"
[Tom
Jenks] just said ... 'You might want to write a novel
sometime.' And
I just laughed madly, had not a clue about writing a
novel, or even the faintest desire. I thought of myself
as a short story writer. Period, period, period."
—
E. Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize-winning
author of The
Shipping News
and Heart
Songs
"Thank
you for all the early help you gave me with the book
[The
Mistress of Spices].
I will always be appreciative of that. Your suggestions were
very valuable. Your critical insight is excellent."
— Chitra
Banerjee Divakaruni
"Thank you for the wonderful class. I appreciated
all the hard work and attention. I learned tons and
had a great time.... I've been going over 30-plus pages
of notes.... Thanks again for the great and diligent work."
— Rick Bass
"It
happened. I sold my novel!! ... HarperCollins bought
it, and has slated it for summer 2004 release. I'm
thrilled... Of course I am here, at this moment,
due to a wise decision I made three years ago — choosing
to take part in your workshop. Believe me, it's
comforting to know you and Carol are there, offering
your unique gift of insight, demystifying the process
even as you reveal its power and magic."
— Bridgett
Davis
"When
I got home in front of my computer and reviewed your
copious notations on my manuscript and thought about
the issues your raised I felt very enlightened and was
able to make revisions throughout ... thanks for your
time and attention."
— Masha
Hamilton, author
of Staircase
of a Thousand Steps
(Putnam)
"Last
year you edited my novel, American
Son ... I
thought you might like to know that I revised it
with many of your suggestions in mind and got an agent
who sold it to W.W. Norton. It is a much better
book than when I first sent it to you. Your line
edits helped condense the prose, but your suggestions
on pacing and structure and narrative flow helped, too. I
learned a lot from the experience. Thanks."
— Brian
Roley
"I've
been working away on the stories I sent you last fall,
I hacked and slashed at one called `The Marvelous Yellow
Cage,' taking much of what you said. I just found
out that it's been accepted at Glimmer Train."
— Charlotte
Forbes, an
O. Henry award winner
"I
can't thank you enough for your responses [on her novel His
Mother's Son,
which was subsequently published by Harcourt Brace].
You have not only been an impressively careful reader,
but I also appreciate your psychological acumen, something
critics of writing do not always bring to their reading....I
found myself with remarkably little resistance to making
the changes you suggested. After reading your comments
I feel as if I've been through at least a year of graduate
school."
— Cai
Emmons
"I
wanted to let you know that the piece of mine that
you kindly read, about a Bolivian woman jailed on a drug
charge and my visits to see her in prison, was accepted
at 7,000 words in Puerto del Sol. I really
like this journal and am very happy with this acceptance. I
want to thank you for generously reading my piece and
offering me critiques over the phone — all of which
I followed.
— Lesley
MacKay
"I just had some good news and it relates to you, too.
You helped me with a story a long while ago called 'Motherland.'
It was a story about a Japanese woman who was involved
with an ethnic Korean man and his son. The end of the story
involved the boy's birthday party and his being fingerprinted
for his identification card. It was the story I gave you
for our private manuscript conference. You gave me some
wonderful line edits, and more importantly you asked me
some essential questions about the truth of the characters.
Before you saw the story, it had been Glimmer
Train's Open
Fiction finalist, and then after than Alice McDermott nominated
it for 'Scribners Best American Voices.' Both turned it
down. By the time it reached you, I felt like I had to
keep going, but I had no idea how. Your initial comments
helped me enormously. I edited it again and sent it to
The Kenyon Review. They liked it and asked me to
edit it again, which of course I did. They turned it down.
Ugh.
Then I took the Alumni Class with you and Carol, and I've
been fooling around with the point of view thing. The
Missouri Review liked it and wanted me to edit it.
At that point I felt like a permanent runner-up to a local
beauty pageant
in a forgotten state. Anyway, I cut ten pages, and they
just told me that they are going to take it. It will come
out in the Spring or Fall issue this year. You wrote in
the margins three long years ago, `This story will get
published.' I don't know if you tell all the girls this
but, Tom, it's going to be published. Thank you. Please
thank Carol, too. I think of her wisdom all the time."
— Min
Jin Lee
"I
want you to know how deeply grateful I am for the help
you gave me. I think you gave of yourself in very real
and important ways. As a teacher, I recognize a good
teacher (very, very few and far between) and ... I'm
very glad of the time I spent with you."
— Susan
L. Feldman (whose
essays have appeared in Ontario Review, New England Review,
Creative Non-Ficiton, Chelsea, Michigan Quarterly Review, and
other prestigious periodicals)
"Recently I had some good news: a story accepted by Prairie
Schooner, appearing in the Winter 2002 issue, which
they also nominated for a 2003 Pushcart. Thanks
so much for the early encouragement and gauidance."
