By Taylor Paraboschi
In a world in which readers are obsessed with books like Harry Potter and the Twilight series, Ann Beattie reminded aspiring authors at Monday’s Great Writers, Great Readings (GWGR) event that they don’t have to be unusual to be good.
“She is comfortable with realism. She shows the students that you don’t have to be freaky in your writings. Just look around your world for inspiration,” said Dr. Lopate, University professor of English and one of the founders of the Great Writers, Great Readings series. “She is real and one of the kindest people I know.”
Beattie attended the first GWGR reading of the semester as the evening’s guest speaker. She read two of her short stories, titled “Snow” and “Lavande,” and attended a personal one-on-one question and answer session with the creative writing students.
Beattie was born in 1947 and grew up in Washington, D.C., where she would later receive a Bachelor’s Degree from American University. Her first short story, “Chilly Scenes of Winter,” was written in 1976 and was well received by audiences. Her short stories that followed, such as “Secrets and Surprises” (1979), and “The Burning House” (1982), received a similar welcome. Beattie would later go on to receive numerous awards and acclamations from the American Academy and Institute of the Arts and Letters.
Beattie afforded students insight as to what her writing process was and how she gets inspired. “I think as I go,” Beattie said. “I don’t start with an outline.” She added that rather than writing about the paranormal like in Harry Potter, she “writes about what I can draw on, about what’s around me in my everyday life.”
Beattie generally laughs off criticism with a shake of her head, a valuable trait to have when working in the public eye. Further, writers are often harsher on themselves than critics can be. “Writers are their own worst task masters. I have people who read my stories for me and if they aren’t getting what I need them to get out of one of my pieces then I know that I need to go back and revise,” Beattie said. “Besides, in my opinion, if you can get your story past a poet, then you can get it past anyone.”
Beattie didn’t seem to have much trouble with critics in attendance as much of the audience laughed along with the characters as she read “Lavande.”
“I like the way she spoke,” said junior Allison Bubka. “She was really easy to listen to, and I could just close my eyes and picture the characters. She writes about the thoughts and feelings of real people, and about what makes people who they are.”