Writings on Writing
Aug 2015 · Open Road Media
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67
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About this ebook
May Sarton’s lifetime of work as a poet, novelist, and essayist inform these illuminating reflections on the creative life
In “The Book of Babylon,” May Sarton remarks that she is not a critic—except of her own work. The essay addresses questions that have haunted Sarton’s own creative practice, such as the concept of “tension in equilibrium”—balancing past and present, idea and image. She also cites poems written by others to describe the joy of writing and how we must give ourselves over to becoming the instruments of our art.
“The Design of a Novel” is about fiction writing—where ideas come from, how theme and character determine plot, the mistakes many fledgling authors make, and how and why the novel differs from the poem. Further texts examine the act of composing verse, one’s state of mind when writing poetry, the role of the unconscious, how revising is the loftiest form of creation, and how to keep growing as an artist. Throughout the collection, Sarton also warns about the dangers of trying to analyze the creative process too closely.
A book that doesn’t separate art from the artist’s life, Writings on Writing is filled with Sarton’s trademark imagery and insights, letting us know we’re in the hands of a master.
In “The Book of Babylon,” May Sarton remarks that she is not a critic—except of her own work. The essay addresses questions that have haunted Sarton’s own creative practice, such as the concept of “tension in equilibrium”—balancing past and present, idea and image. She also cites poems written by others to describe the joy of writing and how we must give ourselves over to becoming the instruments of our art.
“The Design of a Novel” is about fiction writing—where ideas come from, how theme and character determine plot, the mistakes many fledgling authors make, and how and why the novel differs from the poem. Further texts examine the act of composing verse, one’s state of mind when writing poetry, the role of the unconscious, how revising is the loftiest form of creation, and how to keep growing as an artist. Throughout the collection, Sarton also warns about the dangers of trying to analyze the creative process too closely.
A book that doesn’t separate art from the artist’s life, Writings on Writing is filled with Sarton’s trademark imagery and insights, letting us know we’re in the hands of a master.
About the author
May Sarton (1912–1995) was born on May 3 in Wondelgem, Belgium, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first volume of poetry, Encounters in April, was published in 1937 and her first novel, The Single Hound, in 1938. Her novels A Shower of Summer Days, The Birth of a Grandfather, and Faithful Are the Wounds, as well as her poetry collection In Time Like Air, all received nominations for the National Book Award.
An accomplished memoirist, Sarton came out as a lesbian in her 1965 book Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. Her memoir Journal of a Solitude (1973) was an account of her experiences as a female artist. Sarton spent her later years in York, Maine, living and writing by the sea. In her memoir Endgame: A Journal of the Seventy-Ninth Year (1992), she shares her own personal thoughts on getting older. Her final poetrycollection, Coming into Eighty, was published in 1994. Sarton died on July 16, 1995, in York, Maine.
An accomplished memoirist, Sarton came out as a lesbian in her 1965 book Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. Her memoir Journal of a Solitude (1973) was an account of her experiences as a female artist. Sarton spent her later years in York, Maine, living and writing by the sea. In her memoir Endgame: A Journal of the Seventy-Ninth Year (1992), she shares her own personal thoughts on getting older. Her final poetrycollection, Coming into Eighty, was published in 1994. Sarton died on July 16, 1995, in York, Maine.
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