Volume VI, Issue 18 May 1, 2017 Dear ,
Happy May!
Have you ever had someone (or something) save you? Or wished fervently that someone or something would? If so, then you, me, and Sue William Silverman have that in common.
You may remember my sharing in a past zine that, back in
February, I went to the AWP conference in Washington, D.C. and attended a fabulous panel on voice in memoir. Today, I'm happy to share Sue, one of those panel members, with you.
What a delightful human being!
(And quite a writer. Robert Vivian, author of The Least Cricket at Evening, calls her "The Tennessee Williams of memoir.")
l have so enjoyed her latest book, The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew, in which I found the sentence that inspired this week's word: "Time
collapses as if, even now, it’s not too late for him (Pat Boone) to save me from my Jewish family, save me from a childhood long ended."
She may not have gotten what she wanted from Pat Boone, but she, to quote the back cover, "found her voice, which in this searching, bracing, hilarious, and moving book tries
to make sense of that most troubling American condition: belonging, but to what?"
As it turns out, Sue had everything she needed to save herself, and perhaps even Pat Boone as well!
I hope you enjoy reading the excerpt from Sue's book below, and doing the related prompt.
Love and
light,
Upcoming WordPlay
WRITING OUR WAY TO HAPPINESS
(Learning New Practices and Strategies for Our Writing and Our
Lives; Creating New Writing; Expanding Our Well-being) Come explore time-tested ways writing can increase your happiness level! This class will not only teach you how to use writing as a tool to increase your sense of well-being, but also jumpstart your pen and provide inspiration and knowledge about the
process of creative writing, whether you want to write memoir, fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. For writers of all levels, including beginners, who are interested in expanding their writing practice—for personal fulfillment or for publication.$630 for one week-long session (lodging and meals are additional – options can be
found on the Folk School website)
WHERE: John Campbell Folk School, 1 Folk School Road, Brasstown, NC 28902
WHEN: Sunday, May 28th – Saturday, June 3rd,
2017.
More WordPlay opportunities here. Sue William Silverman is the award-winning author of three
memoirs, a book on the craft of memoir writing, a poetry collection, and numerous essays. She teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a professional speaker (suewilliamsilverman.com). Featured Writing An excerpt from The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life
as a White
Anglo-Saxon Jew
by
Sue William
Silverman Pat Boone dazzles onto the stage of the Calvary Reformed church in Holland, Michigan. He wears white bucks, white pants, a white jacket with red- and blue-sequined stars emblazoned across the shoulders. I sit in
the balcony, seats empty in the side sections. I’m here by chance, by luck. Kismet. A few weeks ago I happened to see his photograph in the local newspaper, the Sentinel, announcing the concert—part of Tulip Time Festival—only twenty minutes from my house. I stared at his photo in alluring black and white, just as, back in junior high school, I gazed at other photos of him. I ordered a ticket immediately.
This less-than-sold-out crowd enthusiastically claps after the opening number, his big hit “Love Letters in the Sand.” But there are no whistles or shrieks from this mostly elder, sedate, female audience. No dancing in the aisles, no mosh pit, no rushing the stage. If a fan swoons from her upholstered pew, it will more likely be from stroke than idolatry. The cool, unscented air in the auditorium feels polite as a Sunday worship service—rather than a
Saturday-night-rock-and-roll-swaggering, Mick Jagger kind of concert.
Yet I am certainly worshipful. Of him. I am transfixed. Breathless….as if his photograph—that paper image—is conjured to life. I watch only him through binoculars, me in my own white jacket, as if I knew we’d match.
Pat Boone began as a ‘50s and ‘60s pop singer, though he has now aged into a Christian music icon favored by—I’m sure—Republicans. That I am a first-generation Russian American atheist liberal Democrat gives me no pause, not even as he performs in this concrete megachurch weighted with massive crosses. In fact, as I grew up these very symbols gave me comfort.
I’m not
surprised he still affects me. During the days leading up to tonight’s concert, I plotted to meet him backstage. But in case I am too overwhelmed to speak, I’ve written a letter explaining the reason for my devotion. To further prove my loyalty, I’ve retrieved, from an old scrapbook, my “SUE IS A MEMBER OF THE PAT BOONE FAN CLUB” card, printed on white stock. Surely the letter and card are all the credentials I’ll need to be waved past security, to grant me access to Pat Boone. Tonight I’m
determined to finally tell him what I failed to say last time we met, years ago, when I got his autograph after attending one of his live television shows. Time collapses as if, even now, it’s not too late for him to save me from my Jewish family, save me from a childhood long ended.
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 "save."
PROMPT: Who or what has saved you, or one of your characters? Write about a time or circumstance when you, or one of your characters, had the experience of being saved, physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually. (Yes, being saved by oneself counts,
if that's the way it happened.)
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. One of her long-held dreams came true in July of 2015 when Garrison Keillor read one of her poems on The Writer's Almanac. 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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