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!

Reads for Writers: Bill Bryson's Shakespeare: The Illustrated and Updated Edition 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, backstories, plots, settings, voice, and/or creativity.

          I love books—hardcover or paperback—but some books are more physically beautiful than others. Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare: The Illustrated and Updated Edition is one of the beautiful books.

          The glossy, heavy stock paper pages are filled with full color photographs, paintings including the Cobbe portrait of Shakespeare identified in 2009 but not without controversy, documents, woodcuts, drawings, and sketches not to mention Bryson’s entrancing prose and entertaining facts like:

Shakespeare produced roughly one tenth of all the most quotable utterances written or spoken in English since its inception. (page 151)

He coined—or, to be more carefully precise, made the first recorded use of—2,035 words, and interestingly he indulged the practice from the very outset of his career. (page 148)

                    and

Although he left nearly a million words of text, we have just fourteen words in his own hand—his name signed six times and the words ‘by me’ on his will. (page 24)

That juxtaposition just adds to the mystery of Shakespeare’s life.

While organized chronologically, Bill Bryson’s well-researched book is written as a captivating guided tour of Shakespeare’s life, historic London, and the rise and fall of the theatres. Shakespeare’s companions and competitors all have roles as well. Who would the man be without his time, place, and contemporaries? Not to mention his published works. Given all the facts, it’s difficult to imagine where the English language would be without Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s plays might have been lost…had it not been for his close friends and colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell, who seven years after Shakespeare’s death, produced a folio edition of his complete works…Heminges and Condell were the last of the original Chamberlain’s Men. (page 202)

          No one knows exactly how many First Folios were printed…but all or part of three hundred survive. (page 211-212) Shakespeare never entirely dropped out of esteem—as the publication of Second, Third and Fourth Folios clearly attests—but nor was he reverenced as he is today. After his death, some of his plays weren’t performed again for a very long time. (page 217)

          For any writer, being recognized and read nearly 400 years after death is astonishing—and deserving of celebration in such a gorgeous and engaging book.