As you may know, we hold our faculty in high regard, and keep them close to us! So you can imagine our melancholy mood as we share the news that Peter Jacobi has decided that this summer’s Writing Nonfiction workshop will be his last. Peter was on the faculty for our very first Writer’s Workshop at Chautauqua, and has continued to offer exceptional instruction and mentorship to our attendees through the years. We will miss him more than we can say: his memorable keynote speeches, his passion for the Foundation, and his love of writing and of helping other writers.
Peter at the first Writer’s Workshop (back row, 4th from right)
Some Tidbits from Peter’s Keynotes Through the Years:
What Loving to Write Means: Liking to Write is Quite Something Else
Think love when you write. Be in love. That means reverence, passion, immersion, attach, rapture, the marriage of your soul with that of the language. It means selfless capitulation to your reader.
The Echoes of Good Writing
Writing is a journey twice taken. It just has a different label the second time around. The first journey is called writing. The second–an echo–is called reading. Unless the writing journey is echoed by the reading journey, it may not be worth the taking.
Beginnings & Endings
Beginnings and endings have work to do. At the beginning you should try to make sure that you have something unique, or at least different…you should have something memorable, and you should have something inviting.
The Power of Language
Reading is private–a one-on-one activity that unites a writer to someone else. No matter how many readers you have, how large the audience, you have but one reader at a time.
Do Not Take the Well-Traveled Highway
Writing is a journey full of discomforts, of wrong turns and mazes, of storms, of barricades and dead ends. But there is a chance that as driver we may carry along a reader or two, or a hundred…there may be destinations that just might engulf, enlighten, enthrall, engender and embody readers.
Showing the Story: Creating Memorable Fiction
The next time you sit down to write something, think of yourself as a child, needing to be involved, engaged, embraced.
“I” Words
What “I” words mean to writers: Idea, Individuality, Imagination, Imagery, Illumination, Insight, Inspiration…
