“Good writers,” my son’s English teacher argued at a recent Parents’ Night, “are good readers.” A refreshingly old-fashioned insight worth remembering in these days when writing is assessed on SATs. The best writers, of course, are also rereaders, as Julia Keller, my friend, colleague and author of this week’s cover story, “A warrior for truth,” reminded me as she recalled a French aphorism that says the real magic is not in reading but in rereading.
Even the joy of discovering a new author pales in contrast with the exaltation of experiencing an old author in a newer, deeper way. Not every writer can hold up to multiple readings, but Joyce Carol Oates, recipient of this year’s Chicago Tribune Literary Prize, is no ordinary author.
“I admire the supple artistry of her prose–the way it sounds so close to life, real life, that the distance between reality and fiction seems to shrink to nothing right before your eyes,” reflects Julia. “Then you look closer, and you realize the effort and expertise that goes into that fluidity.”
Joyce Carol Oates will accept the Tribune prize next Sunday, and in so doing will join a tradition that began with Arthur Miller and in successive years was followed by Tom Wolfe, August Wilson and Margaret Atwood. For readers–and rereaders–there may be nothing more moving than witnessing the grand Symphony Center filled to capacity with an audience in a writer’s thrall. On those Sunday mornings, the solitary act of reading–and writing–are shared in a way that enriches and bonds us all.
In the Tribune’s constellation of literary awards, next Sunday we also award our Heartland Prizes, which recognize two remarkable books–Louise Erdrich’s “The Painted Drum,” her novel that brilliantly illuminates the Native American world as it clashes with history; and Taylor Branch’s “At Canaan’s Edge,” the third volume of his admirable biography of Martin Luther King. And in our special section in Books, we publish four original short stories, the winner and runners-up in the Nelson Algren Short Story Contest.
In Julia, Joyce Carol Oates has found a worthy interpreter of her work for she, like Oates, is very special–although until February, she will devote her considerable talents to the students of Princeton University rather than the pages of the Tribune. As McGraw Professor in Writing at Princeton, teaching a course on the journalism of ideas, Julia will be teaching students to read–and to write.
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FOR TICKETS TO THE LITERARY PRIZE CEREMONIES
Nov. 5, Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave. Joyce Carol Oates, 10 a.m.; Louise Erdrich and Taylor Branch, 1 p.m. Book sales and signing to follow programs.
Tickets for each event are free to students and teachers. All others, $15 (this ticket price as published has been corrected in this text). Available at the Tribune Store through Oct. 25, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Monday-Friday, 11 a.m-5:30 p.m., or call the Chicago Humanities Festival Ticket Office at (312) 494-9509, or go to www.chfestival.org.
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etaylor@tribune.com
