Friday

Aug. 16, 1996

An Archival Print

by William Stafford

FRIDAY 8/16

Today's Reading: "An Archival Print" by William Stafford from THE DARKNESS AROUND US, published by Harper Perennial.

Today is the Black Hills Steam and Gas Threshing Bee in Sturgis, South Dakota.

The Coshocton Canal Festival in Coshocton, Ohio starts today.

The Mark Twain Days Festival starts today in Hartford, Connecticut with frog-jumping and raft-building contests, a spelling bee, and a "Markathon" reading of Twain's books.

The Great Pikes Peak Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Colorado Springs starts today.

The Milwaukee Irish Fest, the world's largest Irish music and cultural event, starts today in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Texas Ranch Roundup begins today in Wichita Falls, Texas.

The Yankton Riverboat Days and Summer Arts Festival starts today in Yankton, South Dakota.

In Chattanooga, Tennessee, the African-American Cultural Festival takes place today.

It was on this day in 1977 at 3:30 p.m. that Elvis Presley was pronounced dead at Memphis Baptist Hospital.

Baseball player Babe Ruth died on this day in 1948 at the age of 53.

Poet and short story writer, Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany, in 1920.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

«

»

  • “Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories' shadows—and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” —Joy Williams
  • “I want to live other lives. I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler
  • “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” —Stephen Greenblatt
  • “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” —John Edgar Wideman
  • “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” —Denise Levertov
  • “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Let's face it, writing is hell.” —William Styron
  • “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
  • “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” —Paul Rudnick
  • “Writing is a failure. Writing is not only useless, it's spoiled paper.” —Padget Powell
  • “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.” —Shelby Foote
  • “I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.” —William Carlos Williams
  • “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.” —Iris Murdoch
  • “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is my dharma.” —Raja Rao
  • “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” —Anthony Powell
  • “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” —Michael Cunningham
Current Faves - Learn more about poets featured frequently on the show