Volume VIII, Issue 10
March 11, 2019
Dear ,
The words in the headline about what a good story needs—and the inspiration for the word of the week—are from author Bobbie Ann Mason, winner of many awards for her own story-telling.
I'm excited to feature Bobbie Ann Mason, and even more excited to be giving a reading on the same afternoon of the FREE Upcountry Literary Festival at USC Union in Union, South Carolina that she is headlining on Friday, March 22nd. If you can come, I think you'll love it!
Here's a picture of Bobbie Ann from the Upcountry Literary Festival site.
I came across the words of Bobbie Ann's about what a good story should have as I went exploring for one of her writings to share with you today. I decided on her short story "Shiloh," which was published in The New Yorker in 1980 and became the title of her first short story collection. "Shiloh" is a wonderful story, and I can testify to its "powerful emotional effect." (You'll be able to, too, as soon as you read
it.)
In addition to finding "Shiloh," I also found a link from shmoop, a company that helps students understand literature (https://www.shmoop.com/shiloh-bobbie-ann-mason/ending.html) that discusses "Shiloh." Entitled "ANALYSIS: WHAT'S UP WITH THE ENDING?", a part of it reads:
" . . . readers don't get a definite sense of what's going on. What is the author trying to tell us? Why doesn't she spell things out more clearly? It might be helpful to read what
Bobbie Ann Mason wrote in response to questions from high school students who were puzzled by the way she ends particular stories and novels:
I hate to announce what the ending of a story means, because I don't want to control what you think about it. The ending is partly yours to figure out. I'm not saying that the ending can have any old meaning anybody wants. But if you think carefully about everything that happened in the story, you should be able to see various implications in the ending. What I do when I'm writing is to keep a story going until I reach a moment when I feel everything in the story
has come to a point where it all fits together and where the final words in the story shimmer, throwing a light back over everything that has come before. If the ending throws you off balance a little or puts questions in your mind, that may be a good thing—it's part of the fun of reading a story and thinking it over. A good story should have a powerful emotional effect. You should feel something about the characters and their situation—more than you would feel if the author wrote a bare
explanation instead of a fully developed story.
The original source of this quote (which is great if you're interested in learning more about how this fine writer, and also novelist Ed McClanahan, think about the stories they write) is from KET Education at https://www.ket.org/education/resources/signaturelive/
I could say so much more, but I want you to get right to Bobbie Ann Mason's story, and maybe even decide to come to the USC Union Upcountry Literary Festival to meet her. Let me know if you do!
Love and light,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
THE UPCOUNTRY LITERARY FESTIVAL
(from the USC Union website)
Each year, poets, musicians, novelists, oral storytellers, playwrights, essayists and short-story writers gather on the campus of USC Union
(in Union, South Carolina for the Upcountry Literary Festival.) The 2019 Literary Festival will be held on Friday, March 22nd from 1:00-5:00 and on Saturday, March 23rd from 9:00-1:00. This event is free to everyone and will be held in the auditorium at USC Union's Main Building. Check it out here.
2019 Literary Festival Keynote
The Upcountry Literary Festival is honored to announce the keynote speaker this year will be Bobbie Ann Mason. Mason was raised on her family’s farm in western Kentucky. She earned her B.A. in English at the University of Kentucky in 1962, her M.A. at the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1966, and her Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut in 1972. Her first short stories were published in
The New Yorker during the 1980s renaissance of short story. Mason’s first book of fiction won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was nominated for the American Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She received an Arts and Letters Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is former writer-in-residence at the University of Kentucky. Mason will also be awarded the William ‘Singing Billy’ Award for Lifetime Achievement in
Southern Letters from USC Union.
I am so excited and honored to be on the same program and can't wait to hear her speak! Bobbie Ann Mason will close out the Upcountry Literary Festival's Friday's events at 4:30 p.m. (I'll be reading at 2:45 p.m., and the events begin at 1 p.m.) I'll also be leading a memoir workshop the evening before, Thursday, March 21. See below.)
WHEN: Friday, March 22nd from 1:00-5:00 and on Saturday, March 23rd from 9:00-1:00
WHERE: The auditorium at USC Union's Main Campus
309 E Academy St, Union, SC 29379
COST: Free to everyone and will be held in
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THE GIFT OF MEMOIR: WRITING PERSONAL AND
FAMILY STORIES
(Telling Your Own Truth; Preserving Family History;
Writing for and about Your Family; The Art of Memoir)
Our life stories are a precious legacy. Putting them in writing is a gift to all who know and love us—they can be treasured and enjoyed for generations to come. It is also a gift to ourselves. As best-selling author Rachel Naomi Remen says in her
book Kitchen Table Wisdom, “facts bring us to knowledge, but stories bring us to wisdom”. If you are interested in writing family and/or personal life stories—of adventure, transition, love, loss, and/or triumph, as well as lovely everyday moments from times past or the present—come learn
easy, enjoyable tools and techniques for retrieving, recording, and arranging them. Suitable for writers of all levels.
WHEN: Thursday, March 21, at 7:00-8:30
WHERE: Union County Historical Society, 127 W Main St, Union, South Carolina 29379
COST: Free
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THE SEVEN ENERGIES OF WRITING
A Holistic, Whole Brain Approach, With Accompanying Tools
and Strategies To Enhance Creativity, Productivity, and Writing Pleasure
If you’ve ever had a hard time getting started writing, finishing what you’ve begun, or gotten stuck in the middle (AKA writer’s block), knowing how to engage in the most helpful “energy of writing” for you at each stage of your process—and on any given day—will be a game-changer. In this class, we’ll explore—and practice—the ins, outs, and benefits of all seven energies of writing.
