A Manner of Being: Writers on Their Mentors

by Annie Liontas, Jeff Parker

Overview

What do the punk singer Henry Rollins, the Guatemalan writer Rodrigo Rey Rosa, the American authors Tobias Wolff, Tayari Jones, and George Saunders, the Canadian writer Sheila Heti, and the Russian poet Polina Barskova have in common? At some point they all studied the art of writing deeply with someone.

The nearly seventy short essays in A Manner of Being, by some of the best contemporary writers from around the world, pay homage to mentors—the writers, teachers, nannies, and sages—who enlighten, push, encourage, and sometimes hurt, fail, and limit their protégés. There are mentors encountered in the schoolhouse and on farms, in NYC and in MFA programs; mentors who show up exactly when needed, offering comfort, a steadying hand, a commiseration, a dose of tough love. This collection is rich with anecdotes from the heartfelt to the salacious, gems of writing advice, and guidance for how to live the writing life in a world that all too often doesn't care whether you write or not.

Each contribution is intimate and distinct—yet a common theme is that mentors model a manner of being.

Selections include:

Arthur Flowers on John O'Killens
James Franco on Harmony Korine
Mary Gaitskill on an Ann Arbor bookstore owner
Noy Holland and Sam Lipsyte on Gordon Lish
Tayari Jones on Ron Carlson
Henry Rollins on Hubert Selby Jr.
Rodrigo Rey Rosa on Paul Bowles
George Saunders on Douglas Unger and Tobias Wolff
Christine Schutt on Elizabeth Hardwick
Tobias Wolff on John L'Heureux
. . . and many more

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625341822
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	11/25/2015
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Annie Liontas received an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University. She is author of the novel Let Me Explain You. Jeff Parker is assistant professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His most recent books include Where Bears Roam the Streets and Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion.

Read an Excerpt

A Manner of Being

Writers on their Mentors

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By Annie Liontas, Jeff Parker

University of Massachusetts Press

Copyright © 2015 University of Massachusetts Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62534-182-2

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CHAPTER 1

TOBIAS WOLFF

ON JOHN L'HEUREUX

In the summer of 1974, my brother, knowing my interest in short stories, gave me a collection he had recently read and thought I'd like — Family Affairs, by John L'Heureux. I loved it. What kind of man could write a sentence like this, describing a nun's self-destruction by car and bovine: "Mother Humiliata took the cow at sixty ..."?

My kind of man.

I had been writing in isolation since I was fifteen, and managed to publish a novel in my late twenties, but when the actual book arrived, and I cracked a beer in lieu of champagne, and began to read it, I discovered that I hated it. Hated the writing, the too-purposeful "plot," the protagonist. I had to make a new beginning, that was clear, but how? And then, in a great stroke of fortune, I received a Wallace Stegner Fellowship to enter the Stanford writing workshop led by John L'Heureux — this just months after reading his book.

While at Stanford I had the benefit of meeting with other fine writers and teachers, but it was John who affected me most profoundly: the rigor of his reading, the invention and boldness of his editing, and the humanity and wit of his personal presence. It was a truculent workshop in many ways, skirmishes flaring constantly along the borders of gender, politics, sexual identity, and failed romances, but John could make us laugh pretty much at will, and did. Nor did he bestow this gift on us alone: I once happened to meet a man who'd been a student of his years earlier at a Jesuit high school back east. He told me that another priest had been needling John with snide messages left on the blackboard. When one of the students suggested that John engage this fellow in "a battle of wits," John declined on the grounds that he "would never fight an unarmed man."

To the stories and novels we submitted for his admiration, most of them transitional to say the least, John paid what Jane Austen calls "the compliment of rational opposition." He was dead serious in his reading of our work, and absolutely honest in his response; after which, for those with ears to hear, he generously helped us imagine the possibilities for successful revision. He was such a good reader that for some time after I left the program I continued sending John my stories, as if he had nothing else to read.

This gift for severe and imaginative editing, for demanding that every sentence, every scene prove its worth, was not the result of training in academic analysis, though John had plenty of that, but from the experience of his own practice as a poet, novelist, and writer of short stories. In reading his work, one can see, feel, the demands he makes on himself for exactitude, essence, emotional honesty, aesthetic freshness, digging deep for the truths of our thoughts and desires and presenting his findings without flinching, even — no, especially — when they challenge our self-conceptions and certainties, and trouble the heart.

Read The Shrine at Altamira. You may think that the father in that novel is a monster, and what he does is truly monstrous, yet still he is human, and the pain and confusion and jealousy and blind fury that lead to his act are recognizable, and have their echoes in what we know of ourselves. John's work is sometimes dire in its portraiture but never contemptuous; witty as Donne is witty, that is, seriously witty; adventurous in language and form without ever being cute. He is a beautiful writer. When you read a short story like "The Anatomy of Bliss" or "Departures," or a novel like An Honourable Profession, or The Shrine at Altamira, or, most recently, The Medici Boy, you can't help wishing you could sit down with the writer, and learn from him some of what he has learned about the art he has practiced so well, and for so long. Who does he read with profit? Who does he read once and not read again? Why? How do you deal with disappointment, both in the failure to write as well as you want to write, and in the indifference, even hostility, with which the world may greet the work you are proud of ? What sustains you?

