Do you ever think of your place in history as you write? You
should. That was the gist of last Thursday night’s message by Indiana Poet
Laureate Karen Kovacik.
Indiana Writers’ Consortium held its fifth annual banquet on
October 10 at Avalon Manor in Merrillville, Indiana. The evening began with
networking and book sales and ended with an entertaining open mic, and everyone
enjoyed the conversation and the food. But the highlight of the evening was
Karen Kovacik’s talk titled “Falling Through Time: Writing the Self into
History.”
Karen started by telling the audience that our task as
writers is to pack as much of history into our work as we can. She challenged
us to create an archive of past and current existence for the benefit of our
readers. She then gave us ten strategies writers can use to make their works an
archive of existence. Here is a brief summary.
- Include dates and place
names in poems and stories and other works.
- Write about family
heirlooms and ordinary items that are products of their time.
- Explore the origins of our
surnames.
- Write about the private
lives of public figures.
- Study new and old maps for
what they reveal and what they conceal.
- Write about the impact of
a historical event on our lives or those of our relatives.
- Use pop culture artifacts
to evoke a historical moment.
- Visit a historical site,
paying attention to what remains and what has disappeared.
- Study historical
photographs, including family ones, for unexpected insights.
- Bring together an
autobiographical story with a larger historical panorama.
As Karen talked about each strategy, she gave examples from
Indiana writers. If you follow her advice, a future talk may mention you.
I’ll close this post with a few more pictures from the
banquet.
Karen Kovacik talking to IWC President
Janine Harrison and Michael Poore.
Pre-meal networking.
Learning about each other--starting
the evening with introductions.
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