Writes of Passage captures the essence of a universal human experience in literature that has enticed generations of readers: that moment in both fictional and real life when innocence and naiveté evolve into an understanding of the world's greater moral complexity. Collected from the last twenty-five years of The Hudson Review, the stories and memoirs in this book, by both emerging writers and established storytellers like Elizabeth Spencer, William Trevor, and Tennessee Williams, were first published in the literary quarterly based on their own merits, without regard to a developing genre. The editors of The Hudson Review became aware of a unifying theme through the magazine's Writers in the Schools program, which brought many of these works to students in two Harlem high schools.
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From Booklist
Coming-of-age is the theme that informs this collection of 31 pieces—21 short stories and 10 memoirs—from the Hudson Review. The impetus for the anthology was the magazine’s initiation of a well-received Writers in the School Program at two Harlem high schools. According to editor Deitz, the pieces with which the students most closely identified provide the nucleus for this collection; however, other of the contents have been selected from the past 25 years of the prestigious literary quarterly. Many of the writers represented are emerging voices, but established talents like William Trevor, Wendell Berry, Steven Millhauser, and Tennessee Williams are also heard from. Regardless of reputation, almost all focus on the moment of epiphany, after which—as Kermit Moyer writes in Learning to Smoke—nothing will ever be the same. Though well intentioned, this collection has a whiff of the didactic and a prevailing earnestness that some younger readers may find off-putting. Its many artful individual selections, however, will offer satisfactions and revelations to readers of all ages. --Michael Cart
Review
It is truly gift that these wonderful short stories and memoirs have been complied in this book. I can speak from experience that these works can motivate and inspire students to see literature in personal, interesting, and fun way. Elise Juska's 'Northeast Pilly Girls,' Jacqueline W. Brown's 'Willie,' Paula Whyman's 'Driver's Education,' and Jan Ellison's 'The Color of Wheat in Winter' are permanent part of curriculum. These beautifully crafted and moving stories speak volumes to my students year after year. I have been fortunate enough to have been working with Paula Deitz and the inspiring The Hudson Review's Writers in Schools Program for six years. My students have benefited tremendously from the intelligent and thought-provoking writers and poets who have visited our classroom. Students have not only read and studied cutting edge and age appropriate works from The Hudson Review, but they have had the privilege of personally meeting these writers. I have witnessed the excitement that each visit has generated; students have been touched by the these stories and memoirs in Writes of Passage—they see their own lives, their dreams, and their immediate concerns in these timely works. It is truly amazing and heartwarming (for me as a teacher) to see New York City public school students actively read a short story or a memoir from one of the nation's most prestigious literary magazines, enthusiastically study and discuss the literary work in class, and then actually meet the author. This is truly a learning experience. The Writes of Passage should be a required anthology for all high school students. The stories inside this precious book will get teachers and students thinking, speaking, and feeling. (Afonso S. Albergaria Jr. )
These are wonderful stories for all ages—coming or going. (Lily Tuck )
I have benefited greatly from the personal stories of artists I admire. They have provided me with maps to measure against my own conquests. Here is a book aimed at the very thing I aim to measure: the process of triumph. (Saul Williams )
Its many artful individual selections....will offer satisfactions and revelations to readers of all ages. (Michael Cart Booklist )
Readers who pick up Writes of Passage are in for a treat: the best writing they’ve seen in a long time, and tales they’ll remember for years. (Susan Balee Hudson Review )
Innocence lost: That is the theme uniting the pieces collected in Writes of Passage: Coming-of-Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review…But-and this is what makes this book unique-the idea for Writes of Passage didn't originate in a desire to simply showcase the talent that has visited its pages over the years. This collection originated in a program at two Harlem high schools where The Hudson Review ran a Writers in the Schools program. (Los Angeles Times )
These are wonderful stories for all ages—coming or going. (Lily Tuck )
I have benefited greatly from the personal stories of artists I admire. They have provided me with maps to measure against my own conquests. Here is a book aimed at the very thing I aim to measure: the process of triumph. (Saul Williams )
Its many artful individual selections....will offer satisfactions and revelations to readers of all ages. (Michael Cart Booklist )
Readers who pick up Writes of Passage are in for a treat: the best writing they’ve seen in a long time, and tales they’ll remember for years. (Susan Balee Hudson Review )
Innocence lost: That is the theme uniting the pieces collected in Writes of Passage: Coming-of-Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review…But-and this is what makes this book unique-the idea for Writes of Passage didn't originate in a desire to simply showcase the talent that has visited its pages over the years. This collection originated in a program at two Harlem high schools where The Hudson Review ran a Writers in the Schools program. (Los Angeles Times )
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Over twenty top stories from the last twenty-five years of The Hudson Review
June 7, 2008
Format:Hardcover
WRITES OF PASSAGE: COMING OF AGE STORIES AND MEMOIRS culls over twenty top stories from the last twenty-five years of The Hudson Review, juxtaposing emerging new writers with seasoned veterans from Wendell Berry to Tennessee Williams and presenting works which were first selected for their excellence, and only secondarily for their unifying genre. Any interested in coming of age literature will be pleased to find these stories under one cover.
