Kids Write!
A new session in our popular online writing program for kids begins in late May! We want to encourage young writers, especially during these days when schools are closed, by giving them some new concrete skills that will help them become better writers and feel good about what they are accomplishing as young writers. Our classes combine instruction about craft and writing exercises, all at an age appropriate level. Classes are led by Lynn Rosen, owner of Open Book Productions and English, writing, and publishing instructor. (For more about Lynn see HERE.) What people are saying about Kids Write: Praise from a former student:“I really liked this writing class. I’m still enjoying writing the rest of the story I started during the class. We were given time and help to be creative and write what we wanted.” Praise from the parents of previous students: “We want to thank you for your fine work in teaching creative writing. We appreciate your careful preparation for each lesson, your clear way of explaining things, and above all your warm encouragement of all the students. This has been a very positive experience for our daughter and we thank you! “My kids had an excellent experience in the class.” “Very positive, fun, educational.” “He looked forward to the classes and enjoyed the assignments.” “The different exercises were fun. He liked the writing challenges. It helped her think about writing in new ways.” “My daughter, who is in 7th grade, took a class with Lynn in the fall. It was a great experience on so many levels. I knew my daughter was a talented writer but didnt know how to foster this talent without nagging! Lynn got the middle schoolers comfortable with her and each other right away so they could give each other feedback. The fiction piece my daughter ended up writing blew me away. The characters had serious depth and I wanted to read more! I know she is a better writer from this class! I highly recommend Kids Write for teens and tweens!” Class Details Class will meet virtually; details are below. The class is 4 weeks long, includes 4 meetings, and each meeting is an hour and 15 minutes.Cost per class is $85 Register HERE. KIDS WRITE! Storyboarding DATE: Thursday, May 28, June 4, 11, 18TIME: 11AM – 12:15PM LOCATION: via ZoomThis class takes a storytelling approach with a focus on plot development. In each class, we will create new plots and stories and then map them out fully, storyboard style. We’ll explore a variety of genres including realistic fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, graphic novels, and playwriting....
Sitting at Emily’s Desk
Martha Ackmann taught a seminar on Emily Dickinson for nearly two decades at Mt. Holyoke College. The seminar took place in the poet’s home, The Homestead, located in near the college in Amherst, Massachusetts. As Ackmann describes it, the class took place on the 2nd floor of the house in a bedroom across the hall from Emily’s own bedroom, around a smallish table that could only accommodate ten students at a time. What an experience to study the poet’s work in the place where she wrote it! And not only that, they had the run of the house during the class, while the house was closed to visitors. Ackmann says the class was easy to to teach: “The walls did everything.” She describes teaching one particular poem – “There’s a certain Slant of light” – and timing it to have the students read it on a November day when she knew the angle of light in the poet’s bedroom would be as she described it in the poem. Ackmann is very familiar with The Homestead, having taught there for 20 years and having lived in the area for 40. She talked about her experience when she joined us on the evening of May 6 for a talk about her new book, These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson. She told a story about how she was there when they were renovating Dickinson’s bedroom and, when they removed the molding around a door, they discovered layers of wallpaper underneath. Experts were called in and they got down to the oldest layer and dated it around 1880, during Dickinson’s final years. They then replicated the pattern and repapered the room. Amazing, isn’t it? That wallpaper is the design used on the cover of Ackmann’s book and it can also be seen in the photo above. She told us how the previous wallpaper was more monochromatic, which went along with the myth that Dickinson was sterile and austere. The walls are now much more vibrant and reflect the poet’s energy! These Fevered Days tells, in ten chapters, of ten pivotal days in the life of Emily Dickinson. Ackmann told attendees at our event about how she asked friends and Dickinson scholars what their top ten moments would be, and then chose her own, including a day in Dickinson’s youth when she wrote that “all things are ready,” the time in her 20s when she decided she wanted to be distinguished in her life, and all the way through to the day of her death. Ackmann worked hard and did tremendous research to make the town and the...
Hermione is their hero
Teaching a writing class for grades 3-5 recently, I asked the students to answer the following question: If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why? The most popular answer (from the mostly female class): Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books. And of course. Why wouldn’t they admire and wish to meet this smart, confident, unflappable girl? She’s proud of her intelligence, often using it to save them from dangerous situations, she’s comfortable with herself, she’s unafraid of the unknown and loves a good adventure… what could be better? She’s a great role model! Recently I was doing research for a talk on Louisa May Alcott, and I came across a similar sentiment among women of a different generation for the fictional Jo March of Little Women. She too is smart, fearless, bold, and unafraid of being judged by others. And she also had, and has, a huge influence on readers. A large number of writers, including Barbara Kingsolver, Simone de Beauvoir, Ursula K. Le Guin, Cynthia Ozick, Anne Quindlen, and – look at that! – J.K. Rowling, have said they became writers because of Jo March. How about you? If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and...
