Archive for the ‘Author Profile’ Category
Author Profile – Natalie Serber
Welcome to another of our author profile features. Today we’d like to introduce WITS writer in residence Natalie Serber, who grew up in Santa Cruz, California, but currently resides here in Portland, Oregon.
What was the most recent book you read?
A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore
What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on a novel, set in Boring, Oregon, about a mildly unhappy family, struggling with their changing geometry. Parents coping with the landscape of a marriage shadowed by cancer, teenagers who no longer need or want them in the immediate way they once did, teenagers who make their own, sometimes hilarious, sometimes catastrophic, decisions.
What are you currently reading?
Two books by Deborahs; Twilight of the Superheroes, by Deborah Eisenberg, and Curious Attractions, by Debra Spark. If you know another good Debra book, please tell me.
What did you read growing up?
I read Harriet the Spy, Laura Ingalls Wilder books (for a while I carried around an onion wrapped in a dishtowel, pretending it was my doll.) Nancy Drew, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Kurt Vonnegut.
A Recent Favorite book?
Lush Life, by Richard Price
Authors?
Lorrie Moore, Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, E.M. Forster, Tony Hoagland, Junot Diaz, Deborah Eisenberg
How does Oregon influence your writing?
My novel is set in Boring, Oregon and in Portland.
How did you get involved with Literary Arts?
When I moved to Portland, six years ago, I was thrilled about the Arts and Lectures Series and bought season tickets. The first one I attended was Jeffrey Eugenides and I was ecstatic to see so many people walking toward the Schnitz. There were traffic control people with those lit wands as if it was a Stones Concert, and I thought to myself, this is the perfect place for me to live–people take writing and literature seriously.
How is Literary Arts important for writers?
Literary Arts supports writers in multiple ways, first, they give us the opportunity to go into a classroom and share our passion with students. Some writers say that teaching saps them for their own creative work, I find that I am invigorated by my work with students, by their energy, and by the fresh way they look at things.
Where do you go to do your writing?
Reed College Library
When writing, do you set goals for yourself (i.e. ten pages per day)?
Gasp! 10 pages per day….I am so depressed right now. I am happy if I write 2 pages per day. I am painfully slow and deliberate in my writing.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to aspiring writers?
Carry a pen and paper with you wherever you go. Pay attention to the world. And, by all means, read, read, read widely.
Did you write in high school?
Yes I did, but I never had a creative writing class or a visiting writer. I think my high school career would have been much more successful if I’d been exposed to writing, to a wider range of authors, to understanding that what I had to say was valid and worthwhile.
What does WITS do for the student?
Writers in the Schools puts a working artist in the classroom. We come in, we share with the students how we work, how we translate our life experiences in our writing, and hopefully we create a little crack, a little ‘aha’ moment, opening the students to possibilities, to trusting that their ideas are unique and important. When my students share their work aloud, I can see in their faces both fear and pride. It is powerful.
What school do you teach at?
I will be at Marshall this spring.
What has been the biggest reward about doing WITS?
I want to describe that time in the classroom, when I have given the students a prompt, whether it is a piece of music, a phrase, an image, or a line from a poem and we all begin to write, often hesitantly at first, but then, I look up, and I see bent heads and hear pens moving, and everyone is writing–something happens to the air in the room and we become unified, we are all having the same experience, putting down our ideas. I love that.
Tags: Literary Arts, Natalie Serber, Portland Arts & Lectures, WITS
Posted in Author Profile |
Author Profile – Virginia Euwer Wolff
Welcome to another of our author profile features. Today we’ll hear from prize-winning author Virginia Euwer Wolff. Raised in Parkdale, Oregon, Virginia now resides in Oregon City.
Last book read:
Nation by Terry Pratchett
What are you currently working on?
A novel that spans several generations in a family.
What are you currently reading?
Faulkner’s Light in August, Rita Dove’s Sonata Mulattica, and poetry by Lawson Fusao Inada.
What did you read growing up?
Books that were read to me: All the Pooh stories and A.A. Milne poems, Greek myths, Kipling’s Jungle Book, lots of others. Books I read: The Betsy-Tacy books, Nancy Drew, comic books, Mickey Spillane, J.D. Salinger, Charlotte Brontë, Dickens.
