Greenville arts writer moves on to next chapter

Ann Hicks plans to write two books, teach children to appreciate the arts

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 1:33 p.m. (0)

Ann Hicks finds it ironic her first day as the arts writer for the Greenville News was April Fool’s Day in 1999.

Although she spent her childhood behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest, Hungary, in an upper-class family where original paintings hung on the walls, the sound of classical music filled the air and where appreciation of the arts was as natural as mother’s milk, she had no idea how to write a review.

“I went to Barnes and Noble looking for ‘Criticism for Dummies.’ There was none,” she said.  Continue reading...

 

Betsy Cox to receive literary award

 

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 2:06 p.m. (0)

Elizabeth Cox doesn’t mind being called a Southern writer as long as it doesn’t limit her readership, she said in an interview published on identitytheory.com, an online literary Web site.

Sometimes, she said, it even helps.

“There is a strong backload of writers behind me that are very good,” Cox said in the interview.  Continue reading...

 

NaNoWriMo much?

Novel contest asks just one thing of writers, 50,000 words in a month

NOVEMBER 19, 2010 12:35 p.m. (0)

Once upon a time, California freelance writer Chris Baty had a truly novel idea: host a writing competition to meet girls.

Baty and 20 other self-proclaimed yahoos – a term from Gulliver’s Travels for primitive, human-like creatures – either wanted to express themselves or thought writers had an easier time getting dates. Some wanted both.

They didn’t want to be the next great American novelist. Thus, each of the 21 scribes from the San Francisco Bay area decided to write a 50,000-word novel in one month. This month, more than 200,000 people from around the world are doing the same thing.  Continue reading...

 

Voices from Iran

Upstate native returns for reading at Hub City

DECEMBER 3, 2010 3:03 p.m. (7)

Author Elizabeth Eslami never called herself Iranian-American prior to her debut novel, “Bone Worship,” which was released in January.

Raised in Gaffney by her doctor father, originally from Tehran, and her American mother, a nurse-turned-homemaker, she often overlooked her Iranian background. Although not autobiographical, Eslami explores her roots along with her character, Jasmine Fahroodhi, who was also brought up in a small Southern town by an Iranian father and American mother.

Eslami is returning to the Upstate Dec. 11 for family time and a book reading and signing in Spartanburg at Hub City Bookshop.  Continue reading...

 

"Writing is about courage..."

Sue Monk Kidd shares her journey to becoming a writer, from the South

APRIL 24, 2011 11:13 a.m. (0)

Sue Monk Kidd wanted to be a writer since she was a child.

The commitment to do it came on her 30th birthday.

That was the day she walked into her kitchen and told her husband and toddlers.  Continue reading...

 

She reads to write

JUNE 1, 2011 9:34 a.m. (0)

Dorothea Benton Frank goes to work just like anyone else.

The difference is she’s a best-selling author who writes about the South Carolina coast from her home in New Jersey, 12 miles from Manhattan.

“I make an outline and try to write 4 to 5 pages a day,” she said in an interview a few weeks before her appearances in Spartanburg and Greenville.  Continue reading...

 

An investment, of the writing kind

It’s been 15 years since Hub City began. Forty-seven books later, and the story’s just begun.

JUNE 2, 2011 10:46 a.m. (0)

Betsy Teter is running a bit late.

She’s been working with an author on an upcoming book.

Ready for her next meeting, she sits in a chair covered in polka-dot fabric near the front window at the Hub City Bookshop to relate once again the phenomenon that is Hub Culture, Spartanburg’s own literary organization that grew from a single book published 15 years ago.  Continue reading...

 

100 words, 1 illustration

Upstate Book Project seeks local artists to write, illustrate group project

AUGUST 18, 2011 11:20 a.m. (0)

Artist Chuck Bailie has written the first 100 words and completed the first illustration of a book about a girl who lives in a world without color.

He’s looking for 29 adult artists from the Upstate to finish it.

“Artists, even the most nonchalant, are control freaks up to a point,” Bailie said. “This project is all about giving up comfort and security. It’s out of control and awesome.”  Continue reading...

 

Good, bad and ‘ugly words’

New creative writing program aims to erase students’ fear of the written word

JUNE 21, 2012 9:56 a.m. (0)

Ugly Words, a new program to inspire students aged 6 to 18 to write, is the brain-child-in-bloom of Adrienne Burris, a graduate of Clemson University’s Creative Writing program.

Though the project is freshly hatched, Burris already has a successful event behind her, a live website and a handful of donors to back her vision: to help “kids build confidence in themselves and in their writing and (to) know that they have a valid point of view.”  Continue reading...