The Battle to Read Deeply
You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury said that in 1994, several years before the proliferation ... Read More
On Monday (July 11) we’ll be starting another round of Writing with Flannery O’Connor—my six-week online course. We’ll dig into O’Connor’s essays in which she talks about writing, and we’ll also look closely at her fiction to understand how it does its work and how we as writers might put some of her principles into effect. This introductory lecture should give you an idea of what to expect:
To register, click here.
Jonathan Rogers is the author of The Terrible Speed of Mercy, one of the finest biographies of Flannery O’Connor we've ever read. His other books include the Wilderking Trilogy–The Bark of the Bog Owl, The Secret of the Swamp King, and The Way of the Wilderking–as well as The World According to Narnia and a biography of Saint Patrick. He has spent most of his adult life in Nashville, Tennessee, where he and his wife Lou Alice are raising a houseful of robustious children.
7 Comments
Russ Ramsey
@russramseyShe looks like a Flannery.
April Pickle
@hildamaeIf you need a whisper, or a nudge, or a hard forceful push to take this class, here you go. I finished this course a week ago Friday, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Ever.
Do you want to write so badly that your insides ache, but you’re afraid? Are you afraid that the words aren’t there, that you don’t have the vocabulary or the eloquence to tell the stories that are building up all that pressure inside you?
I know how you feel, and I think this particular course is just what you need. You need to know that you already have a language, you already have a writing voice, you are already bursting with stories. God has already placed meaning in everything, and you have the beautiful opportunity to look and look, and keep looking more, until you see all that meaning that’s already there.
In one of the lectures, Jonathan Rogers says “there’s only hours and hours of keeping your butt in the chair, hours of writing badly until you finally realize that you’ve started writing well.”
Well, get after it, friends. Sign up, sit down, listen to Flannery O’Connor, pay attention to what’s happening in your own memories, in your own experiences, and keep your butt in the chair until you crank out a story that we all need to hear. Sincerely, @HildaMae
Michael Gowin
This looks terrific. I see on the checkout page a field for a coupon/promo code; is there one available?
Cheers—
MG
Katherine
@kat828Oh wow, I really want to take this course… Only problem is that I don’t know that I can do it right now. Is this something that will be offered again?
Jonathan Rogers
@jonathanrogersHey, Michael G…no coupon code this time. Sorry about that. @kat828, I’ll be offering this again next summer.
Jonathan Rogers
@jonathanrogersAnd @hildamae April, I very much appreciate your endorsement. You are a woman of taste and decency.
Michael Gowin
@mgowin@jonathanrogers – No worries—thanks.
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