ON CAMPUS
Best-selling author provides words of wisdom about writing and insight into her novels.
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www.millsaps.edu
ovelist Ann Patchett, who was named in 2012 by Time as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People, discussed writing and publishing during her visit to Millsaps College earlier this year as the 2013 Eudora Welty Visiting Lecturer in Humanities. Patchett demonstrated her storytelling genius as she recalled, often in a humorous fashion, key moments in her career and offered practical advice for aspiring writers. In her impromptu remarks, Patchett stressed the very idea about which she had more formally written in The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life: “Art stands on the shoulders of craft, which means that to get to the art, you must master the craft. If you want to write, practice writing. Practice it for hours a day, not to come up with a story you can publish but because you long to learn how to write well, because there is something that you alone can say. Write the story, learn from it, put it away, write another story.” Patchett is the author of six novels: The New York Times bestsellers State of Wonder and Run; The Patron Saint of Liars, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Taft, which won the
Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize; The Magician’s Assistant; and Bel Canto, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize, the BookSense Book of the Year, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also the author of two works of nonfiction: The New York Times bestselling Truth & Beauty and What Now? Patchett has written for many publications, including The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, Gourmet, The New York Times, Vogue, and The Washington Post. Two years ago, Patchett teamed up with two veteran booksellers to open Parnassus Books, a muchcelebrated independent bookstore in Nashville. The Welty Lecture was established in 1982 to bring to the College distinguished scholars, writers, artists, and critics who have made significant contributions to the understanding and appreciation of southern culture. The endowment honors Eudora Welty, the distinguished writer and lifelong resident of Jackson, who for many years served on the Board of Trustees of Millsaps College. Welty was a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor. Notable writers and scholars such as Cleanth Brooks, John Shelton Reed, Ellen Douglas, and Clyde Edgerton have visited Millsaps as part of the Welty lecture program. BY NELL LUTER FLOYD