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I'm interested in talking about life stories, whether you've survived a war or a marriage, or the challenges of daily life. Sometimes I fashion my writing in novels, while other times I'm compelled to write "real life" as my son used to say.
Writers can be timid creatures, and after the initial fear, having a conversation about what you're working on can be a great contrast to the solitary task of writing. As a teacher I've found that what seems like a simple conversation can help shape work in surprising ways. Listening is one of the most important skills a writer can have, and I've found that talking about your story can hone that skill as well as stimulate creativity.
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On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the world’s first airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, establishing the Wright Brothers as world-renowned pioneers of flight. Known to far fewer people was their whip-smart and well-educated sister Katharine, a suffragette and early feminist.
After Wilbur passed away, Katharine lived with and took care of her increasingly reclusive brother Orville, who often turned to his more confident and supportive sister to help him through fame and fortune. But when Katharine became engaged to their mutual friend, Harry Haskell, Orville felt abandoned and betrayed. He smashed a pitcher of flowers against a wall and refused to attend the wedding or speak to Katharine or Harry. As the years went on, the siblings grew further and further apart.
In The Wright Sister, Patty Dann wonderfully imagines the blossoming of Katharine, revealed in her “Marriage Diary”—in which she emerges as a frank, vibrant, intellectually and socially engaged, sexually active woman coming into her own—and her one-sided correspondence with her estranged brother as she hopes to repair their fractured relationship. Even though she pictures “Orv” throwing her letters away, Katharine cannot contain her joie de vivre, her love of married life, her strong advocacy of the suffragette cause, or her abiding affection for her stubborn sibling as she fondly recalls their shared life.
"From the first sentence to the last Patty Dann captures the voice of Katharine Wright with uncanny verisimilitude. Poignant."
— Sheila Kohler, author of Once We Were Sisters and Open Secrets
Featuring writing prompts and tips from one of the “great [writing] teachers of NYC,” this guide to memoir writing will help you discover the power and pleasure of bringing your memories to life (New York Magazine)
Sometimes all it takes is a single word to spark a strong memory. Bicycle. Snowstorm. Washing machine. By presenting one-word prompts and simple phrases, author and writing teacher Patty Dann gives us the keys to unlock our life stories.
Organized around her ten rules for writing memoir, Dann’s lyrical vignettes offer glimpses into her own life while, surprisingly, opening us up to our own. This book is a small but powerful guide and companion for anyone wanting to get their own story on the page. We all have stories to tell, and Patty Dann can help you bring them forth.
“Patty Dann has collected 25 years of teaching experience in this generous book of advice to writers. She delivers a series of prompts that open up tiny worlds of memory and feeling. If God is in the details, God is here.”
—Betsy Lerner, author of The Forest for the Trees
"Mrs. Flax was happiest when she was leaving a place, but I wanted to stay put long enough to fall down crazy and hear the Word of God. I always called my mother Mrs. Flax."
So begins this extraordinary first novel about one wild year in the life of fourteen-year-old Charlotte Flax, when she and her sister Kate move with Mrs. Flax into a sleepy 1960's Massachusetts town. Mrs. Flax is a woman who wears polka-dot dresses and serves hors d'oeuvres for dinner every night, and Kate is a child who basically wants to be a fish.
And then there's Charlotte, who in Patty Dann's hands, is transformed into a young woman of infinite whim and variety. Charlotte's main ambition in life is to become a saint, preferably martyred, though she's Jewish. She's smitten with the shy young caretaker at the convent at the top of the hill. Dann has created a young girl who accepts the unkindness of the mad universe in which she's whirling and takes it on with a savage glee.
Charlotte Flax is like no one you have ever met--and someone you know very well.
"Charming, fresh...sharply etched."
—Publishers Weekly