Actress by Anne Enright
Eavan Boland, the revered Irish poet who taught at Stanford University for decades, died recently. In a country where male authors often dominate the literary landscape, she was noted as one of the premier Irish women writers. Several years ago, when she appeared at the Free Library of Philadelphia, I covered the event for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and I had the opportunity to interview her (you can read my Inquirer article HERE). She was kind, thoughtful articulate, and insightful. And when I asked who her favorite contemporary Irish writers were, without hesitation she said Edna O’Brien and Anne Enright. I say all of this first of all, as a tribute to Boland’s life and work, and also as a lead-in to writing about Enright’s new novel, Actress. Anne Enright’s method of telling a story will never take you on an easy path from point A to point B. As Ron Charles says in his review in The Washington Post, “The chronology would appear no more ordered than the flow of anecdotes around a dinner table, but there’s always a design to Enright’s novels, a gradual coalescing of insight.” We gather information as we go along and, in some ways, the reader is left to figure it all out once they finish the book. Her writing gives us a slow accrual of brilliant insight. Norah’s mother was the famous Irish actress Katherine O’Dell, she of the glorious hazel eyes and red hair (and whose secret, that Norah guarded, was that she was actually born in England), a star of many years of stage and screen. But no, not a star… “We did not use the word star,” Norah tells us. Stars are made; actresses are born. Norah grew up in a household in Dublin with her mother and a longtime housekeeper. She did not know who her father was, and she had a loving, if tumultuous, relationship with her mother. And while Norah was able to have a somewhat ordinary upbringing, for her mother: “… she walked out the door and was famous all day.” We learn early on that Katherine is no longer alive. In fact, Norah is now the age that Katherine was when she died: 58. Norah, unlike her mother, is in a longterm loving marriage; Enright makes a point of exploring the ups and downs inherent in such a relationship, the emotional aspects as well as the physical intimacy of it. In part, Enright has said, this book is not just an exploration of a mother/daughter relationship but also a “conversation about marriage,” and she hopes to “reclaim ideas of agency in desire.” As the person...
Study Hall: Literary Lectures for Thoughtful Readers
Later in Life: Women Aging into AbundanceDATE: Tuesday, June 2, 2020TIME: 7pm – 8:30pmNote: This class will meet virtually via Zoom. As several new books reinforce, women become more authentic as they age. There is less concern about saying or doing the right thing, and women feel freer to do and think as they please. As Mary Pipher says in Women Rowing North, “If we can keep our wits about us, think clearly, and manage our emotions skillfully, we will experience a joyous time of our lives.” In this talk we will explore the positive side of growing older and into our power by taking a close look at new books the explore the topic of women aging in the past, present, and future, including: In Our Prime by Susan J. Douglas Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher No Stopping Us Now by Gail Collins REGISTRATION COST: $40To sign up, click HERE.Note: cost does not include books. Books are available at a discount with class registration; please inquire to lynn@lynnrosen.com THE STUDY HALL LECTURE SERIES Open Book Productions launched this new series of literary lectures in early 2020. Each lecture, given by Lynn Rosen, addresses a different writer, theme, or group of books. Past topics included: Louisa May Alcott, Philadelphia Writers, Self-Help books, and the Literary Canon. These standalone talks don’t require preparation or reading ahead of time. They simply require you to come with an expectation of learning something about the particular writer or topic of the month. You’ll be able to ask questions, participate in discussion, and talk with other like-minded passionate readers. ABOUT LYNN: Lynn Rosen runs Open Book Productions, an extensive program of classes, workshops, and events for readers, writers and thinkers. Lynn is a long-time book publishing industry professional with many years of experience as an editor, literary agent, teacher, and author. For the past five years, she has been co-owner of Open Book Bookstore. She has served as Editorial Director of Book Business magazine, and Director of Graduate Publishing Programs at Rosemont College. Prior to that, she was Editorial Director at Peter Pauper Press, a Senior Editor at Running Press and, earlier in her career, an Editor in the Trade Division of Ballantine Books (Penguin Random House). In 1991, Lynn launched Leap First, an independent literary agency, which she ran until 1999. She is the author of Elements of the Table: A Simple Guide for Hosts and Guests (Clarkson Potter). Lynn graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with an Honors degree in English, and holds a Masters in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She teaches writing and publishing classes at Open Book, and has been a...