What Use Is Oral History?

posted in: Writing, History | 0

Oral History came of age for the general reader in the United States with Studs Terkel’s various volumes–Working, Hard Times (about the Great Depression) and The Good War (World War II). Published between 1974 and 1985, these works of oral … Continued

Poetry and the Night Sky

posted in: Writing | 0

Living in modern cities with street lights dimming the dark, we settle into a comfortable amnesia. This is all there is: kilowatts and miles per hour. Each day fractured into little bits. Nerves, heart, even our prose growing ever speedier. … Continued

A Cautionary Tale

posted in: Writing, Teaching | 0

In memoir writing, where the pen reaches deep into the past and draws up strands of honey and excrement, a life’s array, with its tassels and flotsam dances around the well. Finally to have achieved expression, life beyond the tortured … Continued

Story! Story!

posted in: Writing, History | 0

The first book I published, The Story in History (Teachers & Writers Collaborative 1992), demonstrates to students and writers–would-be and already accomplished poets, novelists, dramatists, memoirists–how to go beneath the statistics and dates of history to vivify what happened. I … Continued