FleX time THe lIFe oF AN ArTIST
‘You’re going to Feel lost at times’ bY miChae l Ke nne DY ’99 As a student at the University
the 2002 Pulitzer Prize — as well
of Arizona in the late 1960s,
as a handful of other critically
richard russo pretended he
acclaimed novels, short stories,
was someone else.
and screenplays.
He created a new identity for
russo visited Brunswick to
himself, even fantasizing that he
speak to Upper School students —
was part of the witness Protection
all of whom had studied his novel
Program.
The Risk Pool in english classes.
“I did all of this in an effort to
He offered students keen
conceal my past. If anyone asked, I said I was from upstate New York and hoped the conversation would end there,” russo recalled. “I was ashamed of growing up in the blue-collar mill town of gloversville — ashamed of where I was from.” After earning an M.F.A. in Creative writing and a Ph.D. in literature, russo pursued this feigned lifestyle in his first novel — writing a story about a city boy with For more photos, visit bwick.org/tob_winter2014
small-town roots. But his publisher quickly blew his cover.
“It’s not about being smart. It’s about being smart enough to recognize something when it’s good.”
“He recognized the only true thing in that novel — 30 to 40
insights into the workings of a
pages of back story about the main
novelist, focusing on the elements
character’s upbringing. of course,
of imagination, structure, and art.
it was what I had been trying to
you need to come to terms with the
breathed came directly from my ex-
fact that you’re going to feel lost at
perience growing up in gloversville.
times,” he told students. “You also
“As soon as I understood that
need to have faith that you’ll make
grungy, moribund mill town was something I knew, something I
“It’s not about being smart. It’s about being smart enough to rec-
self-realization that has sustained
ognize something when it’s good —
my career. You can find gloversville
revising and revising until it looks
and the people there in all of my
like you knew what you were doing
books — somewhere.”
the whole time. “You end up looking smart, but
novels, published in 1986. During
you were just as lost as a human
the next 25 years, he has gone on to
being could be,” he said.
write Nobody’s Fool and Empire Falls — for which he won
TIMeS oF BrUNSwICk • wINTer 2013–2014
it through.
loved,” russo admitted, “that was a
Mohawk was the first of his
42
“If you’re going to be an artist,
disguise. The section that lived and
“Try it out sometime.”
B