FAMOUS WRITERS FROM ARIZONA

Lew Welch

Zane Grey

Erma Bombeck

Diane Gabaldon

J.A. Jance

Barbara Park

Richard Shelton

Alberto Rios

Charles G. Finney

Stephenie Meyer

FAMOUS WRITERS FROM ALASKA

Dana Stabenow

David Marusek

Sara King

Velma Wallis

Eowyn Ivey

Ronald Spatz

Charles Wohlforth

William Scott Home

PEOPLE WHO ARE/WERE VORACIOUS READERS

Theodore Roosevelt

Jane Austen

Winston Churchill

Albert Einstein

Queen Elizabeth I

LeBron James

Warren Buffet

Mark Cuban

Reese Witherspoon

Oprah Winfrey

 Marilyn Monroe

Jim Morrison

SNIPPETS AND OUTLINES

 I have written mostly snippets and outlines for stories in recent days. So much goes through my mind that I write down. I always carry anotebook and pen. 

FAMOUS WRITERS FROM ALABAMA

Harper Lee

Truman Capote (born in New Orleans, raised in Monroeville, Alabama)

Fannie Flagg

Zora Neale Hurston

Helen Keller

Sonia Sanchez

Albert Murray

T.S. Stribling

Zelda Fitzgerald (wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald)

WORDS OF WISDOM

A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.

 ~Salman Rushdie 

EAST VILLAGE

 I visited the East Village neighborhood of the city the other day. In the eighties, it was a thriving scene of arts, theater, writers, and creativity. Now with all the gentrification and rising rents, the East Village is a shell of its heyday.

I am saying here that the need for the arts is greater than ever. The need for more spaces for artists and performers to display their talents is greatly needed.

I MUST WRITE

 

WORDS OF WISDOM

Writing is like any other sort of sport. In order for you to get better at it, you have to exercise the muscle. 

~Jason Reynolds

ROBERT HAYDEN

 

Robert Hayden (1913-1980) will be one of the authors I will do a feature on when my radio program is ready to go. I find him to be an interesting poet who is underappreciated by the public, especially by black audiences.

PLAYWRITING

I have written a couple of plays in the past. Having been to numerous plays, I'm drawn to the dialogue by the actors. I also like the various positions the performers in their scenes. 

Sometimes dialogue can be a challenge for me. Part of the reason is that I am a quiet and reserved person. When I write a play I'm concerned that it will be too short because of not enough dialogue.

When I read the works of Neil Simon, Edward Albee, and William Shakespeare, I'm amazed by the volume of works produced. Ancient Greek playwrights are fascinating in that their works often reflect everyday life. 

I wrote a play about the three days in between Jesus's  crucifixion and burial and his resurrection. I tried to capture the intense emotions Jesus friends were feeling during that time. It was challenge but I welcomed it and believed that I succeeded in writing it. I wrote the play over fifteen years ago and still have it in my possession. 

Once I learn more about playwriting I will take a stab at writing another one.  

WORDS OF WISDOM

 

FUTURE PROGRAM ON POETS AND WRITERS

I mentioned earlier this year my desire to create a radio program about poetry and writing. I have many authors in mind that I wish to discuss about. There's much to consider. Which authors. Excerpts of a poem recital. An author being interviewed. In the long run maybe a live reading. Lots of possibilities.

ARISTOTLE

 

I have an interest in the ancient Greek poets and philosophers. Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) is one of the most famous and recognized. He was knowledge on many subjects from zoology and biology to ethics to economics and politics. Aristotle wrote on these and numerous other topics.

Aristotle was a well rounded individual. This is what the purpose of going yo college should be. To be a successful writer, one has to read and research. It's a lifelong effort but it pays off in the long run. Are there any Aristotles out there today? Perhaps. 

WORDS OF WISDOM

Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by conforming its attachment to human frailty like a blade of grass growing growing on a wall while armies march by.

~Mahmoud Darwish,  Poet (1941-2008)

SAME CITY, DIFFERENT STATE

ROSEVILLE- California, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio

WESTON- Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont

AGAINST CONVENTIONS

The prevailing conventions of a particular time has maligned some great writers. Their writing was excellent; they didn't follow conventions of their time. 

Beat writer Jack Kerouac wrote in a spontaneous style that went against the 1950s way of writing. Poet Robert Hayden didn't receive the notoriety he should have because he wrote during the rise of black militancy. Other black authors felt that he should do the same, but chose not to. Hayden wanted to be known as a poet, not just a black poet. Herman Melville novels didn't sell but he's acknowledged as one of America's greatest writers. He wrote much about the sea and his adventures but his style of writing was not in vogue.

Thinking about it, some of my favorite authors were ones who were marginalized and criticized. Writing isn't about conventions, it's the author share a part of him/ herself to a greater audience. 

WORDS OF WISDOM

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

~William Strunk, Jr., Writer (1869-1946)

HORACE

Horace (Quintas Horatius Flaccus) (65 BC-8 BC) was a Roman lyric poet during the reign of Augustus. He wrote satires, odes, epodes, and epistles. 

WRITING MOST DIFFICULT

 The most difficult aspect of being a writer is actually writing.