Favorite book?
It’s a tie between War and Peace and David Copperfield.
Favorite author?
Alice Munro and so many others.
Favorite poet?
Shakespeare and so many others.
How does Oregon influence your writing?
I see every landscape through the eyes of a native Oregonian, so that the most cacophonous of cities and the most dramatic of world monuments have to pass through my lens of a childhood spent in orchard and woods on the north slope of Mt. Hood. And every tonality in literature has to pass through my basic song of wind through cedar trees, summer sunrises, winter snow blowing. I feel like a newcomer everywhere else, even though I’ve lived in east coast cities for years at a time. So: When I’ve written about inner city lives (in three books), my touch is that of an immigrant who watched and listened, mouth pretty much agape, when, as a young college graduate, I moved to New York City and suddenly began to learn the bumpy vocabulary of concrete, subways, blinking neon everywhere, scores of foreign languages, museums I kept getting lost in, foods I’d never heard of, and, at night, never complete silent dark. Shaun Tan’s book The Arrival illuminates this kind of experience.
It’s said that stories for kids are often about home and away: The journey out, the thrilling and terrifying things to be learned en route, and the return home enlightened by the daunting hugeness of the great world outside–or, if not an actual return home, the discovery of some new place to make a home. I didn’t intend to live this pattern, but it has sort of attached itself to me.
How did you get involved with Literary Arts?
Through the Oregon Book Awards.
Why is Literary Arts important for Portland? Oregon?
Literary Arts brings to our attention the need for language to try to clarify and promote thoughtful living through poetry and prose, lyric and story. We live our lives in narrative, and if we read enough, we may find exactly our own. Literary Arts helps remind us of that.
How is Literary Arts important for writers?
Its arms reach out to every genre, and, through Writers in the Schools, it introduces adult working writers to kids who may be exploring writing for the first time. Its annual Fellowships have helped several authors over barriers between their manuscripts and publication. And the annual Book Awards bring to our attention books we might never have known about. (I’m not sure why playwrights were not included recently, though.)
Opinion of Oregon’s literary scene?
Oh, I think it’s beautifully fluid: sometimes celebrating the sanctity of our trees, hillsides, roaring ocean waves, many-headed weather, and eventful sky—and at other times worshiping urban hipness and Edge. With room for many other literatures in between. Oregon’s literary scene shifts, bends, opens itself to new forms, tonal shades, sensibilities. I still wish there were more connection between children’s authors and grownup authors, but this kind of acknowledgment takes time, and perhaps the appearance of graphic novels (some by Oregonians) can help build that connecting path.
What inspired you to start writing?
The huge search for the precise words to try to get at the astonishing sensations of existence, and the scary attempt to get the cruelty and beauty of life on paper. Somewhere, Virginia Woolf spoke of it as trying to catch the butterfly of existence by throwing a net over it.
What are your three favorite books?
As I said above, two of them are War and Peace and David Copperfield. So many could go in third place, but Crockett Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon is a strong contender.
Where do you go to do your writing?
Into my beautiful studio with views of western red cedar trees, squirrels, birds, and sky just outside every window.
When writing, do you set goals for yourself (i.e. ten pages per day)?
Yes, but it’s amount of time, not number of pages. Weekday mornings are for writing only. Nothing interrupts that schedule, except the rare trip to the veterinarian. And I keep a work calendar; I make myself write a phrase or so, summarizing the progress I made on each day’s rectangle on the page; if I got no work done, a diagonal line goes through that box. At the end of a month, if there are quite a few diagonal lines, they’re a symptom of something gone wrong. As a veteran writer, I know it’s more complicated than simple sloth. My work motto: Millimeters of progress. I save the calendars so I can go back through the years that I spent on a specific book and trace the book’s trajectory (perhaps that’s too generous a word for a process that is nearly invisible to the naked eye). Each book takes me years to write; each lecture, speech, or essay takes months.
I was glad to find Anchee Min’s description of her writing process, because it is mine: “Like a long line of ants walking for blocks carrying a crooked cricket leg.”
