Reads for Writers: Backpack Literature by XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          It’s September so I’ve decided to go back to school—well “audit” a writing class using the textbook Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing 4^th edition by XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia. I’m going back to Beginner’s Mind to remember things I’ve forgotten and learn things I never knew.

In the preface, authors Kennedy and Gioia believe:

“…that textbooks should not only be informative and accurate but also lively, accessible, and engaging…read with enjoyment and which will inspire [students] to take their own writing more seriously…” (page xxx)

          I wish I had taken a class like this in college!

          In this textbook, there are short stories, poetry, and plays by many well-known writers including John Updike, Amy Tan, Tim O’Brien, Kate Chopin, Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Anna Deavere Smith, and August Wilson along with some classic writers like William Faulkner, Emily Dickinson, and Shakespeare. After reading these pieces, there are questions then writing assignments. This will sharpen my critical thinking and writing skills as well as introduce me to some writers new to me.

          After the questions at the end of each chapter, there is a Writing Effectively section about the chapter’s topic like plot or point of view followed by a Checklist for your writing and then a Writing Assignment as well as More Topics For Writing. I will complete or just review items as I wish since I’m auditing this class.

          If you are a beginning writer or you need assignments and deadlines to get you writing or you just want to hone your skills, this textbook in the 4^th, 5^th, or any edition may work for you.

I’ll let you know how it’s working for me. There are 30 chapters. My plan is to complete a chapter a week. I’ll post an update of the course as the masterclass post of every month until completion, September through April. Then I will write a summary in May.

I love to read. I love to learn. I love to write. I think I’m going to love this “lively, accessible, and engaging” textbook.

Professionally, I publish on average three book reviews, seven essays, and four articles a month while also working on writing projects. I edit two monthly magazines as well as work as a freelance editor. I’m adding this textbook project to my writing schedule because I believe it will be fun and educational while improving my writing across the board. Writers write! Deadlines rule!

Waiting for My Life by Linda Pastan

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          April is Poetry Month. While poetry in general may not be of interest when you are reading for fun, reading it is a wonderful way to improve your writing.

          Poets have unique ways with words. Reading their poems make me want to expand my writing vocabulary. I know many more words than I use. Writing poetry gives me a place to put them. No one has to know you write poems, long or short, in your notebooks. They are merely writing exercises. In fact, you can just write fragmented phrases as they come into your mind.

Poets convey thoughts and emotions in mind-bending ways. I always look at the world differently after reading poetry. I write differently, more deeply, too.

          I highly recommend writers read poetry by Billy Collins and Mary Oliver. (See posts dated 4/22/13 and 4/28/14 respectively.) And this year I recommend Waiting for My Life by Linda Pastan.

          Read "Secrets" on page 12. The first line: The secrets I keep from myself…tell me you couldn’t fill pages and pages with that writing prompt. It’s the core of a novel or play.

          Her poem, "Elegy", on page 24 shares where misplaced words never written down lurk and tarry.

          Trees are gnarled magicians in her poem, "November", on page 54.

          While words and images are the heart and soul of poetry, the presentation on the page adds to the impact. See the poem “blizzard” on page 59 where short lines pile up upon each other just like snow.

          Read poetry. Write poetically.

Writing poetically requires an open mind, observing eyes, and an expanded vocabulary. Deeper impressions appear on the page.

See what you can create using these tools.

 

 

Reads for Writers: Billy Collins Provides a Masterclass

 

From Kate's Writing Crate...

             As a reader, I always love finding books that appeal to me. As a writer, I am twice as pleased when the authors also provide masterclasses within their books.

            Masterclasses take place when performance artists and musicians work one-on-one with students. Writers don't generally have this option, but I have found some books to be masterclasses for characters, back stories, plots, settings, voice and/or creativity.

                In honor of Poetry Month, I recommend reading any poetry that appeals to you. Poets have  ways of distilling ordinary moments into memorable lines. 

As I read a poem, I underline any phrases that "speak" to me. Sometimes I copy them into my notebooks to use as prompts when I am feeling blocked as they give me new viewpoints to ponder.

                I am in awe of poets as they constantly see details I miss in everyday items and events. Their similes and metaphors keep our language lively, electric even.  Oh to be able to compare, contrast, and sum up our experiences in such succinct, precise, and mind-opening lines.

Who among us cannot quote a stanza, if not a whole  poem? I can still recite two I learned in grade school, but I prefer poems I have come across a bit later in life.

One of my favorite poets is Billy Collins, a Poet Laureate of the United States. His poems make me think, laugh, and pay attention. I think he is an excellent gateway poet—easy to relate to, but with a depth that makes you consider his word choices as carefully as he chose them.

For writers, I love two poems in his book Picnic, Lightning:  "In the Room of a Thousand Miles" and "Lines Lost Among the Trees".  

While his poem "In a Room of a Thousand Miles" focuses more locally for him literally and on the distance between himself and his wife figuratively, I found it a great definition of imagination for me. When you write, aren't you in a room of a thousand miles, a thousand years, a thousand places? We can write about anything we can imagine. Place, time, and space are all up to us, but the details are what ground the writing, make it real and believable.

"Lines Lost Among the Trees" is an elegy for all the phrases, words, and  ideas that slipped from his mind before he could reach pen and paper or wake from his dreams—something all writers have experienced and regret.

In his book Sailing Alone Around the Room, I love "Tuesday, June 4, 1991". He captures an ordinary writing day for him in the company of imaginary secretaries and stenographers, Samuel Pepys, a slow vocal rendition of "You Don't Know What Love Is", time unrolling like an intricate carpet, a small vase of faded flowers, and dawn the next day arriving as the ancients imagined.

In his book The Art of Drowning, his poem "Budapest" makes me smile as he transforms the physical act of writing, pen in hand, into a mythical creature foraging across the page. Good company for any writers feeling too solitary as they meet their daily word counts.

Who are your favorite poets?