Guest in Progress: Rachel Hall on Historical Research through Letters

Here is the second half of Rachel Hall’s insightful exploration of why letters are such an effective source for the writer conducting historical research. (If you missed the first part, you can find it here.)

On Letters, Part II
By Rachel Hall

Another inviting aspect of the letter is the way the writer acknowledges the setting in which he or she writes—sometimes to describe it for one who hasn’t been there or to remind the recipient of a familiar place. In this convention of the letter, we get details of setting and mood and a built-in tension—the writer speaking through time and place to reach a particular other as in this one from an Air Force wife to her husband stationed in Korea:

January 20, 1952
Good afternoon,

It’s a bright cold beautiful day here in Iowa. How are you today, my sweet hubby? Jan is snoozing in her afternoon nap & Jay plays cowboy all day long and he hardly even takes a nap anymore. I think it’s high time you are coming home because Jan is beginning to call every man she sees in a magazine “Daddy.”

It will be wonderful to have you home again. You can come home at night to a nice comfy chair & Jay will bring you your slippers & pipe (?!)& I will bring you a nice tall glass of something cold in one of our new iced tea glasses.

The shadows are growing long on the lawn. It’s 4:30 & soon will be dark again & your day just beginning….

In their introduction to WOMEN’S LETTERS: AMERICA FROM THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR TO THE PRESENT, editors Lisa Grunwald and Stephen Adler note that letters talk: “ They are voices fixed on paper.…they tell stories; they tell secrets; they shout and scold, bitch and soothe, whisper and worry, console and advise, gossip and argue, compete and compare. And along the way, they—usually without meaning to—write history. “

In a letter written by the wife of a soldier stationed in the South Pacific in August 1945, this gem: “My, my. What a solemn owl I am tonight. Too much reading about atom smashing, I guess.” The letter is full of the letter writer’s thoughts about religion and politics, her mundane financial concerns. All interesting, but it’s the phrase “solemn owl” that gets the fiction writer. Here we hear a particular person or character.

One of my grandmother’s letters home to Palestine, written in 1941 concludes “Alinette, the happiest amongst us, grows like a mushroom.”Again, the phrasing is the gift of the letter. How interesting that the French say mushroom—that spongy moist growth,--while Americans say one grows like a weed, how revealing of time and place. This phrase, like a choice mushroom itself, could be harvested for my story.

Letters provide an individual voice that speaks to us from the past—and through this voice, we are reminded of the universality of human experience.

This was particularly striking to me as I read the letters collected in Raising a Baby the Government Way: Mother’s Letters to the Children’s Bureau 1915-1932. While the mothers’ concerns were different than my own worries as an expectant and new mother, I heard a tone—anxious, protective, obsessional--that I recognized as my own. Many of the letter writers were worried about marking their unborn babies by viewing a sickly infant or by not satisfying a craving for a particular food. This woman, writing the Bureau in 1925, says this:

…I’m worried sick. Its on my mind all the time. I wake up nights & think of things to eat….& what can you do when you long for watermelon or mush melon, or anything out of season? Can that mark or harm the baby in any way? Oh, please tell me what to do. I couldn’t tell this to anyone else but you, as I have no mother & no one else cares.

Our contemporary wish to protect and shelter our children is the same though it takes different forms—an insistence on organic baby food, for example, or green cotton diapers. These are our 21st century superstitions, fueled by the same deep love and fear.

There’s more to say about letters—the thrill of reading what wasn’t intended for you, for instance or how moving a letter can be. Indeed, this is research that can make you weep, as I discovered reading Ethel and Julius Rosenberg’s final letter to their young sons. This is, I think, why stories that include letters—think of Alice Munro here—draw us in. We are trained by the form—even now—to respond, if not with an actual letter than with our hearts. ~Rachel Hall

About: Rachel Hall's work has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, most recently in Crab Orchard Review, Water~Stone, and New Letters which awarded her their Cappon Prize in fiction. She is at work on a collection of linked stories entitled HEIRLOOMS, which follows a French Jewish family from the eve of WWII to America where they settle after the war. She teaches at the State University of New York at Geneseo, where she holds the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

You can listen to an audio version of her story that won the Lilith contest: http://www.lilith.org/blog/?p=445

Workshop for Novels/Memoirs-in-Progress

Writer Hildie Block is holding a 1-year workshop for novels/memoirs in progress, with registration starting on May 1. Here’s the information she sent:

Registration for the Year Long WRITE YOUR BOOK workshop in Falls Church City begins on May 1.

Are you working on a novel or memoir? This workshop meets over 1 year -- in 8 week segments with month-long breaks -- for about 28 class meetings -- and you get to workshop your book as you write it!

This is our 5th Year, now! I can't believe it! It's such a wonderful class -- it's so cool for me, the workshop leader to see folks work toward their goals!

Class meets Monday nights, 7:30-10, starting late September -- in Falls Church City. Plenty of public transit -- also easy parking right at the door. In about 28 class meetings over a year, we go through book structures, deep issues in fiction and memoir and then publishing questions -- agents, queries -- the whole 9 yards.

Participants workshop their books in 30 page "chunks" -- about one "chunk" a month or so. The goal is to get to workshop about 200+ pages of your draft in progress as you are writing it! Class is structured with a prompt to get you thinking about your book differently -- a lesson -- and then workshop. We spent 30-40 minutes on a "chunk" in workshop.

