my new motto
I’m at Calvin College for their remarkable, and remarkably huge, Festival of Faith and Writing, and yesterday afternoon I was introduced to the poet and memoirist Mark Karr, author of The Liar’s Club. She asked me how I happened to write a book about sin, and I replied, “Don’t they teach you in writing workshops to write what you know?” “Is that what they say?” she answered — Karr of course teaches writing workshops — “I thought it was ‘Reap what you sow.’” I told her that maybe the secret was to link those two together, in sequence — and all of a sudden I have a motto for my life as a writer. First you write what you know, then you reap what you sow.
A song of this title could also be a big country music hit, I think. In the right hands.
The Calvin Festival was an embarrassment of riches. It was a privilege to hear you speak, even on such a gloomy topic!
My first conversation of the weekend (at a booktable) ended with a fellow attendee commenting that we are an ahistorical society. I had just shared that reading Charles Marsh, Alan Jones, and Ed Gilbreath (in preparation) showed my education had been surprisingly limited. (Eric Jager would count in there, too.) I tend to agree with him.
With Kathleen Norris, Jager, and yourself, I got additional doses of history within the weekend itself. It was the kind of history that helps integrate perception of the present, and I appreciate it.
— Julana · Apr 21, 12:50 AM · #
Thanks, Julana. The Festival is indeed an amazing thing, and I can hardly wait for the next one in 2010.
— Alan Jacobs · Apr 21, 01:01 PM · #
Maybe you could post information on where we might get ahold of a copy of your speech. I suppose we could throw caution to the winds and buy the sin book. ;-)
— Joules · Apr 22, 12:12 AM · #
Joules, I think they make all the talks available on CD or something — but of course that would indeed be a poor substitute for the glories of the book itself. . . .
— Alan Jacobs · Apr 22, 12:16 PM · #