I started writing when it occurred to me that I could write a much better mystery for the Boxcar Children than their author Gertrude Chandler Warner. My story involved vengeful ghosts and a near fatal fall from a cliff, and sadly remains unfinished. I started writing because I love reading, and I have loved reading for as long as I can remember. I think I was mainly encouraged to continue reading and writing because it kept me quiet; nevertheless, I’ve kept at it.
I didn’t think I was going to be a writer until I got to USC. I’d been involved in the arts before that—I built stages, wrote one acts, and put together the high school literary magazine—but I didn’t really take it seriously. I only ever said I was going to be a writer when I didn’t know what else I was going to do. It was a fill in ambition, between marine biologist and civil rights lawyer. But then I was picking my classes, and I realized I was an English major. Once that step was taken, the rest fell into place.
It helped that I had wonderful professors, who were kind enough (or cruel enough) to encourage me to pursue writing, to take it seriously. In return, I want to encourage others to do the same; while at USC I was co editor in chief of the campus literary magazine (with Colin Dwyer, another recipient of the Gauntt Award), an activity that often felt like an uphill battle to convince people to take the arts seriously. Someday I’d like to teach, to convince another poor fool who might otherwise have been the next Jacques Cousteau to give this writing thing a try. In the meantime I’m going to give this writing thing a try. It is an honor to be offered the Jimmy Gauntt Memorial Award, and I can only hope I have the grit to pursue writing in the same spirit he did.
{ 0 comments… add one now }