Telling Time: Angels, Ancestors, And Stories [Paperback]

Nancy Willard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 1993

In thirteen essays, Willard explores the possibilities created when pen is put to paper. An invaluable book for those who participate in the writing process, as well as those who enjoy the end result. "Willard's perspective on the relationship between writing and personal experience is uniquely enlightening and affirmative" (Robert Pack, Director, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Willard ( Things Invisible to See ) offers here a collection of essays about writing. She describes her life as an author of both adult and children's literature by referring to parables and tales, as in an essay in which she describes how Adam and Eve created poetry in the Garden of Eden. Other essays take on topics that she links to the creation of children's literature, such as time and timelessness. There is a longish tribute to a college writing teacher whose voice and aura linger long after his words are forgotten. Willard also includes her Newbery Medal acceptance speech, in which she speaks of her own childhood, and an interview with collaborator Martin Provensen. The settings, whether real life or fictive, are genteel, such as cottages in upstate New York or the wealthy suburbs of Detroit, so that the volume gives the impression that children's terror and a writer's frustration grow out of nothing more dire than imagined monsters and fairy-tale witches. The selections, though they show the marks of careful and mature crafting, tend toward magisterial generalizations rather than keen, individual insight. Sure to be of interest to fans of Willard, this volume should attract few new converts.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Willard's volume of 13 essays on the writing process is laced with parable and poetry, fantasy and fiction. Into them Willard introduces the spirits of her ancestors and guardians (her "angels"), her memories and trade secrets, and, most of all, her reflections on the craft of writing. In "How Poetry Came into the World and Why God Doesn't Write It," for example, Willard gives a parable in which she is an insurance salesperson and Adam and Eve are her clients. While they file claims for their losses, Adam explains how poetry, his own invention, is made. The volume is not like Willard's other works of adult fiction, poetry, and children's literature (she won the Newberry Medal for A Visit to William Blake's Inn , Harcourt, 1981). Rather, these essays form a series of ministories through which the author demonstrates her craft in a manner that will enrich and entertain all aspiring writers and admirers of literary art.
- Marie L. Lally, Alabama Sch. of Mathematics & Science, Mobile
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition (October 8, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156931303
• ISBN-13: 978-0156931304
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,696,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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