Tag Archives: Writers’ Workshop Series

Rebecca Makkai: The Distance Needed to Write a Story

RM-Blog-2“Fiction becomes interesting when a line is crossed,” said author Rebecca Makkai during the first public lecture of the 16th Annual Writers’ Workshop on October 3.

In her lecture Ms. Makkai addressed how she came up with the idea for her award-winning first novel, The Borrower, which is centered on the relationship between rebellious librarian Lucy Hall and 10-year-old book lover Ian Drake, whose parents are forcing him to attend weekly anti-gay classes. Kidnapping, followed by a road trip from Missouri to Vermont, and references to classic children’s texts are all facets of the plot in Ms. Makkai’s novel. Continue reading

Patricia McCormick: Sadness with a Redemptive Quality

2013_10_Chattman_Patricia McCormick_profile Patricia McCormick doesn’t pick the lightest fare to write about. Topics of her award-winning novels have included self-harm, teenage substance abuse, sexual slavery, and Cambodian genocide.

In an introduction to her fellow author on October 7, Madeleine Blais P’00, ’04 recounted how Ms. McCormick’s son once asked, “Where do you come up with your ideas for books, Mom? What do you do, Google the word sad?”

Yet, Ms. Blais said that of the people she knows, Ms. McCormick is one of the upbeat and optimistic—sharing a quality of all good writers: a deep and abiding belief that stories matter.

“She gave you a very good summary of the books,” agreed Ms. McCormick. “They are sad, but they all have a redemptive quality.”

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16th Annual Writers’ Workshop

From October 3 to November 11, the Williston Northampton School will host the 16th Annual Writers’ Workshop Series. This year the series features award-winning authors Rebecca Makkai, Patricia McCormick, Elinor Lipman, and Mary Jo Salter. Lectures are free and open to the public and begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Dodge Room of the Reed Campus Center.

Rebecca Makkai, author of The Borrower, will visit campus on Thursday, October 3 to speak about her short stories and upcoming novel, The Hundred-Year House. Williston will welcome National Book Award finalist, Patricia McCormick author of Sold and Purple Heart on Monday, October 7. Elinor Lipman, parent of a Williston alumnus and author of such novels as The View from Penthouse B and Then She Found Me, will return to campus on Tuesday, November 5. Poet and former Mount Holyoke College professor Mary Jo Salter will conclude the series with her talk on Monday, November 11.

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Christopher Benfey: Something Big on the Line

Chris Benfey described the pot as though it were an old friend. Made of red clay and with a type of glaze known as tobacco spit, the jug sat in his grandparent’s hallway next to the big, black telephone. At the top of the swooping handle was an indent where the potter had pressed his thumb like a signature.

To write his memoir, Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay, Benfey surrounded himself with such objects. The purpose, he said, was to ground his pockets of misty memories in reality.

“For this particular book, it was very important for me to have a world objects around me,” Benfey told his Dodge Room audience on November 8. “Doing a memoir is always about getting lost in the self—and objects keep you honest.”

Benfey, the fourth and final author in the 2012 Writers’ Workshop Series, said that it was almost impossible for him to separate out his two loves of literature and pottery. Those dual interests became more pronounced during his years at the Putney School, where they were reinforced by quirky professors and equally eccentric classes.

“There were two things I really cared about at Putney,” Benfey said. “One was pottery and one was poetry.”

Benfey was also inspired by people: his English teacher—who would threaten to dance on a table in pink tights if his students didn’t pay attention—was one; Potter Dave, an Edgefield slave in the 19th century who inscribed two-line poems on his enormous stoneware pots, was another.

It was Dave’s “short, decisive, enigmatic poems like lightening bolts in the night sky” that inspired Benfey as he was writing his latest book, he said. But while a poem could be a flash of lightening, a truer metaphor for memoir writing came from fishing.

“You have something on the line or you don’t,” Benfey said of the process. “And you hope when you write a book that you have something big on the line.”

Mo Willems: Incomprehensible Books for Illiterates

As the audience was settling into the Dodge Room on a cold November night, one mother suddenly turned to another and, pulling a slim book out of her bag, asked, “Which one did you bring?”

“We’ve got Knuffle Bunny and three of the pigeon books,” came the reply.

On Nov. 1, as a full house waited for children’s book author Mo Willems, the excitement was palpable—particularly among his youngest fans, who had brought along their bedtime favorites. When Willems took the podium with an expansive, “Hi, guys! How are you? Let’s get started!” all eyes turned toward him.

Willems, the third author in the 2012 Writers’ Workshop Series, immediately launched into a story. He started to tell the tale of the three little pigs—only there were 10,000 pigs, one house was made of aluminum siding, and the little pigs ended up playing backgammon with the wolf.

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