What’s one piece of advice you would give to aspiring writers?
Go to museums. Museums of many different kinds. Because museums force us to ask questions we would not otherwise have asked. (“What’s that?” “Why would anybody want to sculpt that?” “Is that art?” “What makes it art?” “Am I allowed to laugh at it?” “Is that supposed to be a house or a poodle?” “They invented that in 1777?” “How did they think that up?” “They made that in Nigeria?” “That really came from an Egyptian tomb?” “What am I learning in this instant?”) And make notes. Everywhere.
Tags: Literary Arts, Virginia Wolff
Posted in Author Profile |
Author Profile – Mark Pomeroy
As part of our ongoing author profile series we’re happy to feature Mark Pomeroy, a local Portlander and Writers in the Schools resident.
What is the most recent book you enjoyed?
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan.
What are you currently reading?
The Devil’s Highway by Luis Urrea
How is Literary Arts important for writers?
It not only supports writers, financially and emotionally, through its fellowships and awards, it also connects them to neighborhood communities, gets them out and sharing their passion for the word.
What does WITS do for students?
It exposes them to people who work hard to try to make art. People who consider words as sacred, often piercing, sometimes healing things, prone to bolstering lives and making us feel less alone. It also helps kids build confidence; for some, the creative writing is a lifeline.
What school do you teach at?
Cleveland currently. In past years, Madison, Franklin, and Roosevelt. Lots of terrific kids in each school. In a culture where many people are scared of teenagers, the WITS work reveals an often heartening reality.
How does Oregon influence your writing?
Places like the coast, the Salmon River near Brightwood, the High Desert near Bend are all in my blood. As a writer, part of my job is to try to be open to all places that I experience – and to honor those that shape me.
Opinion of Oregon’s literary scene?
Scenes are good for community-building and a bit of excitement, and Oregon’s is among the best. But then it comes back to sitting in a room, quieting down, getting some work done.
What motivated you to do this program?
I love writing, I love teaching, and Literary Arts is a first-rate organization, one I’m proud to be associated with.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to aspiring writers
If you really believe in your work, put in the time at your desk.
What have been the biggest rewards while doing WITS?
Feeling the current of electricity in a classroom when a poem or story just clobbers kids. I love that. Seeing kids stand up at public readings and deliver knockout performances of their work. Seeing them open up to writing and, in many cases, life.
Posted in Author Profile |
Author Profile – Hunt Holman
Welcome to another of our author profile features. Today we’ll hear from Lake Oswego resident and Writers in the Schools playwright Hunt Holman.
What is the most recent book you’ve read?
2666 by Roberto Bolano
What are you currently working on?
I’m working on rewrites of a play called Willow Jade. Willow Jade began life with a reading in Portland Center Stage’s Made in Oregon Series in July 2008. It will be produced by Portland Playhouse in January 2010, as part of the Fertile Ground Festival.
What did you read growing up?
I read mostly fantasy and sci-fi novels. I loved a lot of different books, but my far and away favorite is Lord of the Rings, of course, followed by Dune. I still read Lord of the Rings to my own kids. I’ve read the whole trilogy probably four or five times now. The Ride of the Rohirrim still moves me to tears.
What’s one piece of advice that you always tell your students?
I tell them that if they think the scene they are working on is stupid, they should let one of their characters say, “This is stupid,” and see what happens, because you always want what you are thinking, hearing, experiencing right now in the present, to be what is recorded on the page.
Did you write in high school?
Yes. A friend and I wrote sketch comedy, mostly inspired by or directly ripped off from Monty Python. Our amazing drama teacher actually gave us the keys to the theater, and let us stage the pieces we wrote, for audiences, even. I still marvel at that.
What has been the biggest reward about doing WITS?
The best part for me is always the readings. I love attending the public readings at the end of the residence, and watching students who, at the beginning of the semester, had no idea they could do this, stand up in front of their classmates and families to read their new plays.
OregonLive.com has an older interview with Hunt at http://blog.oregonlive.com/onstage/2008/07/jaw_interview_hunt_holman.html.