Through many years, apprentices like me were privileged to gather at a table with John — a round table, no less — and ask these questions, and read each other's work, and take our lumps and learn something and keep writing, and finally leave not with a blueprint or a set of rules, but with an enhanced capacity for imagining — and reimagining — our stories. I was lucky to be there, to share in the gift of John's insight and experience. I knew it then, and my sense of wonder at this good fortune has only grown over the years.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from A Manner of Being by Annie Liontas, Jeff Parker. Copyright © 2015 University of Massachusetts Press. Excerpted by permission of University of Massachusetts Press.
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Table of Contents

Lineage ITobias Wolff on John L'Heureux Douglas Unger on Raymond Carver, John Irving, and Richard Stern George Saunders on Douglas Unger and Tobias Wolff Adam Levin on George Saunders SchoolhouseAimee Bender on Judith Grossman and Geoffrey Wolff Mary Caponegro on John Hawkes James Franco on School Lee Montgomery on Five Mentors Carmen Maria Machado on Kevin Brockmeier andMichelle Huneven Leonid Kostyukov on Anatoly Kim Scott Laughlin on Alberto de Lacerda Davy Rothbart on Charles Baxter Jedediah Berry on William Weaver C. Dale Young on Donald Justice Maya Lang on Ron DeMaio Mecca Jamilah Sullivan on Amy Peter Meinke on Robert "Bobo" Rudd and Mrs. Maureen Vanderbilt Stefan Kiesbye on Irving Feldman Michael Martone on John Barth OutliersRichard Poplak on Fabian Cancellara's Legs Diane Cook on Ira Glass Mary Gaitskill on the Old Guy Kevin Canty on Harry Crews Rodrigo Rey Rosa on Paul Bowles Ken Babstock on Three Builders Aleksandr Skidan on Boris Ostanin Tony D'Souza on the Exquisite Lady Byron Case on L. Henry Rollins on Hubert Selby, Jr. Sheila Heti on Susan Roxborough Mikhail Iossel on Gilbert Sorrentino Edie Meidav on Peter Matthiessen Megan Mayhew Bergman on Tammy White Polina Barskova on the Teacher Rosemary Sullivan on Leonora Carrington and P. K. Page Lineage IIPadgett Powell on Donald Barthelme Mike Spry on Padgett Powell Sam Lipsyte on Gordon Lish Noy Holland on Gordon Lish Christine Schutt on Elizabeth Hardwick Tough LoveDeb Olin Unferth on John Probes Erica Dawson on Mary Jo Salter Nick Flynn on Philip Levine Roy Kesey on Robert Day Sabina Murray on Valerie Martin Rui Zink on Alberto Pimenta Anya Groner on Beth Ann Fennelly Dawn Raffel on Her Grandmother Pam Houston on Martha Washington No Mentor HerePaisley Rekdal on No One Christine Hume on Some Teachers Tibor Fischer on a Mentor Missed Tony Hoagland on Rejecting Your Mentors InterventionsStephen Elliott on Surrounding Yourself with the PeopleYou Most Wish to Become Josip Novakovich on Terrence Malick Maaza Mengiste on Breyten Breytenbach Alissa Nutting on Kate Bernheimer Jon Paul Fiorentino on Robert Kroetsch Nathan Deuel on William T. Vollmann Peter Trachtenberg on James McCourt George Singleton on Fred Chappell Jay Parini on Gore Vidal Frank X. Gaspar on Donald Drury Lineage IIITayari Jones on Ron Carlson Ron Carlson on David Kranes Arthur Flowers on John O. KillensAnnie Liontas on Arthur Flowers

What People are Saying About This

Peter Turchi

A collection of snapshots from the past few decades documenting how a variety of writers have found or been given guidance from other writers, both in and out of writing programs. Many different approaches are represented here, from line editors to more mystic sages, from teachers turned life coaches to teachers who did most of their work in the classroom or campus office. In gathering these tributes to mentors, this volume gives us some idea not so much of what students look for in a teacher, but of what they remember, and why it's important to them.

