August 2nd, 2009 @ 09:11
Humber School For Writers
Early in the summer, Mark Medley of The National Post sat on a panel (about digital vs traditional books) with me, Q&Q critic Steven Beattie, and musician Hawksley Workman for the University of Toronto’s Summer Workshop in Creative Writing. Later, he infiltrated Humber’s Creative writing summer school, coincidentally met a couple of my students, and was mentored by Alistair Macleod. Here is a piece of the very fine article he wrote about the experience:
On my first day at the Summer Workshop, Martin Amis, this year’s star instructor, delivers a speech on “Writing Essentials.” It was humorous, instructive and chock-full of literary gossip, but he struck a chord when he began his talk saying, “I feel nothing but piercing pity for anyone who isn’t a writer.”