Posted in Author Profile |
Author Profile – Laura Moulton
This will be the first of several posts that profile local writers, Literary Arts staff, and Writers in the Schools (WITS) residents and students.
Today I’m excited to introduce Writers in the Schools author Laura Moulton. Laura is originally from Kuna, Idaho, but now resides in Portland, Oregon. Laura was kind enough to answer some of our questions.
What is the most recent book you’ve read?
Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever by Walter Kirn.
What are you currently working on?
For the last year or so I’ve been at work on a novel set in Provo, Utah in the early 1990s. It’s about a band of Merry Prankster-style Mormon kids, coming of age at a religious university.
What are you currently reading?
Everything by Dan Chaon. I went to a workshop on character development/authorial distance given by him at Wordstock and his advice was very helpful – it made me wish I could follow him around for a year, writing down everything he says, but in lieu of that, (since he’s a professor at Oberlin, and doesn’t live in Portland) I’ll read all his books.
How does Oregon influence your writing?
Oregon is a terrific place to hatch projects and mad schemes (and sometimes get them funded). My husband and I ran the literary journal Gumball Poetry for nine years in Portland, and at various times we received financial support from Literary Arts and RACC, not to mention the support from all the cafes and bookstores that hosted a Gumball Poetry vending machine. So I think that the state itself is full of opportunities for writers and artists, and ever since I moved to Portland in 1998, I’ve had the sense that Portland is just packed to the gills with writers, all furiously typing alongside one another, or writing in longhand on legal notebooks in cafes, or emailing installments of novels to their mothers. That sort of thing. Oregon feels extremely supportive of its writers, and I’m very glad to live among them in Portland.
Did you write in high school?
I did write in high school. An early piece of fiction that earned me attention (in the form of a 2-day suspension my senior year) was a phony letter I typed during my typing class and distributed to faculty mailboxes, supposedly from Bill Graham, my history teacher at the time. The letter declared that recent warm weather was causing “lovemaking” in the halls, and called for condom dispensers to be installed in the restrooms and counselor’s office. What I remember best about the prank was the thrill at getting his voice right, (and it wasn’t just his spelling of “permiscuous”). The fact that some teachers believed the memo was real, and confronted Graham gave me hope that I really could write convincing fiction.
What does WITS do for the student? Performance? Confidence?
I think that WITS can be a lot of different things for a student. A WITS residency might mark one of the first times a student has been able to truly play and experiment with words, and temporarily suspend the rules of more academic writing. I’ve seen students who are reluctant writers discover graphic novels (like local graphic novelist Craig Thompson’s Blankets, or Sentences: The Life and Times of MF Grimm) and realize that it’s possible to tell a story with their own art work and a more economical use of words. I’ve worked with students who wrote very little for me, but who decided in the last week or two of the residency that they wanted to read a story or poem at the final WITS reading, and I’ve watched these same students stand at the mic in front of a crowd at a bookstore or café, stepping away from their former reluctant selves to screw up their courage and read this piece of art they’ve made, and afterward they just shine, shine.
What school do you teach at?
I have had the opportunity to teach at lots of schools around the city, from Franklin to Madison to Grant. My favorite residencies have been at Jefferson High School and Harriet Tubman Academy for Young Women. This spring I’m slated to teach a residency at Lincoln High School that will utilize the Portland Art Museum – that will be a very exciting collaboration, and I’m really looking forward it.
What is one piece of advice that you always tell your students?
Every time I start a new residency, I begin by challenging my students to keep a writer’s notebook. In fact, I tell them that if they carry a notebook with them during the length of my residency, writing at least 3 times a week, I will buy them lunch on the last day. I tell them to observe with fresh energy all of the people and things around them, to record the oddbird conversations they hear on the #6 bus, to describe an argument they’ve heard their parents have, to write when they feel lonely or afraid, and so on. It’s all about gathering up the raw material of their lives, so that we might begin to render it on paper in the class, and shape their stories. So I guess the one piece of advice I always tell my students is that they are the experts on their particular lives: no one else looks through their eyes onto their experience, and no one else can tell the story like they can.
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