Make art. Make art.

#298: Working with students, making a moment, and my weekly shareables

First off today, an update: You might remember in my last post about fan letters that I had sent one but hadn’t heard back from the recipient. Well, I’ve now heard back from the great Jessica Contrera and she was delighted. What spurred me to write the letter was her incredible story from the New Yorker about a mother and two daughters who confide more in their chatbots than one another. But I’ve loved Jess’ work for years, way back to when she was a student at Indiana University. Scroll through her clips and you’ll find some of the best work by any reporter anywhere. I think you’ll be seeing a lot more of Jess’ stories soon.

(FYI, it would have been totally OK if I hadn’t heard back from her! People are busy. You shouldn’t expect to hear back from somebody every time. The sending is what’s important.)

DOGLAND in the wild: My friend Maggie sent along this photo of my book (with a staff recommendation!) at Naughty Dog Books in Nashville, Indiana. Given the bookstore’s name, it’s a perfect fit. Thanks to everybody there!

A final quick note before we get to the meat of the the thing: I thought it might be nice to keep count of the number of posts I’ve done on the Shed, just so we can occasionally mark milestones together. You might have noticed the #298 in today’s subtitle—this is issue 298. (Although “issue” might be a highfalutin word for some of these posts.) Thanks to all of you for hanging around, and especially to all of you who have been here for all 298. You’re in my heart.

One reason #298 has taken a while to arrive is that I recently spent a week in Athens, GA working with students in their Masters of Fine Arts program in narrative nonfiction.

It’s one of those low-residency programs—everyone meets in person for a week, then mentors meet with students remotely during the semester. That pattern repeats for the two years of the program. What it means in practice is that the week we spent together was intense. Some students have deeply personal things they want to write about. There’s lots of laughter and hugging and tears. This was my first time as a mentor and I came away fired up not just to teach, but to create.

While we were there, Glen Hansard died.

Hansard was the Irish singer who co-starred in ONCE. I’ve never made a list of my top 10 movies—I should do that—but when I do, ONCE will be on it. I can’t think of a movie that touched me more. Hansard plays a Dublin busker with big dreams of making it as a musician, a story similar to Hansard’s own. Markéta Irglová plays a Czech piano player with her own dreams. Hansard and Irglová became a couple in real life, and you could see it from almost the moment they meet on screen.

The best-known song from the movie is “Falling Slowly.”

The movie is about so many things—romance being just one of them—but for me, what it’s mainly about is the magic of creating something together. There are a couple of moments in the movie where the characters try out a new song, and you can see it dawn on them and the people around them—holy shit, this is good. There's no other feeling like it. Artificial intelligence will never be able to replace it.

“Falling Slowly” won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2008. There was a bit of a viral moment when Hansard and Irglová went up to accept the award—after Hansard spoke, the orchestra cut off Irglová before she had a chance to say anything. The host, Jon Stewart, brought her back after a commercial so she could give her thanks. It turned out to be a beautiful little speech.

But what I think of the most now, when I watch that clip, is what Hansard says at the very end of his time at the microphone.

Make art.

Make art.

We all have dreams when we create. Our book might sell millions, or our painting might hang in the Louvre, or our song might hit the top of the charts. It’s a lot more likely that none of those things happen. It’s possible no one will ever see or hear what you’ve created except for you. It doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you keep creating, because just the act of doing it will enrich your life.

The students I met in Athens last week have lots of different dreams. The one thing they have in common is the desire to make art. They’ve already succeeded. And they’ve made my life better just for the privilege of witnessing it.

I saw Glen Hansard live once or twice—the one I remember most was a concert in Boston the year we lived up there. One detail I recall is that the afternoon of the show, well after he had become at least semi-famous, he still busked on the street. It was a clever promo for the show … but I also suspect it was just about the joy of creating. Make art. Make art. Make art.

If this edition of the Writing Shed is meaningful to you, consider sharing it with others. That’s how you can help our community grow.

10 things I wanted to share this week:

1. The first few things I want to share this week are books or stories I discovered during my week in Athens … the other students and mentors had so many great recommendations.
   The story that hit me the hardest was Maggie Prosser’s short piece—only a few hundred words—on a mother trying to hold onto something after her daughter’s death from a drug overdose. This story will stick with me forever. (Dallas Morning News)

2. I also won’t forget this piece by Ellie Silverman about the black woman captured in a viral photo with a busload of white nationalists. Before, she was just an image. After this story, she’s a human being. (NOTUS)

3. A couple of books for writers: STORYCRAFT by Jack Hart is a guide to writing nonfiction from a brilliant editor, with samples from some of the best writers in the business. And TAKE IT FROM ME by Alia Hanna Habib is an agent’s guide to building a nonfiction career.

4. Some books by excellent writers that are now on my reading list: THE PAIN BROKERS by Beth Burch, about a medical scam that becomes a huge legal case; THE TEMPLE BOMBING by Melissa Fay Greene, about the 1958 bombing of Atlanta’s oldest synagogue; and HEATING & COOLING, a collection of 52 micro-memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly.

5. I spent some of my time tooling around Athens listening to WUOG, the campus radio station, which also plays a role in the oral history of Athens music that I wrote recently. The song that jumped out at me the most while I was there was “The Way” by Australian singer Sarah Blasko—I’d never heard of her or the song, and had to Shazam it to figure out who it was. The lyrics have been bouncing around in my head ever since.

6. Now to some other stuff … here’s a conversation between two of my favorite writers: Latria Graham interviews Kim Cross about the joys and struggles of the freelance life. (Scratch)

7. There’s an inlet in Alaska where a twice-daily tidal wave can last for as long as six miles—irresistible to some surfers, but also dangerous enough to kill them. Story by my former Charlotte Observer co-worker (and delightful human) Anna Griffin. (NYT)

8. Former Carolina Panther Luke Kuechly is being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame today. Among his skills was an uncanny ability to know what play the offense was about to run. My buddy Darin Gantt tells the story of how that happened: Kuechly’s obsessive note-taking. (Good tips for writers here, too!) (Panthers.com)

9. A beautiful story on grief and what to do with it, from Amanda Petrusich, who lost her husband suddenly in 2022. (New Yorker)

10. One more bit of Glen Hansard … when I heard he had died, the first song I thought of wasn’t “Falling Slowly.” It was the cover he did with Markéta Irglová of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic.” When that foghorn blows, you know I’m coming home.

    Have a great weekend, everybody.

    —TT

My books DOGLAND and THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM are available in all formats pretty much everywhere books are sold.