Just because it happened, doesn’t make it interesting, Marion Roach Smith bluntly observes in this short book on writing memoir. What makes it interesting? Roach Smith’s answer to this question sets her book apart from other textbooks on this topic. She advocates focusing on a universal theme, such … Read More
Author: Kate Stover
“Lonely was the first flavor I had tasted in my life, and it was always there, hidden inside the crevices of my mouth, reminding me.”
“Learning to participate in discussion is a lifelong learning project, and most of us go to our graves feeling we still have a lot to learn.”
However, as authors Brookfield and Preskill note, that “doesn’t mean that we can’t get better at creating the conditions under which good discussion is more likely to occur.” We can increase the odds of being successful by planning carefully, having realistic expectations, and being willing to monitor closely its value … Read More
“You won’t find 76 trombones in this poem (that was Iowa)…”
This is the first line in the “Unofficial Missouri Poem” written by William Trowbridge, his state’s Poet Laureate. A recording of his reading of this poem includes laughter from the audience in 15 places. How refreshing! With the exception of Billy Collins, it’s hard to find university-trained-and-credentialed poets who use … Read More
“It’s interesting, the secrets you decide to reveal at the end of your life.”
Until Randy Pausch got on stage at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver his now-famous “Last Lecture,” he hadn’t told students or colleagues that Carnegie Mellon had initially rejected his application to go to graduate school there; it was only after his professor at Brown intervened that the decision was reversed. … Read More
“Looking for goshawks is like looking for grace: it comes, but not often, and you don’t get to say when or how.”
Simultaneously a “breathtaking memoir” and a “small instant classic of nature writing,” this book juggles multiple themes and techniques. One often-used technique is metaphor: we meet a fellow who is as “serene as a mid-ocean wave” and see the deer “ankle their way out of the … Read More
“While methods vary, the best teachers often try to create what we have come to call a ‘natural critical learning environment.’”
Instead of answering the question “What method of teaching works best?” Ken Bain explores “What environment supports deep learning most successfully?” In the best environments, he argues, students try to solve problems they find intriguing, beautiful or important; they feel challenged and supported; they work collaboratively; they believe their … Read More
“Do it because it serves your need to grow.”
According to Ken Bain, there are three styles of learners: surface learners, who aim to quickly memorize key words and facts; strategic learners, who aim for top grades and efficiency; and deep learners, who aim to “answer questions or solve problems that they regard as important, intriguing, or just beautiful” … Read More
“I’ve never heard anything like that. The last line comes out of nowhere.”
This line from a conversation between a seventy-seven year-old poet and an IRS agent about a poem by James Wright in the short story “Yancey” is vintage Ann Beattie: it’s an astute comment in an unusual situation by characters who come to each other from unanticipated angles, and who … Read More
“Why, you may ask, should you write serious nonfiction as a story?”
The authors’ answer to this question: “[T]he first job of any book is to get itself read.” Narrative tension, they observe, “remains a highly effective tool for keeping the reader engaged with the material” (179). If that’s so, why don’t all writers use narrative techniques? Perhaps because it’s harder to … Read More
“Unless you’re a doubter and a worrier, a nail-biter, an apologizer, a rethinker, then memoir may not be your playpen.”
When the Paris Review interviewer ask Mary Karr – author of the wild memoir The Liars’ Club — what the biggest problems were with memoirs today, she said, “They’re not reflective enough. They lack self-awareness.” The importance of developing a capacity for reflection is one of the central themes in … Read More
Best of 2015 Books
2015 has been a wonderful year for publishers and readers. My “Best of 2015” list consists of the books that I am most likely to read again. In the memoir category, Norway’s Karl Ove Knausgaard’s fourth volume of My Struggle is part of a series that I believe will be … Read More
“Anders was often the only one not invited to come and stroke other children’s new puppies or kittens.”
They didn’t invite Anders Breivik to see their pets because they knew that he tortured his pet rats by poking them with pencils. One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway provides layers of details about the man who killed 77 people in Norway in … Read More
“Poems arrive ready to begin. Poets are only the transportation.”
So often, I see my students take an adversarial stance when they sit down to write. They use phrases such as “grinding it out” and “forcing it” to describe how they work. Sometimes that’s been my experience, too. But does it have to be? What if we looked at the … Read More
“What if we did take college teaching seriously?”
This book aims to answer that question by outlining a “sustainable, cost-effective way to support faculty who want to improve college teaching” (1). The lead author is Gail O. Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College, who helped developed a system that is based on self-reflection, a peer-based dialogic process, … Read More