A Season of Thankfulness... For Our Culinary Artists, Poets & Writers | ETV Classics

Poets and Writers

Foremost among the literary programs in the ETV Tape vault is the collection known as the Writer's Workshop, 1982, which features 15 major talents in contemporary literature who met in a one-on-one forum with well-known author William Price Fox and University of South Carolina creative writing students. Each writer discussed his or her personal writing methods, furnishing insights into the highly individualized process of literary creation. 

Explore More

The Writer's Workshop

• George Plimpton - Plimpton observed that he is the jack of all trades and master of none.
• James Dickey - His thoughts about the major influence on prose fiction in this country and England, and on why he considers Dylan Thomas the most original poet in the English language.
• Nora Ephron - Encourages the new writer to take a job at a newspaper as it is there that you learn what a story is, how to determine a point and have daily deadlines as a requirement.
• William Price Fox - As a writer and writing teacher, Fox believes in starting with a sound and building from that.
• John Gardner - Gardner had boxes of manuscripts and one, Mickelsson’s Ghosts took 20 years to work over and get published.
• John Hawkes - In this interview, Hawkes also reveals his very positive views on teaching creative writing and evaluates what he sees as current trends in the world of fiction.  
• John Irving - Irving analyzes his methods as a writer, including his unusual technique of writing last things first. "I have to write last sentences," he explains, "in order to get a viewpoint or voice for the rest of the work.
• Pauline Kael - Best known for being the New Yorker Magazine’s film critic, she has achieved significant influence throughout the movie industry, the movie world.
• James McPherson - McPherson considers the ancient tradition of storytelling and its relevance to contemporary writers.
• Reynolds Price - The author of  A Long and Happy Life and The Surface of Earth  explains his own writing methods, from work schedules and revision.
• Susan Sontag - Recalling how she found a publisher for her first novel, and explaining how she came to write Illness as Metaphor.
• Stephen Spender - For young writers, Spender stresses the importance of reading.
• William Styron - He talked about writing Sophie’s Choice and how that novel made the themes surrounding Auschwitz more approachable to the reader.
• Kurt Vonnegut - Vonnegut noted that when he was starting out, there was a hunger for the writings of certain authors and there were magazines, no longer existent, that published short stories.
• Tom Wolfe - "I think if things are going well for you in writing...sometimes marvelous rushes of words will just fall into place."