- Francine Prose Speaks By Invitation of University Honors Program
- Posted February 12, 2009
Francine Prose, well-respected writer, editor, and journalist, spoke at Tulane University's Cudd Hall at the invitation of the Tulane Honors Program last Thursday, giving Tulane students a fascinating look into the process and proclivities of a great American writer. The author of fifteen books of fiction, Prose was recently nominated for a National Book Award for Blue Angel, and her latest novel, Goldengrove, was released in September 2008 to considerable critical acclaim. Prose's career has involved more then just fiction: her non-fiction book, Reading Like a Writer was a 2006 New York Times bestseller and has already become an indispensable volume for today's writing instructors. Her other non-fiction works span a startling array of subject matter: these include a scholarly look at over consumption in 2003's Gluttony, a journey through the work of Caravaggio in 2005's Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles, and The Lives of the Muses : Nine Women & the Artists they Inspired, a 2002 look at some of history's more under-appreciated women. As Prose related to the audience, she has just finished a book concerning the writing life of Anne Frank, which should be released in the near future.
Prose is the current president of the PEN American Center, a branch of the planet's oldest international literary and human rights organization. PEN devotes its energies to protecting the rights and livelihood of writers the world over, using its resources to promote international freedom of information. PEN'S programs include Freedom to Write, which coordinates global advocacy efforts to aid writers who are imprisoned or endangered, the Campaign for Core Freedoms, which combats the erosion of free expression and human rights in post 9/11 America, and the World Voices Literary Festival, a showcase of more then 50 international writers.
Prose began the evening’s discussion at Tulane with a reading of "A Simple Question," a fictionalized exploration of Nazi-era Holland and the curious psyche of Hermann Goring. After the reading, Prose opened the floor to questions, fielding audience queries on topics such as the writing process, the source of her inspiration, and the state of today's publishing industry.
Prose noted that the state of publishing was dire, and she publicly wondered, "Why aren't people buying books? Why have books taken so hard a fall? It's only 25 bucks compared to going to a movie." She discussed prospects in the publishing industry for young writers, noting that, "So much publishing is in NYC which is frighteningly expensive, and starting salaries in publishing start 25,000 to 35,000 a year...and it always cheers me up to meet incredibly smart, idealistic young people going into publishing. Know what you're getting into."
Among many topics discussed were the value of MFA programs for young writers. According to Prose: "I don't have an MFA - eventually my fraud will be found out. I didn't make a decision NOT t get one, I just graduated from college and didn't know there were MFA's." She highlighted the importance of networking in MFA programs -"It took me 15 years to meet another writer and my friends who did MFA's have other writer friends - I was always jealous of that!" Prose concluded that, "The real truth is. - if people get financial aid to get a MFA, it's fabulous - but if you're to come out of in debt, 80 grand, you'd better be able to write a lot of poems to make it back!"
Prose discussed in detail her work at PEN, discussing the organization's recent efforts to free forty Chinese writers jailed for blogging: she noted that, "Prior to the Olympics, the major news media were incredibly reluctant to criticize China - they wanted good seats the Olympics! I'm proud to say PEN kept the pressure up - we had readings of Chinese writers, delivered letters to the Chinese consulate." Prose also discussed PEN's efforts to combat the Patriot Act, a section of which allows the FBI to obtain reading records from libraries and bookstores. "We give yearly Freedom to Write awards, and this year we gave the award to this incredibly brave librarian from Washington state - the FBI wanted to know who borrowed an Osama bin Laden bio, the librarian said no and the library board backed them - they were threatened, but they stood up. So we honored them - we're hoping the new admin will need us less, there will be less for us to do - we'll see what happens."
Prose then mentioned the startling lack of international works translated into English: "Nothing gets translated into English - under 400 books a year, including technical books, are translated into English. Pen has a translation fund from an anonymous donor, and 10 awards are given each year to translators for their work." Prose also mentioned the May New York City World Voices Festival" saying that "It came out of realization of how little we know about foreign literature - awareness of their work has skyrocketed since the festival, student s reading them, publishers, people reading more foreign literature."
Prose also responded to Horace Engdahl, the Noble Prize literary judge who claimed last year that American writing was too "parochial." According to Prose: "Stupid observation - it's not our fault things aren't being translated. Philip Roth, American Pastoral - everything could be true of other places - the work of American writers is as universal as can possibly be. We are limited by how little we can read - for me, in the past three years, I've been embarrassed…by how I meet a foreign writer and have no idea what his or her work is like because I can't read other languages. But on the other hand, we have great writers in the USA, extremely broad in focus, who should get the Nobel Prize!"
Prose ended the evening by describing what it was like to have one of her novels, "The Glorious Sons", adapted into a musical. "It was fun...but weird, to tell you the truth...the novel came out in 1974 and I had forgotten what was in it! The woman who had written lyrics kept on consulting me, finally busted me - 'You have no idea what happened in this novel, do you?' But the first 3 or 4 times I saw it, I burst into tears, sobbing, so embarrassing! It was great."
Francine Prose's evening at Tulane on the behalf of the University Honors Program was a wonderful and refreshingly frank look into the process and career of one of today's most prolific and accomplished writers - and a great beginning for Tulane's spring lecture series.
