Synopses & Reviews
Celebrated author Ellen Gilchrist has played many roles-writer and speaker, wife and lover, mother and grandmother. But she never tackled the role of teacher.
Offered the opportunity to teach creative writing at the University of Arkansas, she took up the challenge and ventured into unknown territory. In the process of teaching more than two hundred students since her first class in 2000, she has found inspiration in their lives and ambitions and in the challenge of conveying to them the lessons she has learned from living and writing.
The Writing Life brings together fifty essays and vignettes centered on the transforming magic of literature and the teaching and writing of it. A portion of the collection discusses the delicate balance between an artistic life and family commitments, especially the daily pressures and frequent compromises faced by a young mother. Gilchrist next focuses on the process of writing itself with essays ranging from "How I Wrote a Book of Short Stories in Three Months" to "Why Is Rewriting so Hard?"
Several essays discuss her appreciation of other writers, from Shakespeare to Larry McMurtry, and the lessons she learned from them. Eudora Welty made an indelible impact on Gilchrist's work. When Gilchrist takes on the task of teaching, her essays reveal an enriched understanding of the role writing plays in any life devoted to the craft. Humorous and insightful, she assesses her own abilities as an instructor and confronts the challenge of inspiring students to attain the discipline and courage to pursue the sullen art. Some of these pieces have been previously published in magazines, but most are unpublished and all appear here in book form for the first time.
Ellen Gilchrist, Fayetteville, Arkansas, is the author of many novels and collections of essays, short stories, and novellas, including The Cabal and Other Stories, Flights of Angels, The Age of Miracles, The Courts of Love, In the Land of Dreamy Dreams, Victory Over Japan (winner of the National Book Award), Drunk with Love, Ellen Gilchrist: Collected Stories, and I, Rhoda Manning, Go Hunting with My Daddy.
Review
"It is, simply, a beautiful book. Beautiful in its lucid, limpid eloquence; in the remarkable wisdom about human nature it displays; and in its delicious cocktail of sarcastic humor, disarming candor, and face-slapping intelligence." Booklist (Starred Review)
Synopsis
A beloved writer's thoughts on teaching her craft and leading a literary life.
Celebrated author Ellen Gilchrist has played many roles writer and speaker, wife and lover, mother and grandmother. But she never tackled the role of teacher.
Offered the opportunity to teach creative writing at the University of Arkansas, she took up the challenge and ventured into unknown territory. In the process of teaching more than two hundred students since her first class in 2000, she has found inspiration in their lives and ambitions and in the challenge of conveying to them the lessons she has learned from living and writing.
The Writing Life brings together fifty essays and vignettes centered on the transforming magic of literature and the teaching and writing of it. A portion of the collection discusses the delicate balance between an artistic life and family commitments, especially the daily pressures and frequent compromises faced by a young mother. Gilchrist next focuses on the process of writing itself, with essays ranging from "How I Wrote a Book of Short Stories in Three Months" to "Why Is Rewriting so Hard?"
Several essays discuss her appreciation of other writers, from Shakespeare to Larry McMurtry, and the lessons she learned from them. Eudora Welty made an indelible impact on Gilchrist's work. When Gilchrist takes on the task of teaching, her essays reveal an enriched understanding of the role writing plays in any life devoted to the craft. Humorous and insightful, she assesses her own abilities as an instructor and confronts the challenge of inspiring students to attain the discipline and courage to pursue the sullen art. Some of these pieces have been previously published in magazines, but most are unpublished and all appear here in book form for the first time.
Synopsis
Celebrated author Ellen Gilchrist brings together 50 essays and vignettes centered on the transforming magic of literature and the teaching and writing of it.
About the Author
Ellen Gilchrist is the author of many novels and collections of essays, short stories, and novellas, including The Cabal and Other Stories, Flights of Angels, The Age of Miracles, The Courts of Love, In the Land of Dreamy Dreams, Victory Over Japan (winner of the National Book Award), Drunk with Love, Ellen Gilchrist: Collected Stories, and I, Rhoda Manning, Go Hunting with My Daddy. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Table of Contents
The middle way 3
The Shakespeare group 13
How books still change our lives 18
Casting my lot with the gypsies 24
The consolations of art 36
The only constant is change, and yet, I still won't use a computer 39
How I got stronger and smarter instead of stupider and sadder 43
How I wrote a book of short stories in three months 53
Living in New York City 58
The sinking ship 65
Breaking the rules 69
In the weather of the heart 72
A writer should be able to write anything 75
Everyone wants to be a writer 78
"You always use setbacks to help you play better" 80
Write what you know 84
Choosing the books 89
Learning to teach writing by watching a great dance teacher 92
Crisis in the creative writing program 96
Everyone thinks they are a writer 99
Why is rewriting so hard? 102
Sunday morning 105
Eudora Welty 110
Another hard thing for a writer to learn to handle 113
How I invented Traceleen 119
How to move characters from one place to another 122
How to become inspired 126
Decons 130
Learning to teach 133
The war with the squirrels 135
What they write about 138
Teaching, a journal 145
Teaching, a journal (continued) 147
My third year 152
Worrying 155
Students 162
The ice storm 164
Creative nonfiction (as fiction) 167
The semester from hell 171
Drunks, dope addicts, and losers, characters my students give me 173
How can I help these students learn to write? 178
Onward 180
Hitting a snag in the teaching game 183
Rip Van Winkle and the unwanted wings 186
Teaching, a journal (continued) 190
After six weeks of classes 195
The geology field trip 200
Monday at dawn 204
The big question 205
The tar baby 208