You’ll learn invaluable tools and strategies you’ll use again and again to write with maximum ease and effectiveness. Yes, you can be more productive, creative, and fulfilled, no matter what kind of writing you do or how experienced you are.
WHEN: Saturday, March 30th, 1 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE: The WordPlay Studio, South Charlotte
COST for Workshop and Materials: $67
TO REGISTER: To register for The Seven Energies of Writing online, click here.
Or email info@wordplaynow.com for details on registering by check via mail.
Class size limited to 12
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WRITE LIKE A GENIUS
AT THE JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL
(Expanding Our Creativity; Learning New Tools for Our Writing and Our Lives; Creating New Writing)
Discover your own genius as you learn to apply seven fascinating approaches of Leonardo da Vinci to your writing. These techniques enliven non-fiction, poetry and fiction. Expect fun, inspiration and writing galore in your preferred genre, with opportunities to share
your work.
WHERE: John Campbell Folk School, 1 Folk School Road, Brasstown, NC 28902
WHEN: Sunday, May 26th – Saturday, June 1st, 2019
COST is $630 for one week-long session
(lodging and meals are additional – options can be found on the Folk School website)
TO REGISTER: To register, please click this link to register through the John Campbell Folk School website.
Class size limited to 8.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
Bobbie Ann Mason
The Upcountry Literary Festival is honored to announce the keynote speaker this year will be Bobbie Ann Mason. Mason was raised on her family’s farm in western Kentucky. She earned her B.A. in English at the University of Kentucky in 1962, her M.A. at the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1966, and her Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut in 1972. Her first short stories were published in
The New Yorker during the 1980s renaissance of short story. Mason’s first book of fiction won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was nominated for the American Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She received an Arts and Letters Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is former writer-in-residence at the University of Kentucky. Mason will also be awarded the William ‘Singing Billy’ Award for Lifetime Achievement in Southern
Letters from USC Union.
Leroy Moffitt’s wife, Norma Jean, is working on her pectorals. She lifts three-pound dumbbells to warm up, then progresses to a twenty-pound barbell. Standing with her legs apart, she reminds Leroy of Wonder Woman.
“I’d give anything if I could just get these muscles to where they’re real hard,” says Norma Jean. “Feel this arm. It’s not as hard as the other
one.”
“That’s ’cause you’re right-handed,” says Leroy, dodging as she swings the barbell in an arc.
“Do you think so?”
“Sure.”
Leroy is a truckdriver. He injured his leg in a highway accident four months ago, and his physical therapy, which involves weights and a pulley, prompted Norma Jean to try
building herself up. Now she is attending a body-building class. Leroy has been collecting temporary disability since his tractor-trailer jackknifed in Missouri, badly twisting his left leg in its socket. He has a steel pin in his hip. He will probably not be able to drive his rig again. It sits in the backyard, like a gigantic bird that has flown home to roost. Leroy has been home in Kentucky for three months, and his leg is almost healed, but the accident frightened him and he does not want to
drive any more long hauls. He is not sure what to do next. In the meantime, he makes things from craft kits. He started by building a miniature log cabin from notched Popsicle sticks. He varnished it and placed it on the TV set, where it remains. It reminds him of a rustic Nativity scene. Then he tried string art (sailing ships on black velvet), a macramé owl kit, a snap-together B-17 Flying Fortress, and a lamp made out of a model truck, with a light fixture screwed in the top of the cab. At
first the kits were diversions, something to kill time, but now he is thinking about building a full-scale log house from a kit. It would be considerably cheaper than building a regular house, and besides, Leroy has grown to appreciate how things are put together. He has begun to realize that in all the years he was on the road he never took time to examine anything. He was always flying past scenery.
“They won’t let you build a log cabin in any of the new subdivisions,” Norma Jean tells him.
“They will if I tell them it’s for you,” he says, teasing her. Ever since they were married, he has promised Norma Jean he would build her a new home one day. They have always
rented, and the house they live in is small and nondescript. It does not even feel like a home, Leroy realizes now.
Norma Jean works at the Rexall drugstore, and she has acquired an amazing amount of information about cosmetics. When she explains to Leroy the three stages of complexion care,
involving creams, toners, and moisturizers, he thinks happily of other petroleum products—axle grease, diesel fuel. This is a connection between him and Norma Jean. Since he has been home, he has felt unusually tender about his wife and guilty over his long absences. But he can’t tell what she feels about him. Norma Jean has never complained about his traveling; she has never made hurt remarks, like calling his truck a “widow-maker.” He is reasonably certain she has been faithful to him, but he
wishes she would celebrate his permanent homecoming more happily. Norma Jean is often startled to find Leroy at home, and he thinks she seems a little disappointed about it. Perhaps he reminds her too much of the early days of their marriage, before he went on the road. They had a child who died as an infant, years ago. They never speak about their memories of Randy, which have almost faded, but now that Leroy is home all the time, they sometimes feel awkward around each other, and Leroy wonders
if one of them should mention the child. He has the feeling that they are waking up out of a dream together—that they must create a new marriage, start afresh. They are lucky they are still married. Leroy has read that for most people losing a child destroys the marriage—or else he heard this on Donahue. He can’t always remember where he learns things anymore.
Read "Shiloh" in its entirety here., thanks to publisher
Penguin Random House Canada.
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt
This is WordPlay—so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's "story."
PROMPT: Try your hand at telling a short story, either from your own life or a work of fiction. As you write, and/or
in revision, work, like Bobbie Ann Mason, to, rather than spell out the ending, create "a powerful emotional effect that makes readers "feel something about the characters and their situation."
It's fun to play with prompts in community with fellow writers, and to be able to share the results when you're done. You can find out about WordPlay classes, workshops, and retreats here.
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide
to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water.
She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another." Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best
learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours!
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