Literary Spotlight: Robert Morgan

Robert Morgan was raised on his family's farm in the North Carolina mountains. He is the author of eleven books of poetry and eight books of fiction, including the bestselling novel Gap Creek. Winner of the 2007 Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, he teaches English at Cornell University. He is the recipient of the 2008 Thomas Wolfe Prize. His newest work is titled Boone.

Q: You are primarily a poet and novelist. What led you to write a biography of Daniel Boone?

A: Since I was a kid I’ve always been interested in the frontier and the Indians and after five novels, I wanted to try something new. I wanted to see if I could do a story that would address the folklore and fake lore and bring a breath of fresh air to Boone. I wanted to make him more alive and so I researched the archives and found documents from his career as a surveyor. Unlike many biographers who tire of their subject after a while, I grew more and more interested. Also, other biographers had not studied his wife Rebecca, whom I found interesting. I was surprised to learn that Boon was also a free mason.

Q: Growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains must have been a unique experience. How well do you think your regionalism of this site transferred onto the pages of your books? What does regionalism in literature mean to you?

A: Regional writing takes on different guises. Most people are familiar with the southern or western writers but there are also African-American stories and Asian stories and many others who exemplify regional writing. The story of American fiction is one wave of discovery after another. In the 1940’s, for example, there were the Jewish writers like Philip Roth. Then there are writers like John Updike whose regional writing includes the suburbs.

Q: In your opinion, can there be poetry in fiction novels? Can you elaborate with examples?

A: The best poetry of our time is prose in fiction. There is powerful poetry in the writings of Hemingway, who thought of himself as a poet, and also in Faulkner, Melville and Wharton. Poetry uses language to create powerful experiences. We can see this in the fiction of these writers.

Q: As a college instructor of English, what writing trends have you observed in undergraduate curriculums and does this trend correlate to what the marketplace is supporting?

A: Over the past four decades I’ve seen quite a change in terms of the ambitions of students in writing fiction. In the early years they tried to write like the hip writers and were experimental in their works. Many aspire to write shorter pieces for The New Yorker or Atlantic Monthly. Over the years the students got better - at least at Cornell -where they seem to work harder and focus on mainstream. They don’t yet have the experience in writing or law or medicine, for example, to handle specific genres like crime writing.

Q: What advice do you have for writers?

The advice I give at conferences is to have persistence. Everybody becomes a writer in their own way. You learn by doing it. Those who succeed have a fire in their belly. Those who succeed are the ones who get rejected or don’t get the agent they want and go right back to the computer and work on their book again.

Revision is important. Younger writers starting out enjoy that first rush and heady feeling finishing the first draft. They are reluctant to go back and revise. As we get older we like the second and third chance to go back and fine tune our writing. It’s a pleasure to make it more alive. Some say the first draft is the engagement, the final draft is the marriage.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.