Editorial Reviews

10/26/2015
In this inspiring anthology, 67 writers discuss the effect mentorship had—or didn’t have—on their work and lives. Parker explains in his introduction that he initially started looking for contributions in 2011, hoping to make sense of his experience studying under Arthur Flowers and George Saunders for his M.F.A. Saunders and Flowers are both included, writing about what they gained from their relationships with Douglas Unger and Tobias Wolff (Saunders’s mentors) and with John O. Killens (Flowers’s). Four writers discuss not having a mentor, whether due to missed opportunities or, in Paisley Rekdal’s case, by her own choice. Rekdal’s essay is one of the best, detailing the disappointment she felt overhearing professors and writers she admired dismissing minority writers as beneficiaries of white liberal guilt, and wondering whether similar comments had been made about her. Many writers describe a sense of family and even love, as in Henry Rollins’s piece about Hubert Selby Jr., and admiration and awe are present throughout. What the writers share of their mentors, and what their mentors shared with them, makes for a fascinating work on writing and the student-teacher relationship. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"What the writers share of their mentors, and what their mentors shared with them, makes for a fascinating work on writing and the student-teacher relationship."—Publishers Weekly

"The book does offer arresting memories and useful advice on navigating the writing life."—Kirkus

"A collection of snapshots from the past few decades documenting how a variety of writers have found or been given guidance from other writers, both in and out of writing programs. Many different approaches are represented here, from line editors to more mystic sages, from teachers turned life coaches to teachers who did most of their work in the classroom or campus office. In gathering these tributes to mentors, this volume gives us some idea not so much of what students look for in a teacher, but of what they remember, and why it's important to them."—Peter Turchi, author of A Muse and A Maze: Writing as Puzzle, Mystery, and Magic

"Liontas (Let Me Explain You) and Parker (English, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Where Bears Roam the Streets) bring together a series of stories and vignettes by writers for writers on the power of mentorship and the myriad ways in which literary and nonliterary guides support, influence, encourage, and serve to provide much-needed reality checks. The included pieces are at times warm, insightful, and amusing, while always staying true to the spirit of the unique relationship between mentor and mentee. Divided into eight sections, the stories fall into categories dedicated to literary "lineages," schoolhouse mentors, outliers, tough love, writers without mentors, and those in need of intervention; each contribution can be read as a stand-alone account, or taken as part of the greater whole. VERDICT These insider stories, recounting, the experiences of beginning writers, poets, and MFA students alike, will resonate with those following a similar path."—Library Journal

"A Manner of Being is revealing, often touching, frequently joyful, adding up to evidence of an idea that worked."—National Post, Toronto

"Funny, tender, illuminating, and with a vast reach (e.g., 'Pam Houston on Martha Washington,' 'James Franco on School'), this collection is splendid in every way."—Booklist

From the Publisher

Funny, tender, illuminating, and with a vast reach (e.g., 'Pam Houston on Martha Washington,' 'James Franco on School'), this collection is splendid in every way.

Booklist

A Manner of Being is revealing, often touching, frequently joyful, adding up to evidence of an idea that worked.

Toronto National Post

2015-10-04
An anthology of personal recollections by writers of their mentors. Many deride collegiate creative writing courses as a plague on literature. To them, most such courses churn out academically correct acolytes and followers of literary convention—academics birthing academics—who spend their careers congratulating each other on their genius (with an incestuous showering of blurbs and awards) but offering comparatively little of enduring value. Too often, the critique is valid. This book, edited by Liontas (Let Me Explain You, 2015) and Parker (English/Univ. of Massachusetts; Where Bears Roam the Streets: A Russian Journal, 2015, etc.), reflects both the virtues and deficits of books immersed in the vagaries of this world. At times playful, touching, and trenchant, the contributions can also be nebulous, labored, and much too self-consciously "literary," with allusions to writers few will recognize. Nearly 70 authors, many known chiefly to each other, recall their principal influences in writing and in life. Some mentors are recalled anonymously, others were neither writers nor teachers, and for many, books were their counselors. Alas, many a fine writer must augment his or her income by teaching. Some are outstanding at it and at mentoring; their influences are profound. Others tend to perpetuate the worst failings of academic fiction: turgid prose, fealty to fashion, slavish imitation, and undisciplined experiment. But at their best, they give young writers a sense of a way in, of how to take risks and not be derailed by failure, of focusing on the process, not the audience, of obtaining clarity and power, and of finding a place at the table. Notable contributors include Tobias Wolff, George Saunders, Aimee Bender, Mary Gaitskill, Jay Parini, Sam Lipsyte, Sheila Heti, and Tayari Jones. While too eccentric to succeed as a general handbook for mentoring and being mentored—sage aphorisms and sound guidance are often weakened by wanderings and pretension—the book does offer arresting memories and useful advice on navigating the writing life.

Kirkus Reviews

11/15/2015
Liontas (Let Me Explain You) and Parker (English, Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst; Where Bears Roam the Streets) bring together a series of stories and vignettes by writers for writers on the power of mentorship and the myriad ways in which literary and nonliterary guides support, influence, encourage, and serve to provide much-needed reality checks. The included pieces are at times warm, insightful, and amusing, while always staying true to the spirit of the unique relationship between mentor and mentee. Divided into eight sections, the stories fall into categories dedicated to literary "lineages," schoolhouse mentors, outliers, tough love, writers without mentors, and those in need of intervention; each contribution can be read as a stand-alone account, or taken as part of the greater whole. VERDICT These insider stories, recounting the experiences of beginning writers, poets, and MFA students alike, will resonate with those following a similar path. While there are lessons to be gleaned, this is not a book on learning how to write, nor is it a guide to developing a mentor/mentee relationship.—Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib.

Library Journal