Writers’ Support WRITING WITH EASE “There’s a certain naturalness you need for a good story — nothing forced, nothing pretentious,” says former USA Today writer Craig Wilson. “A good story a lot of times almost writes itself.” And Wilson should know. His weekly column “The Final Word” ran from 1996 to 2013, extolling the simple humor in everyday life. He’s written feature stories and book reviews as well, and sees importance in using “good, tight sentences” and not a lot of big words. “You have to get in and get out quickly to keep your readers interested,” Wilson says. “Having worked in the book section of USA Today, you look at a book and think, ‘That’s really good but nobody’s going to wade through that anymore.’ That’s kind of part of the trend.” W ilson took a buyout last spring after 30 years at the national daily paper. He plans to write a book about his career, though he’s enjoyed a leisurely retirement thus far. “I quite understand the ladies who lunch now, because it gives a focus to your day,” Wilson jokes. “You actually have to get up and wash your hair, get dressed and go out into the world.” 12 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
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Fun, Fury and Fallout
aughter makes serious topics accessible. In Susan Dworkin’s plays, her characters’ personal lives intersect with politics, creating humorous as well as dramatic results. A low-level government clerk in her latest play, The Farm Bill, undergoes a political awakening that results in a one-woman uprising, briefly bringing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s bureaucracy to a standstill.
It’s a setting Dworkin has experienced f irsthand. The New York suburbanite and political junkie knew nothing about farming when she started working at the Department of Agriculture after college. The ag world was revolutionizing as industrial outfits supplanted small fa r ms a nd USDA researchers unlocked Mother Nature’s secrets. “I found myself fascinated by how the far mers were coping and thunderstruck by what the techies at Beltsville were working on. Tomatoes raised to fit into specific boxes and shipping schedules. Bugs poisoned with their own pheromones,” says Dworkin. “It was all amazing to me.” After leaving the USDA, Dworkin covered aid programs in the Middle East, interviewed celebrities as a contributing editor at Ms. magazine and wrote a number of non-fiction books.
But she remained fascinated with agriculture, viewing it as a barometer of economic and spiritual health. “Long after I left the depar tment, I kept traipsing around the world, reporting on hydroelectric dams and irrigation projects, experimental plantations and the dislocation of farm families everywhere,” Dworkin says. Her 2009 nonfiction book The Viking in the Wheat Field told the story of Danish scientist Bent Skovmand’s quest to ensure t he f ut u re of t he world’s food supply by preserving plant genetic resources in seed banks. Dworkin’s interest in politics surpasses her interest in agriculture. “Many of my plays concern the political awakening of characters who thought they only had private lives.” She’s found special rewards in politically-charged playwriting. “I believe the theatre is a logical place for politics,” Dworkin says. “Few things are more fun than satirizing the powers that be, no matter how furious they may become. As for the fallout — the impact the play may have on our general civic conversation — that’s what the political writer lives for.” It’s rewarding for the audience as well. The shared experience of theater helps viewers make sense of political ideas. “Sometimes sitting alone with your TV or your podcast just won’t cut it,” Dworkin says. “Sometimes people just need to sit together, laugh together, to be a community in the dark, in order to really consider an issue.”