Timer on.
Checked on the Quotations website if anyone knew about My expertise has always been my ignorance whether there is anyone who said it, and, No, it seems to be just Petri. Still don't know if it is a he or a she. Am also hesitating and wondering whether I should offer to edit some of the English for him, I'd probably get more out of it than they do, reading about authors I don't know. Once every two months or so? It would not take me long to do. I'll email him/her and see what happens.
Almost finished reading the Larkin biography -Philip Larkin, The Marvell Press and Me, by Jean Hartley (Carcanet Press, 1989). Have not yet looked him up on Petri's site, that will be helpful. He was a sad man, wistful, and kind. Jean Hartley was a friend of his. Every now and then some of her thoughts about life are allowed and the book is immediately much more interesting than say her romances or the lack of a romance in Larkin's case. I wonder if other readers would think so too?
I checked that Janet Frame was on Petri's Authors' Calendar, and Katherine Manfeld. Found a raft of Israeli writers - Amos Oz, Yehuda Amichai, AB Yehoshua, Shai Agnon, David Grossman.
Reading poetry is paying off. Unless it was a fluke: the new exercise for the Online course was done quickly and easily, at least the first draft. Not feeling overwhelmed by the task as with the prose poem. Have worked on that one too, amazed at what can be dispensed with, how many words are unnecessary, I love reducing and reducing. It makes me think of when one prepares stock, simmering the broth away, till what remains has a strong taste
.
Timer went a couple of minutes ago. Took too long editing.
Showing posts with label Authors' Calendar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Authors' Calendar. Show all posts
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
About ignorance and Anne Kennedy
I thought I'd get back to routine, but instead when I got here early this morning (still dark outside), I found an email from Finland which I allowed to distract me and send me happily off in all kinds of other directions.
Petri Liukkonen is the librarian in the small Finnish town of Kuusankoski. He/she writes the biographies on a website entitled Authors' Calendar (see http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi), which I'd quoted in the review of Szymborska's work. I'd emailed a few days ago to say thank you. I had also noticed the absence of two favourite authors from his Nordic Authors list - Bodil Malmsten and Per Pettersen. So I mentioned that too and he/she wrote to say thank you and let me know that they were candidates for the list.
In the email was this wonderful sentence:
"My expertise has always been my ignorance".Have sent an email round the Quotations website to see if anyone has a source.
Did some reading about Petri and the website and discovered that it is famous in Finland - received a prize from a PEN sounding organisation - and overseas - mainly the US - where many universities recommend it as a source for people studying English Lit. And yes, Janet Frame is on the list. Not Frank Sargeson. Or Lloyd Jones for that matter.
Meanwhile have mislaid Billy Collins somewhere, very frustrating, but am reading a Philip Larkins' bio, his poetry which I like more and more, and a book called Sing-Song by Anne Kennedy (Auckland University Press, 2003), which is about her daughters' exczema and the suffering that resulted from it. First time I've read a book of poems this compulsively. Anyone who has ever had a suffering child will respond to it, that I know.
Petri Liukkonen is the librarian in the small Finnish town of Kuusankoski. He/she writes the biographies on a website entitled Authors' Calendar (see http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi), which I'd quoted in the review of Szymborska's work. I'd emailed a few days ago to say thank you. I had also noticed the absence of two favourite authors from his Nordic Authors list - Bodil Malmsten and Per Pettersen. So I mentioned that too and he/she wrote to say thank you and let me know that they were candidates for the list.
In the email was this wonderful sentence:
"My expertise has always been my ignorance".Have sent an email round the Quotations website to see if anyone has a source.
Did some reading about Petri and the website and discovered that it is famous in Finland - received a prize from a PEN sounding organisation - and overseas - mainly the US - where many universities recommend it as a source for people studying English Lit. And yes, Janet Frame is on the list. Not Frank Sargeson. Or Lloyd Jones for that matter.
Meanwhile have mislaid Billy Collins somewhere, very frustrating, but am reading a Philip Larkins' bio, his poetry which I like more and more, and a book called Sing-Song by Anne Kennedy (Auckland University Press, 2003), which is about her daughters' exczema and the suffering that resulted from it. First time I've read a book of poems this compulsively. Anyone who has ever had a suffering child will respond to it, that I know.
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