoir.
Kim's final lines are these:
I was lucky, I was born an American, I was born healthy, I was born into a loving home. I was unlucky, I was born judgmental, I have seen terror, I have seen desperate cries for life. So we continue: surprised, derisive, and awake by intuition.
October 20, 2012
Join us next Saturday at Penn: talking memoir with Buzz Bissinger, Cynthia Kaplan, James Martin, and John Prendergast
Next Saturday afternoon I will have the pleasure of returning to my alma mater (and my second-semester employer), the University of Pennsylvania, for a homecoming conversation about memoir. John Prendergast will moderate. Buzz Bissinger, Cynthia Kaplan, and James Martin will participate. We hope to see you there.
Here are the facts, as presented on the Kelly Writers web:
Alumni Authors Series: Memoir Writing
Buzz Bissinger, Cynthia Kaplan,
Beth Kephart, and James Martin
4:30 PM, October 27, 2012 in the Arts Cafe
co-sponsored by: the Penn Gazette
moderated by: John Prendergast
Join alumni authors at Kelly Writers House as they read from and talk about
their work in memoir. Panelists include Pulitzer Prize-winner Buzz Bissinger (C'76), whose latest
book is Father's Day: A Journey Into the Mind and Heart of My Extraordinary
Son; essayist and performer Cynthia Kaplan (C'85), whose "true stories" are collected in
Why I'm Like This and Leave the Building Quickly; Beth Kephart C'82,
author of multiple memoirs and young-adult novels, and of the forthcoming Handling the Truth; and James Martin (W'82), author of In Good Company, which tells the story of his conversion from GE executive to
Jesuit priest, and eight other books. Pennsylvania Gazette Editor John
Prendergast (C'80) will moderate the discussion.
H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger is among the nation's most honored and
distinguished writers. A native of New York City, Buzz is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the
Livingston Award, the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award and the National Headliners
Award, among others. He also was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is the author of four
highly acclaimed nonfiction books: Friday Night Lights, A Prayer for the City, Three Nights in August, and
his newest, Father's Day, his memoir about his twin sons. Born 13
weeks premature in 1983 and weighing less than two pounds, Bissinger's sons have lived
diametrically opposed lives. After obtaining his master's in education from the University of
Pennsylvania, Gerry is now a public school teacher while Zach, because of oxygen deprivation at
birth, suffered trace brain damage and struggles every day with enormous learning disabilities.
Cynthia Kaplan is the author of two collections of humorous essays,
"Why I'm Like This: True Stories" and "Leave the Building Quickly." Her humor pieces have appeared
in many newspapers, magazines and anthologies. She is the the co-host, with CBS Sunday Morning's
Nancy Giles, of the comedy anthology series The New Jack Paar Show and
has appeared in comedy and rock clubs throughout the country. She has written for film and
television and recently released a comedy album, Fangry. She has never
appeared on Law & Order.
Beth Kephart is the award-winning author of fourteen
books—five memoirs, a book of history and prose poetry, a corporate fable, and seven young
adult novels. Three more books are set for release in 2013, including Handling
the Truth (Gotham), a book about the making of memoir, and its consequences. Kephart teaches
creative nonfiction at Penn during the spring semesters, is the strategic writing partner in a
boutique communications firm, and reviews widely. Her book blog, beth-kephart.blogspot.com, has twice been named a top
author blog by the BBAW. Her essays are widely anthologized. Kepharts most recent book, Small Damages, a novel set in southern Spain, was released this past summer
by Philomel to starred reviews.
James Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, contributing editor at
America, the national Catholic magazine, and author of several books,
including The New York Times bestseller The Jesuit
Guide to (Almost) Everything, and My Life with the Saints and Between
Heaven and Mirth, both named by Publishers Weekly as "Best Books"
of the Year. He is a frequent commentator in the media on matters of religion and spirituality,
and has written for The New York Times, The
Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He has appeared in
venues as diverse as NPR's "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," PBS's "Newshour with Jim Lehrer" and
Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." Before entering the Jesuits in 1988, Father Martin graduated
from Penn's Wharton School of Business and worked for six years in corporate finance. During his
Jesuit training he worked at a hospice for the sick and dying in Jamaica run by Mother Teresa's
sisters, with street-gang members in the housing projects of Chicago, and for two years in Nairobi,
Kenya, helping East African refugees start small businesses.
October 19, 2012
Handling the Truth arrives: a moment of quiet glory
Forgive my silence these past few days; I have been studying Handling the Truth, reading it slow.
Then, just as I was finishing my review of the proof pages, UPS knocked on the door.
Here she is, so gloriously covered and cared for by the fantastic team at Gotham. Galleys, of course, for the book won't be released until next August. But so much to hold onto, between now and then.
This feels like a life's work. Dangerous. Precious. Everything ripe and rich. Fueled, at its heart, by the beauty of my students. I am grateful for so many things.
For more on Handling, go here.
October 18, 2012
Handling the Truth: a reader's first words
I was suffering from fear before these 250 proof pages of Handling the Truth. Perhaps I want too much for this book on the making of memoir, expect too much from it. Perhaps it is never easy for me to read my own work, to not get into some scuffle with myself. Whatever it was, I was one-hundred percent procrastinating. Writing Florence. Making soup. Folding laundry. Taking a walk. Battling spider webs. Reviewing student applications. Calling a friend.
Inevitably, it was time. I stood at my desk (sitting would not do) and read. I had a new red pen, ready to attack my own words, certain that I'd need attacking.
I had reached page 100 or so when an email came in from the only person who has read this book, besides my agent and my friends at Gotham. I stopped. Clicked the note open. Read.
No one really knows how meaningful the first words of encouragement can be, or how much peace they give a writer.
Thank you, John.
on reading page proofs
They frighten me, these 250 pages of Handling the Truth, all set out in type now, all so nearly done.
We write our books, furious and urgent.
We give them time to breathe.
We return to them, after weeks have gone by, to discover who we've been.
Sunday, I tell myself. Sunday I'll begin.
October 16, 2012
Handling the Truth: the first-pass pages arrive
And soon I will sit and read again and hope that all I meant to say, all I need to say, is here, and here clearly.
Thank you, Lauren Marino and Susan Barnes of Gotham, for seeing this book through.
with every new book I write, it seems
.... like I have never written before. Here is the scene. Here is the mood. How presumptuous, to think it might somehow bend to words.
I sit here, my eyes closed, teaching myself writing all over again.
It's never easy. You are never an old pro. You are just, perhaps, old. Each book is a virgin landscape. You may or may not succeed.
October 15, 2012
The German translation of Nothing but Ghosts—in, well, Germany
My friend Annika Duesberg has been spotting Nothing but Ghosts (in the German translation) in and around bookstores in her home country. This photograph comes from a bookstore in Dortmund.
It makes me happy. So does Annika, by the way.[image error]
