Dreaming Out Loud with the Central League Championship Writers

Twenty-five minutes into my talk to the Central League Writing Championships writers, I stopped. There was a young man in an upper row with a look on his face, a question percolating.  He wanted, as it turned out, to know if you can write just to write. Is publishing always the end game? Are other readers necessary?

It was the perfect question—the launch for what became thoroughly moving testimony as I asked the nearly 100 high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors to tell me why they write. What is writing good for? He writes, I soon learned, to escape. She writes when she cannot draw the thing she's trying to record. She writes so that she can imagine the lives of others—see the world through their eyes. He writes to discover. She writes because her world is full of stories, things too ripe to let pass by. He writes to exercise his imagination. She writes to bare her soul. She writes because, she says, she has to, and he because he can.

Yes, I said. And yes. While in a room across the hall, a dozen teachers from schools throughout the region read the stories that these students had written in response to the contest prompt. Does it matter who wins? Does one write to win? Or do we write, as I ultimately suggested, so that we can more thoroughly know—ourselves and the world we are born into, the possibilities ahead?

I drove home through rain, a smile on my face. Drove home thinking that if all my writing life ever became was a chance to dream out loud with other dreamers such as those bright-faced kids, it would be enough.

Thank you, Central League, for the opportunity. And write eternally on.

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Stepping Out for the Central League Writing Contest

Today may be my last semester day at Penn, but on Thursday, I'll be back walking a school's corridors.  This time, my destination will be Conestoga High School, where the annual Central League Writing Contest will bring together an estimated 100 aspiring writers from some dozen high school districts in my area.  I've planned a workshop for their teachers.  I'm at work on a talk for the students themselves. As always I am certain that I'll gain most from those moments I can't anticipate, can't foresee.

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How Smart are Younger Readers? I Can't Count the Ways

Over the course of the last several weeks, I've been interviewed by two high school journalists (Cat Mosier-Mills and Lavi Ben-Dor) as well as a university student (Rosella Eleanor LaFevre) about Dangerous Neighbors and the writing life. 

It has been, above all else, an honor.

I've been asked questions that no one else has ever asked me.  (Did you intend [the battle between the twin sisters] to represent the battle of past and future, old and new?)  I've been forced to explain nuances in my novel that few others have noted.  (Where does Katherine's sense of right and wrong, of impropriety, come from?)  I've been required to articulate (in actual human speech) the dreamy things that typically move untethered through my thoughts.  (What is the significance, to you, of birds?) And I have been so very moved and impressed by the results.

Late last night, Lavi Ben-Dor, a ninth grader at Conestoga, wrote to say that his piece had recently been published in Spoke, the school newspaper, and could be found on-line.  I share his piece with you today, because Lavi, like Cat and Rosella, represent the best of the next generation.

We clearly have a lot of good to look forward to.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be spending time with the students of Baldwin School, T/E Middle School, and Norristown High School.  It will, I know, be an adventure, and they'll teach me more than I will ever be able to teach them.

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