JCO: JCO Lecture
I had the wonderful good fortune of attending JCO's lecture in Syracuse last night, as part of the Rosamond Gifford Lecture Series. She was brilliant and fascinating and utterly hilarious at times. She talked about "The Wellspring of Creativity", starting out with a very little poem she wrote for John Updike about old crayolas. She talked about writing "stories" as a very young child, illustrated with crayola drawings of chickens and cats, the writing no more than scribbles imitating grown-up handwriting. Then she talked a lot about other writers, and where their creativity comes from - so often stemming from horrific circumstances. She hit on everyone from Hemingway and Sylvia Plath to Anais Nin and Norman Mailer to the Bronte sisters and Emily Dickinson. In response to an audience question about her pseudonym, she shared the story of Rosamond Smith's birth, behind the backs of her current agent and editor, and how she was found out. Amazing stuff.
I could have easily listened to her for many more hours. If you've not yet had the opportunity to hear her speak, do so.
JCO was also kind enough to sign my copy of The Falls, and seemed a bit startled but amused when I told her she was my birthday present (some good friends gave me tickets to the entire lecture series with meet-and-greet for my birthday).
A wonderful evening, all told.
Lisa
Tone Clusters: The Joyce Carol Oates discussion group
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posted by Admin at
8:34 AM
