Our Spring Nine-Week Writing class is well underway, and it’s been such a pleasure to work with this group of lovely people.
Seated left to right: M.J. Lucas, G Zarek, Elsie Doherty, Robin Ogilvie
Standing left to right: Jim Doherty, Judy Otto, Becky McGregor,
Pat Guttery, Leo Hidalgo, Norma Beasley, Bill Hosch
Not pictured: Judi Graham, Anne & Mike Teipel, and Caroline Crawford
Over the course of this class, we have been reading Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck.
Amazon.com summary: To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the tress, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck’s goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.
With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. And he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, on a particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and on the unexpected kindness of strangers that is also a very real part of our national identity.
Steinbeck’s travel story has inspired class discussions on the nature of journeys of all types: physical, emotional, and spiritual. We’ve looked at what goes in to creating your own personal writing style, as well as how to really bring characters to life. We’ve also touched on the importance of observation as we go about our daily lives to help bring richness and detail into our descriptions of people and places.
Our class wraps up on May 9th, culminating in a public reading at for family, friends, and anyone else who would like to hear our class share excerpts of what they’ve written over the course of the class. The reading will be held at the Marks Street Recreation Center at 5:30pm. Save the date!
