Professor Stearns, Natalie Datoush (another MAT student, whom some of you surely know) and I had the chance to hear Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak, Catalyst, Prom, Fever 1793) talk at Cortland Junior/Senior High School this afternoon. Before her talk with the students, we had a chance to talk with her one-on-one (well, three-on-one) for 5-10 minutes. She is a very entertaining woman, and very passionate about writing books that kids will actually enjoy to read. The chance to meet her and talk with her, ever-so-briefly, was outstanding.
Her talk with the kids was focused on a few key points:
1.) Writing is *not* easy, even for professionals. Just because your first draft sucks, it doesn't mean you do. She said about herself, "I'm not a good writer, but I'm a great reviser." I think it's important for kids to understand the concept of revision and how it really is the true genius of writing; I went through the entire Professional Writing program here at Cortland without ever fully grasping that.
2.) As for why kids are so into Speak, she said it's because kids only claim they don't like to read because we only offer them boring books. This goes right along with what Jenn and I were saying on here, as well as in class last night, about what the "Do We Hafta Read..." article had to say about forcing the classics. The classics are boring to kids. Contemporary novels that they can relate to can really spark their interests.
3.) She (prompted by the most intelligent student question I heard) said her novels are written in first-person POV because they give the truest glimpse into the mind of an adolescent. Many teens are very self-absorbed and, because of that, their views of adults and of enemies are very skewed. The first person POV, and through it, the creation of an unreliable narrator, gives that teenage mindset the voice it requires.
I'm sure Professor Stearns will chime in with anything I missed, but those were three parts of her presentation which really stuck out for me.
Laurie's official website is writerlady.com, and she also keeps a LiveJournal at halseanderson.livejournal.com. Check 'em out.
-Dave
Ditto on Dave's post. Anderson was terrific. Truly! Click on that signature on Dave's copy of SPEAK. You'll want to see what she wrote to him. It's deja vu all over again!! That is, you'll think you're back in 619.
I was only sorry you weren't all with us today.
Oh, Dave didn't mention her new title, out in March of '07--TWISTED--and it features her first male protagonist. KES
Posted by: Karen | May 12, 2006 at 09:26 PM