Literary folks--here's a link to the Spring Literary Festival's schedule and writer bios. Before you go, browse the writer bios to see which ones interest you the most. They pull some pretty credible writers every year (George Suanders read last year).
While all of the author's are worth seeing, Debra Marquart's degree is in Creative Writing and Environment, so it may be particularly relevant to class. Also, Rita Dove is a former U.S. Poet Laureate--so that's amazing.
For your extra credit, comment below. Your response should discuss 1. What happened and 2. Your personal reaction to it.
Hope to see you there :)
On Wednesday night I went to the lecture by Rita Dove. She is a poet who currently teaches at the University of Virgina. Her lecture consisted of some of her opinions about writing and how she forms her ideas when writing. When she first started her lecture she started off with a story on how she didn't know what to name her lecture. She claimed that the quote "romancing the stone" kept running through her mind. Romancing the stone is actually a movie and she decided she had to watch it and she told us that it was a terrible movie. She went on to explain that she could not decide what to on the right side of her lecture title "romancing the stone." She claimed that the emptiness on the right side is what terrifies the author and sometimes it is acceptable to leave it empty. I thought this was interesting because she was trying to tell us that we don't have to include something if it doesn't fit. Doing this can ruin your story because you are trying to force it into your story.
ReplyDeleteShe also brought up some interesting quotes in her lecture. One quote she brought up was "I invent nothing, I rediscover." She went on to say that there is nothing new on the planet and everything that we find has been there the entire time. She tied this into a quote by Mark Twain that claims, "books remain unwritten because the right form of the story has not been discovered. She disagrees with this statement because she believes that there is more than one right form to a story, but only one right fit to a story. I agree with her statement because I think there is more than one right way to write a successful story. I was a little confused on what she meant by only one right fit to a story.
On Thursday night I went to Debra Marquart's reading. Debra is a creative non-fiction writer, who also happens to play in a rock and roll band. She read out of a book that took her almost fourteen years to write. I believe she said the book was called "The Horizontal World." Basically the book was about living in the middle of know where in North Dakota. She grew up on farm, that had been passed down from generation to generation. She also read another passage out of her writings. She was a little unsure of how it would go because she never had read it to anyone.
ReplyDeleteI think Debra Marquart has a very creative mind. She had great description in both of her writings. I could picture everything in my head and I felt like I was in the story. I also felt the essay she was a little uncertain about was really going somewhere. It made me want to read more and find out what happened in her life. I felt that this was a really good reading for what we are learning in class right now because the topic we are on in class kind of fit her story. Being around the farm life as a little kid, I know what she meant by the chores she had as a kid. When I would go to my cousins for a week in the summer, we would always have to do chores around the farm, so I knew what she went through. I really enjoyed Debra's reading, and it really made me want to read her book. Her great description made you a character in a book and thats definately a great sign of a good writer.
Last Thursday I went to see Debra Marquart read. Her first reading was about her childhood in a town in North Dakota. Her second reading was about her experiences as a traveling musician and the "other woman."
ReplyDeleteShe is a talented writer. Everything had a nice amount of detail. Did not have trouble picturing her stories in my head. Her characters were developed enough for her to say what she had to say. No more, no less.
That being said, I did not like it. She is a fine writer, and nothing against her. She is most definitely a better writer than I will ever be. I just did not like the subject matter. I was not interested her childhood in North Dakota, or even her much spicier life as a traveling musician. There is nothing there. She is just telling stories from her life. Not to be mean, but I don't really care about North Dakota or the lives of traveling bands. The only thing I could relate to was the music aspect and her mentioning Nietzsche and Sartre. Other than that, I had trouble paying attention. When I read, there has to be something I can relate to or some idea that is being presented. I read to learn and be enlightened. I don't really read to be entertained.
Friday morning I attended the Spring Literary Festival and was able to sit in while Padgett Powell was presenting. Padgett is a creative non fiction writer who has accomplished quite a lot as a writer, and now is a writing professor at the University of Florida. He has won a few awards for his writing and teachers seminars in Europe during the summer.
ReplyDeleteHe was introduced with a long but quite humorous dialogue that gave a parallel impression of Padgett's sense of humor. Padgett seems to a mellow man who used a lot of dry humor throughout his presentation. He was extremely descriptive and I honestly got lost a couple times trying to understand what he was trying to say. He briefly talked about his accomplishments and gave some credit to the things that inspired him. Throughout his presentation he was sure to mix in his humor though. He said, "Anyone who gives advice to someone should spend 40 days in the desert before and after they give the advice." The crowd seemed to love this and began laughing but I didn't quite see the humor in it. He explained how he started his own church, a church without god. Following this, he told everyone that his number one rule was to remain loose but not as loose as a noodle. This helped me to understand him more because it described him perfectly. Padgett is an extremely creative and 'deep' man that is not afraid to express and explain his thoughts in detail. It is how he became the man he is today. He then said a quote towards the end of the presentation that I thought was quite clever. He said, "The future becomes present, present becomes the past, and past becomes filled with regrets."
Overall, I enjoyed Padgett's presentation because of the humor (at least the jokes I understood). He is definitely a talented man who continues to try and help others learn to express themselves and write as well as he does, and I applaud him for this.
I attended the Spring Literary Festival with JHull. We were both able to see one speaker, Padgett Powell. Powell is currently a writing professor at the University of Florida. He has written multiple books, his most recent was The Interrogative Mood: A Novel?
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting man to listen to at the Literary Festival. He was very monotone, and it was very hard for me to get involved in what he was saying. I wasn't really intrigued with any of the things that he had to say, maybe because I didn't really understand most of his jokes. The faculty and students who did attend seemed to really enjoy his thoughts, and found him very funny. I personally would not go and see him speak again, but from the reaction of the crowd they sure would.
Since it seemed like I got off on the wrong foot with Padgett, it might make me read one of his novels. I'm not sure exactly what he writes about, so I don't know if I would be interested in the topic. Overall, he seemed like a good guy but not enough passion to be a public speaker.