I can only take 8-10 folks. The deposit is $100 and is payable via paypal or check. The full cost is $850 (100 deposit + 750). The balance isn't due until September. The course cost includes any text we'll use, as well as a one-on-one hour with me. You will be responsible for making copies of your work to distribute in class.

Payment via paypal to misterblock@hotmail.com or checks to be mailed to Hildie Block (please email for address: hsblock@verizon.net).

More information about Hildie Block: http://hildieblog.livejournal.com
Questions: hsblock@verizon.net

Mark Your Calendars: AIW Conference on 6/12

American Independent Writers presents
the 31st AIW Writers Conference:

New Realities: The (R)evolution of Writing and Publishing
The George Washington University Cafritz Conference Center
Marvin Center Building
800 21st Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20052
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Sponsored by American Independent Writers

To register and for more information:
www.aiwriters.org
info@aiwriters.org
(202) 775-5150

This day-long conference always features a wide variety of panels and speakers talking about the craft of writing as well as the business of writing. It’s a great resource for meeting with an agent, though you must register early to ensure your spot. Highly recommended!

Open Mic + Riverby Books = Fun for All

This sounds fun, and a nice excuse to pay a visit to Riverby Books, one of DC’s most charming used bookstores:

A Space Inside will host a multi-genre open mic event on Wednesday, April 28 at 7 p.m . at Riverby Books on Capitol Hill. Readers will include a few series alums, new writers from the neighborhood, and established voices from the DC region. Come to share your own work or just to listen to a diverse set of literary voices. All genres are welcomed--fiction, poetry, nonfiction, drama. Those who would like to read should contact Monica Jacobe (monicafjacobe@usa.net) for details of time constraints, sign-ups, etc.

Firmly in its fifth year, A Space Inside provides a space where developing writers, lesser known voices, and the work better-known writers create between books can be heard. Monthly readings usually alternate between poetry and prose, but all readers are DC-based writers. All readings, which are free and open to the public, are hosted by Riverby Books with a reception following.

Riverby Books is located at 417 East Capitol Street, SE, just north of Eastern Market and four blocks east of the U.S. Capitol. A seller of used and rare books, they are open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and can be reached at (202) 543-4342. Please call for directions, if needed.

Poets Laureate at WNBA Event

I will be in class tonight, but if not, I would be at this event sponsored by the Washington chapter of WNBA:

Celebrate Poetry Month with DC Metro area Poet Laureates

Tuesday, April 27, 2010
6:00-8:00 p.m.
Busboys & Poets
2021 14th St, DC (at V Street)www.busboysandpoets.com

Featuring:
Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Poet Laureate of Virginia
Mary McElveen, Poet Laureate of Alexandria, VA
Anne Becker, Poet Laureate of Takoma Park, MD

Poet Sandra Beasley to Read on May 2

I’ve read in the Washington Post about Sandra Beasley’s discomfiture at not knowing the etiquette of the party at the Finnish Embassy’s sauna (naked? not naked?); I’ve enjoyed sneak-up-on-you, late-night vodka drinks with her after a hard night of teaching at Johns Hopkins; and I’ve read her sharp, smart poems while sitting amidst the swirl of a bookstore, lost to the world (and then continued reading in the quiet of my house). I’ve been at events she’s organized to a T, and I’ve shared potluck dinners with her. I printed off from her blog a recipe for carrots.

But I’ve never seen Sandra read from her own work. My fault, and now I’m about to rectify the situation on Sunday, May 2, when she’s reading from her new book, I WAS THE JUKEBOX, at Politics & Prose at 1 PM.

I WAS THE JUKEBOX won the 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize, selected by Joy Harjo, and is just out this month from W. W. Norton. Publisher’s Weekly recently reviewed the book: “More fun than most recent books, Beasley's second collection can also get quite serious: in the best parts, the poet pretends she is any number of nonhuman things—a jukebox, an orchid, the Egyptian god Osiris, an eggplant (in a sestina), grains of sand…. If Beasley's conceits owe something to Kenneth Koch, her tone and her subjects might place her with chick lit, too: this is a book that could go a long way.” I totally agree, and you can see for yourself with two poems from the book here.

Politics & Prose is at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, with a parking lot around the back of the store; it is closest to the Van Ness-UDC stop on the red line metro. Here is the official event listing:http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/sandra-beasley-i-was-jukebox.

You can read more about Sandra at her website: www.sandrabeasley.com

Hope to see you on Sunday!

Why I Like Spartanburg

Here’s a nice article from the Washington Post about the charms of Spartanburg, SC, where I teach in the Converse College Low-Residency MFA program. Too bad the writer didn’t manage to get to the Beacon Drive-In!

From the article:
“As a writer looking for a story, I find there's a temptation to construct a premise before I even arrive. Given Spartanburg's former heyday as a railroad hub and the massive BMW manufacturing plant nearby, I flirted briefly with the notion of a transportation theme. But my pre-trip research showed me that the city, with six institutions of higher learning, a relatively new cultural complex and a healthy dose of Revolutionary War history, refused to be pigeonholed. So with trepidation I backed off as a Type-A planner and decided to see where my pursuit of fun took me.”