By Lost John
Format:Hardcover
Writes of Passage consists of 21 stories and ten memoirs, ranging in length from less than 1400 to almost 10,000 words. All first appeared in the Hudson Review between 1981 and 2008. Some of the more recent pieces were used in a Writers in the Schools program in Harlem, New York City. From that program the realization grew that the Hudson Review had within its pages unintentionally nurtured a Coming of Age genre. This book followed.
Among the authors, the headline names are William Trevor (a memoir on his childhood experience of County Cork) and Tennessee Williams (a story not published in his lifetime, but with which he was apparently rather pleased). Other authors, however, tend to steal the show.
Hat Check Noir, by Jocelyn Bartkevicius, haunts with its account of her 1960's experience of a night club owned by her stepfather. As a six year old she sat at table with her parents as they oversaw clients, performers and staff; at ten she became the hat check girl, subject to the unwelcome attentions of drunks. Jacqueline W Brown recalls a New York childhood, living in one room in a transient hotel with her Aunt Willie. Willie dies and Jackie, aged 11, becomes the sole family representative accompanying Willie's coffin on the long train journey back to the S Carolina soil from which she sprang. In Learning to Smoke by Kermit Moyer, a 13 year old boy learns something about sex too. He's one of the few children in the stories here (as distinct from the memoirs) who is not already remarkably well-informed about such matters, though even fewer have had any satisfactory experience to add depth to their knowledge. In Good Times by Dena Seidel, we fear for ten-year-old Willow, an innocent surrounded by sleaze that all too soon will surely draw her into its vortex.
Most of the writing is about Americans in America, but Barbara Wasserman's memoir takes us on a hair-raising 1948 trip from Paris to Spain and back, and Shelter the Pilgrim by Fred Licht tells of a Jewish family's brief sojourn in Berlin in 1937-38. Mairi MacInnes' Porrock gives an account of her family's move during World War 2 from Teesside in the north of England to Windsor in the south. She was disoriented by the experience, and much helped by a small black and tan terrier, "the first dog in our family that everyone thought of as mine".
In his introduction (which should be treated as an afterword), Dean Flower notes some of the widely recognized waymarks of `Coming of Age', or `growing-up'. He doesn't attempt a comprehensive list, and all the stories and memoirs in the book still do not cover them all, but they inspire reflection on key moments in our own rite of passage; and provide us with much enjoyable and stimulating reading.
Among the authors, the headline names are William Trevor (a memoir on his childhood experience of County Cork) and Tennessee Williams (a story not published in his lifetime, but with which he was apparently rather pleased). Other authors, however, tend to steal the show.
Hat Check Noir, by Jocelyn Bartkevicius, haunts with its account of her 1960's experience of a night club owned by her stepfather. As a six year old she sat at table with her parents as they oversaw clients, performers and staff; at ten she became the hat check girl, subject to the unwelcome attentions of drunks. Jacqueline W Brown recalls a New York childhood, living in one room in a transient hotel with her Aunt Willie. Willie dies and Jackie, aged 11, becomes the sole family representative accompanying Willie's coffin on the long train journey back to the S Carolina soil from which she sprang. In Learning to Smoke by Kermit Moyer, a 13 year old boy learns something about sex too. He's one of the few children in the stories here (as distinct from the memoirs) who is not already remarkably well-informed about such matters, though even fewer have had any satisfactory experience to add depth to their knowledge. In Good Times by Dena Seidel, we fear for ten-year-old Willow, an innocent surrounded by sleaze that all too soon will surely draw her into its vortex.
Most of the writing is about Americans in America, but Barbara Wasserman's memoir takes us on a hair-raising 1948 trip from Paris to Spain and back, and Shelter the Pilgrim by Fred Licht tells of a Jewish family's brief sojourn in Berlin in 1937-38. Mairi MacInnes' Porrock gives an account of her family's move during World War 2 from Teesside in the north of England to Windsor in the south. She was disoriented by the experience, and much helped by a small black and tan terrier, "the first dog in our family that everyone thought of as mine".
In his introduction (which should be treated as an afterword), Dean Flower notes some of the widely recognized waymarks of `Coming of Age', or `growing-up'. He doesn't attempt a comprehensive list, and all the stories and memoirs in the book still do not cover them all, but they inspire reflection on key moments in our own rite of passage; and provide us with much enjoyable and stimulating reading.
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