My Tangential Brush with Literary Fame
A new issue of Time magazine arrived the other day. Cover story: “Great American Novelist” – a profile of Jonathan Franzen.
Long before becoming the heir to Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Updike, and Roth, Jonathan was a college schoolmate of mine. He was a couple years ahead of me, and although I knew who he was, we never met.
Six or seven years after graduating, while writing for and editing trade magazines, I was invited to speak on a panel at my alma mater. Along with two fellow alumni, I told current students what it was like to work with words for a living. One of the other speakers was Franzen, whose first novel, The Twenty-Seventh City, had just been published.
Chatting briefly with him afterward, I mentioned that I was planning to write a novel (yes, even then!). He politely said that when I completed it, I should contact him, and he would put me in touch with his agent.
So … I wonder whether that offer (from 20+ years ago) still applies? Yet another reason to finish writing a novel is so I can look up the Great American Novelist himself and seek his long-promised aid.
Comments
One Comment on My Tangential Brush with Literary Fame
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Andrea Davis-Griffin on
Sun, 22nd Aug 2010 11:29 pm
Well, this is definitely a sign that the way has been prepared ! Now you can relax into it and write at will…..
This blog is a good way to start the words flowing……way to go, looking forward to reading anything that comes forth.
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