The Sandspur

Issue date: 2/12/07 Section: News

As Winter With the Writers continued, Rollins welcomed novelist and comedic individual Colson Whitehead. Whitehead began with a Master Class in which he gave much insightful information to up and coming writers who are interning for Connie May Fowler.

Unlike Russell Banks who spent most of the Master Class analyzing the works himself, Whitehead asked for student involvement. He wanted students to discuss the piece with each other.

Whitehead opened up by telling the students and audience "when I was 19 or 20 my work was so bad I couldn't get into a creative writing class." As he went through the stories he gave a lot of positive feedback.

"Details gave you a good sense of what was going on and drew in the read," Whitehead said of Alyssa Rabun's piece. Whitehead gave tips on development of the narrator and how important it is to use the narrator to put the audience in the situation. "How does the narrator see things? Get into the narrator's head." And then the way the story is portrayed is what helps draw readers in. "Zippy and jazzy pulls you in," as Whitehead would say.

Colson's advice to getting started on a story was based on his own techniques he uses in his writing, "I just try to get going, try to find a hook that will help me get going."

At the end of the Master Class Colson Whitehead told the audience a little bit about his career as a writer. For awhile he was discouraged but he kept at it and continued to write. He wrote creative pieces, book reviews and articles. And finally after a few years he became more confident. "You have to sit down for 5 hours and stay focused."

His turning point in life was when he decided he was not going to be a vet. "I was a writer and I had to just dust myself off and start again." Is advice to all was to "never give up and if you're a writer keep trying."

His writing possesses a certain amount of humor that can make an entire auditorium continuously laugh. He read from his newest book, Apex Hides the Hurt and he read some new stuff that he said he has "been walking around with for awhile." It was about a group of teenagers from New York who spend their summer in Long Island.

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