Jessica Birthisel | Nov. 30, 2009
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| Photo by Alex Farris |
| Professor Emerita Carol Polsgrove launched her Web magazine to explore the writing and publishing process through the experiences of writers. Her first Q&A is with Carol Sklenicka, author of a book on Raymond Carver. |
And the site, Carol Polsgrove on Writers’ Lives, debuts with a Q-and-A interview with Carol Sklenicka, author of a new biography, Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life, a book that’s getting a lot of attention, including a Nov. 22 review in The New York Times by author Stephen King.
“It’s an experiment, a little room of my own on the Web,” said Polsgrove, who developed the site in WordPress with the help of School of Journalism Web developer Jeff Johnson and technical assistant Jeremy Lacey. “It’s kind of an indulgence, a way to sit down and have an in-depth conversation with someone I’m really interested in.”
Polsgrove said she always intended to do an author’s site for the release of her latest book, Ending British Rule in Africa: Writers in a Common Cause, but the decision to include interviews with writers came later. She decided to add this feature after conducting a fruitful interview with Sklenicka about the life of short story writer and poet Raymond Carver
“I thought it was just really fun,” said Polsgrove of the interview in Sklenicka’s northern California home.
Once the interview was complete, Polsgrove needed a platform through which to share the material. A believer in the Web’s ability to organize and archive important resources, Polsgrove thought the Internet could be a good venue for longer-form writing (her first interview runs over 5,000 words.)
“There’s an intensity and a wholeness and a depth that you won’t get in a 10-minute interview,” said Polsgrove of her format.
Sklenicka said in an e-mail that participating in author interviews is good for publicity, for gaining insights into her own writing and for communicating with the larger writing community.
“Participating in author interviews can be lots of fun if the interviewer has read your work and thought about her questions,” said Sklenicka. “Carol Polsgrove was this type of interviewer, so I was glad to have a conversation with her about my book. Not only that, but Carol is a terrific writer herself, and I’ve learned many things from reading her books. I hope the Polsgrove site will grow and grow.”
Polsgrove also noted the site’s usefulness to the burgeoning population of writers.
“I think there are many, many people who want to be writers,” said Polsgrove. “A lot of people think, ‘If I’m great, why am I not famous?’ Whatever can throw light on the power structures and institutional realities behind who becomes a published writer will be beneficial to them.”
For this reason, Sklenicka’s biography of Raymond Carver was an ideal choice to kick off the site because of what Polsgrove called Carver’s own “hard and luck-strewn road to being recognized as a writer.”
To add another layer of insight, Polsgrove’s interview covers Sklenicka’s own path to publication, including some of the struggles she experienced while writing the biography.
Polsgrove, who has spent much of her research energy studying the lives of writers, said by learning more about the authors of texts, audiences can have a different interaction with a piece of writing.
“Reading what someone else has written is a conversation,” said Polsgrove, but once you learn about the author’s own life experiences and writing processes, that conversation will be different.
Polsgrove admitted after reading Carver’s biography and interviewing his biographer, she was drawn back to his original writing and was able to consider it in new and different ways.
Polsgrove is not yet naming names, but said she has several more authors in mind for upcoming interviews, and she
is not limiting herself to only those writers who have been commercial successes.
“There’s a sadness in the idea of writing for money and fame,” said Polsgrove. She would like to explore on her site the basic human impulse to write even when the goal is not about publication or money making.
Polsgrove also is quick to distinguish the site from a blog because she said she has no intention of making daily or even weekly updates.
“It’s not a Web site where people will jump up in the morning and say, ‘Hey! What’s Carol up to today?’” she joked. “Because it says ‘Fall 2009’ on the site, I’ll feel some pressure to come up with [new content] by winter. But this has to be fun. I’m retired now.”
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