The Clique of Eclectics: Writers of Multiple Genres
Diana M. Raab -- October 15, 2006
Why some writers choose to write in multiple genres has always been a fascinating subject for me, which is why I chose to moderate a panel called, "The Clique of Eclectics: Writers of Multiple Genres," at The 8th Annual Santa Barbara Book and Author Festival held on September 30th at the downtown Public Library.
I've always considered myself to be a nonfiction writer and for the most part, I've credited my mother for this passion, as every week during my formative years, she brought me to the local public library. Once inside, she directed me to the nonfiction children's section, where she recommended reading biographies of the rich and the famous. When I stumbled upon my teen years, she pointed me towards books about my changing body, meditation and dealing with adolescent angst. Rarely was a fiction book suggested, and if it was, it was usually a classic. During those years, she bought me my first diary and told me it would be a safe place to record my deepest sentiments -- thus promoting yet another form of nonfiction writing.
I believe that at many levels, we are products of our childhood, even when it comes to literary tastes. Now, more than five decades later, my favorite genre for reading and writing is memoir. I asked my panelists, authors, Christopher Buckley, Kelly Cherry and Philip F. Deaver, to discuss their thoughts on this.
Christopher Buckley began grammar school at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Montecito where he was encouraged to write poetry, mostly in traditional or inherited forms, and that early exposure got him on track with reading and writing poetry. He said that his main focus until fifteen years ago was only poetry and critical prose about poetry. He said that he began writing creative nonfiction as a result of encouragement from his friends and fellow writers, such as Gary Soto and Judith Ortiz Coffer.
Cherry Kelly spoke about how she came from a musical family. Her parents were string quartet violinists, so she grew up listening to them rehearse. "I would literally crawl around on the floor maneuvering through all the different feet, and listening to Beethoven. It was a magnificent childhood. I knew that I wanted to create something beautiful before I had any kind of understanding of how one might do that. When I was twelve or thirteen, I discovered Shakespeare."
Kelly said that she read A Midsummer Night's Dream with her sister and a girlfriend. They'd each take parts, reading the lines out loud to one another over the telephone each night. "At that time, I knew I wanted to make a kind of music and do something with character."
Philip F. Deaver says that he started writing in sixth grade, inspired by a teacher who complimented him on an essay he wrote for a test on dinosaurs. "I think that's how I got launched into fiction because I was just basically making things up." As a child, Deaver read Mark Twain and magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Look and Life, a nice mix of both fiction and nonfiction.
As a teenager I'd read the poems of Rod McKuen. For years after, there was a lull in my interest for poetry, until about four years ago, when I attended a Billy Collins reading in Louisville, Kentucky. I enjoyed every minute of that reading, from the moment Collins was introduced until the applause died down at the end.
Collins' poetry was incredibly accessible, captivating and funny. By the end of the evening I was both psyched and inspired to write poetry. As a matter of fact, I left the reading with two poems glued to my literary radar -- "Forgetfulness" and "Insomnia," two issues I was personally dealing with during middle age.
Soon thereafter, I began attending a monthly writer's group in Orlando organized by Philip Deaver. I'd walk in with my pages of short nonfiction and read to writers of various levels of experience, who were for the most part, poets. After months of feeling like the black sheep of the group with my prose, I decided to give poetry writing a try. My first poem was about parallel parking and how men loved watching me park. The short poem elicited chuckles in the group, and afterwards the women came to tell me how much they could relate to the poem's sentiments. The accolades inspired me to write my second and third and subsequent poems.
I began reading the works of well-accomplished poets such as Pablo Neruda, Sharon Olds, Denise Duhamel and Stephen Dunn. Poetry became an integral part of my life. One thing I love about it is how it fits into my everyday life. Now, I have more than ten published poems.
All of the panelists were poets, the most prolific one being Christopher Buckley with fourteen volumes of poetry and poems published in over nine books. Kelly Cherry has published over sixteen books and eight chapbooks, and Phil Deaver, although his first book of poetry, How Men Pray was released last year, has been writing poetry for decades.
When I posed the question as to whether poetry was closer to fiction or nonfiction. Since most of my writing concerns real life issues, he and I agreed on this point. I must admit that I do take advantage of my fiction license to make my poems more compelling!
Philip and Kelly, on the other hand, who write more fiction than Buckley and I, believe that the poetic form is closer to fiction. Kelly says, "I actually feel strongly that poetry is closer to the novel. I know everybody says this is compact poetry, but to me, what's important is not the length of the piece, but the depth of the piece and in the novel you have a lot of layering going on, particularly if it's a real novel and not just an extended short story. In poetry, the kind of poetry that I like anyway, you have the surface of the poem and you have a lot of other things going on while you read."
I wrapped up the hour-long session by asking my panelists if they had suggestions for those wanting to write in another genre. The advice among the group was to read a lot in whatever genre you're considering writing in. For the longest time, I've had a book of poetry at my bedside and my evening ritual includes reading at least one poem before retiring for the night. It's the vitamin which has kept me going, and a vitamin I'd like to prescribe to the rest of the world!