In The Margins E7: Once More, with Feeling

An Interview with Dorianne Laux and John Kessel

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Ray Crampton

Episode 7 Guests: Writers Dorianne Laux and John Kessel

How does a writer improve? In this episode, two prominent writers and writing professors from North Carolina State University’s graduate program in creative writing share their insight into the creative process. With over 50 years of teaching experience between them, poet Dorianne Laux and fiction writer John Kessel offer advice to all levels of writers, reminding us to always try “once more, with feeling.”

Podcast Notes

Writing allows people to open the mind and the heart; encourages expression of things that are not encouraged in their social groups; teaches people how to express themselves. We all have some capacity to write and to respond to the written word, which fans out in lives beyond just writing. Laux and Kessel share their wisdom in how to help writers find the “heat” that makes the language and story tap into the human experience.

North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC)

Creative Writing Master of the Fine Arts: http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/graduate/mfa
Creative Writing Undergraduate Major: http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/undergraduate/

California Poets in the Schools Program (K-12): http://www.cpits.org/

Pablo Neruda: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/pablo-neruda\
Letter to Miguel: http://www.amazon.com/Letter-Miguel-Otero-Silva-Caracas/dp/B0006YN9O4

Ursula K. Le Guin: http://www.ursulakleguin.com/

Herman Melville: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/herman-melville

Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning: “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?“: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173001

Sharon Olds: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/sharon-olds