The North Carolina Writers Conference July 28 – 29, 2017 Rocky Mount, NC Honoring Allan Gurganus Full Program Here: NCWC2017Program 2017 PROGRAM Friday, July 28 3:00-5:00 Conference Registration – Holiday Inn 200 […]
EP: “Saints Have Mothers” is going to be published in Italy in September and “Saint Monster” to be republished then, too. Both have saints in the title. And some sort […]
Author of “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” and “Local Souls” describes the joys of living next to a cemetery for CBS Sunday Morning.
Podcast of Allan Gurganus reading at UCLA Hammer Library on October 10, 2013
Beauty Is Its Own Excuse: The novelist Allan Gurganus discovered the secret to happiness: collecting.
Teaching has been an important part of my waking life. I enjoyed brilliant teachers including Grace Paley, John L’Heureux, Stanley Elkin, and John Irving. My own students have become their generation’s sentinel voices: Ann Patchett, Donald Antrim, the late Heather Lewis, Elizabeth McCracken, James Hynes, Robert Antoni, Ayana Mathis, Justin Torres, Kate Christensen, Julian Anderson and a host of others.
I am often asked to read the manuscripts of folks I have never met. I wish I could counsel every worthy beginning writer. It would be great to lead each directly to an agent and to publication. That process is a long one for everybody. Simply honoring the fifteen hundred worthies I have already taught constitutes a full-time job. I also struggle daily for the time to make new, honest work myself.
I would encourage every writer to find a group of others at a similar level of experience within walking or driving distance. Your goal might be assembling a small fervent batch of others hooked on the joys of making narrative. Read outside work and discuss it. Offer your own writing aloud. Quantum growth is easier in groups. We all need willing readers, eager listeners. I wish you well with your work and I thank you for understanding.
Amanda Urban
ICM Partners
730 Fifth Ave.
NYC 10019