On teaching voice

Thursday, June 24, 2010

In preparing to teach at the Rutgers-Camden conference tomorrow, I think about voice.  What makes for music, and why it matters.  What yields momentum, and what strips it.  We'll be looking, among other things, at authors whose work spans nonfiction, fiction, and perhaps poetry.  What do they carry forward, in each genre?  What do they own?  How have they left their tonal mark?

We must, as Robert Pinsky, says, learn "to hear language in a more conscious way."

If we can't, we are not writers.  We tell stories, only.

3 comments:

Sherrie Petersen said...

I hope someday you teach a class on the west coast...

Reamus said...

*We Tell Stories only* may well be the storty of my life. Writing is the hard thing. You do it well...my novel, written in part in places like the "End Of the Earth Rest Stop" is now reality.

Stop again at www.thereamus.com when you can.

Glad it all continues to go well.

Rgds,
Reamus

Maya Ganesan said...

I was thinking exactly what Solvang Sherrie was, and I was about to say that until I realized she already had :)

It is such a pleasure to get to read your thoughts...they are so deep and make your readers stop and think. Lovely.

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