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Category Archives: non-fiction
“Judging by her publicity photos, the natural assumption would be that American novelist Edith Wharton wrote in a traditional manner, at the gold-tooled leather-topped desk in her extremely well-stocked library.”
But this was “in fact a deliberate illusion.” She wrote in bed. Why? Johnson suspects that it had something to do with the desire to delay getting dressed, which for women in the 1800s, meant getting tied into a corset. … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction
Tagged Alex Johnson, Rooms of Their Own, Trivia about writers, Where Great Writers Write
1 Comment
“The truth is provisional.”
Joan Didion questioned the idea of objective journalism, writes Hilton Als in his Foreword for Didion’s last collection of essays, Let Me Tell You What I Mean. Admit that you have filters, and that “who you are at the time … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction
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“Any radical change in poetic form is likely to be the symptom of some very much deeper change in society and in the individual.”
What a crank T. S. Eliot must have been! He is the champion of contradiction. Consider this: his difficult and complex poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” revolutionized poetry, and many consider it to be a prime example … Continue reading
“Americans, it turns out, smile more than any other society on earth.”
Susan Cain, whose book Quiet launched her career as the Patron Saint of Introverts ten years ago, has written a new book that validates English teachers, artists, and everyone who is drawn to sad stories. Her argument – that “sorrow … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction
Tagged Bitter-Sweet, compassion, Happiness is over-rated, Susan Cain
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“I became a fine singer . . .in later years I was to be of great help to my husband with his song writing.”
As a fan of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, I was unaware of the role that Burns’ wife played with the development of his songs until I toured the home that he lived in at the time of his death … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction, poetry
Tagged Jean Armour, Robert Burns, wife of Robert Burns
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“There is a notion that creative people are absent-minded, reckless, heedless of social customs and obligations.”
The poet Mary Oliver continues: “It is, hopefully, true.” She argues that interruptions and schedules and errands are the enemies of creative work. I’ve been thinking a lot about the level of concentration that writing require. I’m working with writers … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction
Tagged creativity requires concentration, Mary Oliver, poet, Upstream: Selected Essays
1 Comment
“Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo . . .”
Virginia Woolf argues that life is not comprised of an orderly series of events, but rather, life is complex and spiritual in nature. Therefore, when writing about life, novelists should “. . . convey this varying, unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction
Tagged a favorite writer, luminous halo, The Common Reader, Virginia Woolf
1 Comment
“People writing about imaginary events were less depressed than people writing about actual trauma.”
In Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction, Jessica Lourey cites academic research that found that people who write fiction can experience more physical health benefits than people who write autobiography. In my college classes, … Continue reading
Posted in memoir, non-fiction
Tagged Control the story, Jessica Lourey, Rewrite Your Life
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“The writer must solve two problems: Can it be done? and, Can I do it?”
Every book, story, and poem, Annie Dillard says, presents challenges, “which the writer discovers as soon as his first excitement dwindles.” That’s when the real work begins. Can it be done? Can the writer engage our intellects and our hearts? … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction
Tagged Annie Dillard, Pulitzer Prize recipient, The Writing Life, Writing challenges
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“What would happen if one conceptualized a social system as a system of energy?”
Here’s a radical idea: The primary responsibility of teachers and leaders is not to issue orders; it’s to release the energy of the people and manage the processes for using that energy to achieve goals. This idea was ahead of … Continue reading
“Turn procrastination into rehearsal.”
Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, describes writers like me when he says that when we’re not writing, we are often doubting ourselves. We feel bad. Instead, we could think of this period of delay as … Continue reading
“There is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go.”
Annie Dillard describes two kinds of seeing. The first kind of seeing is like taking pictures with a camera, moving from shot to shot, reading your light meter. In the second kind, you become the camera, and your body’s shutter … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction
Tagged Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Pulitzer Prize recipient, radiance, Seeing, transformative
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“Self-trust is the essence of heroism.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s description of heroism looks simple: heroes have strong values; they don’t listen to doubters. But Emerson’s essays can be described as collections of complex ideas. He also says that heroism “has pride; it is the extreme of … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction
Tagged challenging writer, Essays, heroism, Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“But memoir is neither testament nor fable nor analytic transcription.”
So, then, what is memoir? A memoir should “lift from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform event, deliver wisdom.” In other words, the writer’s story needs to illustrate a point. Rather than simply telling … Continue reading
Posted in memoir, non-fiction
Tagged The Situation and the Story, truth in memoirs, Vivian Gornick, Writing Memoirs
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“Putting together a novel is essentially putting together the lives of stranger I’m coming to know.”
As it turns out, writing nonfiction stories is not very different from writing fiction for Ann Patchett. The title essay for this collection describes how she puts together an understanding of the life of the stranger who comes to stay … Continue reading
Posted in memoir, non-fiction
Tagged Ann Patchett, engrossing, generous, stranger comes to town, These Precious Days, warm-hearted
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