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Why novels? A high school story
In my role as a novelist, I recently presented an assembly program to students at Gorham High School in Maine. Many had not read my novels, but they came to hear a writer who often writes as a witness to the world and its people. The title of my talk was “Writing as a Witness,” and I wanted to bring them the world.
Seeing Haiti through a young girl’s eyes
I visited the Amiko Youth Program in Manchester, where twelve multilingual learners gathered to read Auntie Luce’s Talking Paintings in English and Kreyòl. The children drew their own portraits, explored Haiti through the eyes of a young girl, and discovered what it means to see a home country “deep in your bones.”
Kate DiCamillo talks with one boy
At New Hampshire’s first Book Festival, 1,300 children filled the Capital Center to hear Kate DiCamillo talk about stories. Then a little boy in the balcony asked, “Do you like all your books?” When he quietly added, “I just want to know,” the enormous room seemed to disappear. For Terry, the moment captured the “gravity and wonder of writing for children.”
I love the novel any way I can
I taught a Creative Writing class with young college students in their first year. They didn’t flinch from hard material — gender, class, violence, love, family. But why stories? That’s what I wanted to talk about with them. Here’s a bit of our journey through some of the books we read, and our reflections on how hard it is for us to talk to each other, across generations, across class, across cultures.