Readerville Flashback: Under the Bivouac of Words

Since the turn of this millennium, Karen Templer has been the force behind Readerville, "the social life of the mind." She has built a community around books as gracefully as she continues to rebuild her home and garden—gathering news, opinions, table talk around the headlining and obscure.

Back in 2003, I wrote an essay for Karen that I called "Under the Bivouac of Words." I'd just returned from a writer's panel—a memoirist's panel—and I was feeling confused, irked by my trade, disappointed (most precisely) by myself.

A writer’s job is to tell the best possible story with the most accurate language in the most intelligent way. A writer’s job is to be economical when economy is called for, and to be lavish or lush or ironic or vulnerable or alluring when something else is at stake. A writer’s job is to observe and then translate, to elucidate and entertain, to evoke, provoke, entrance, enthrall. Why not do it all with fiction?

Today Karen is reissuing that essay, posting it alongside a host of interesting matter. While I no longer write memoir, I still care deeply about these issues, still wish for a less tangled writerly life. So that when I re-read this piece of five years ago, I felt a sweep of recognition, a catch in my breath.

Readerville, the online magazine, is most assuredly worth your look, if you haven't had a chance to visit before.