— Donna
Story
"It's
been a long time since I took your ... workshop, but
I continue to look back at the experience as a real turning
point in my progress as a novelist. The encouragement
offered was a great boost to my confidence, and since
then I've been able to write with an assurance that pushes
me through the rough spots ... I'll always think
of that workshop with great appreciation."
— Kevin
Brennan (whose
first novel Parts Unknown was published by William
Morrow in December 2002)
"A while ago you helped
me with a story called 'Ambition.' I
made revisions based on your feedback and the result was
good enough to be a finalist in the Santa Fe Writer's Project
Literary contest last year. Jayne Anne Phillips was
the judge ... I would still like to take your one-week
intensive, but I'm afraid the opportunity won't happen
until at least my older daughter is in college (just two
years away!). I hope you'll still be offering the
workshop then."
— Donna
Miscolta
"As
I go through your notes, I am impressed by your details
and your understanding of rhythm.... As I reread
the parts of my revisions that now include those touches
of insight that you recommended, I am just plain shocked
by how much more coherent and enjoyable t he writing
is. Also, there is a greater sense of momentum,
of things building ... I am following your instructions
to plot boldly."
— Foongy
Lee
"I
haven't stopped thinking about the conference since we
ended. You were honest about our work; it was an
intense week. I re-lived the books and stories
as you discussed them. Your ending summaries of
our work and oral stories were intuitive and from the
heart. Your insight, sensitivity, and carrying
shone through at every moment — that was special. Thank
you."
— Susan
Moldaw
"I thank
you for the Workshop week. It was exceedingly valuable
to me. It will take me a long time to assimilate
the huge amount of information and insight you poured
out to everyone. The intensity and depth of thought
you bring to bear in an instant is marvelous. The
two of you provide a delightful mix of sharp on-point
comments combined with the smooth flow of how the author
meant for the story to be read. I can't say enough
nice things about the workshop. On a business note,
I wish to thank you for staying on track, focused, and
maintaining a nice, steady control and pace over the
group. My compliments to your wonderful sense of
making the week an absolute pleasure while maximizing
the flow of information and knowledge."
— Robert
Colby
"Thanks
so much for doing what you do so well. I had a
great time.... It's so thrilling to get so much feedback
at once, and to get your two points of view on the story,
and on everything else."
— Rebecca
Passonneau
"I
don't think I will ever stop being grateful for the things
you have taught me about writing. I hold them in
my mind, and I feel like I have begun to see more clearly,
both my own writing and other people's."
— Leslie
Bazzett
"I've
been amazed by your ability to penetrate to the essence
of a story, at any stage of development ... your comments
and insights were a great help in focusing my efforts. One
of your gifts is that you treat aspiring writers and
their material with a great deal of respect and tender
loving care. The upshot of this is that your students/clients
wind up taking themselves quite seriously. Even if a
bit fancifully."
— Blant
Hurt
"The
two weeks I spent in your workshop...were invaluable.
You asked the tough questions that needed asking and
helped me sort through a mess of notes and an idea....
[I] have gained so much from your insights."
— Claire
Alemian
A
note of gratitude for your insightful critique — you
gave me some of the keys I've been searching for, and
the process is opening up for me in exciting and challenging
ways."
— Sally
McDaniel
"Thank
you for your recent feedback. You have been a tremendous
inspiration and support."
— Connie
Biewald
"Your
insights and humanity and flawless craft leave me breathless."
— Nancy
Jackson
"Your
comments are outstanding ... I need such thoughtful critique."
— Spencer
Nadler, whose
nonfiction has appeared in Harper's
"I just wanted to write and tell you how much I appreciated
your thoroughness and the very kind way you
presented your suggestions. I was looking for direction,
I think. I told a friend of mine that I felt I had been
re-inducted into the religion of fiction."
— Eileen
McGuire
"I've
been meaning to tell you how much I enjoyed your workshop.
I feel I have advanced further as a writer in the past
seven weeks than in the previous five years."
— Bill
Enfield
"Your
comments were insightful and right on point. You have
a gracious way of directing attention to the major problems
without seeming overly critical, and I can see why established
writers enjoy working with you."
— Bob
Rice
"Thanks
so much for sharing your wisdom. Your help has made all the
difference to my writing."
— Mary
Lea Crawley
"Thanks
... for offering such sound advice."
— Lisa
Okuhn
"I
count being with you and the class a special privilege, albeit
an agonizing stretch!"
— Frances
Bradford
"Your
class has been a godsend, and the techniques you've shared
with us have been ... helpful in redirecting our focus
... on what is essential in structuring a story."
— June
Meyers
"I know Tom
Jenks and have great respect for him... he is a
fine editor... the best thing to do is hear what
he has to say about your manuscript and if he shares
your vision of what it could be (or you share his vision
of its potential) you should ask him to edit it before
submitting it to a publisher. He also has the advantage
of being very aware of the market and so his advice would
be superb."
— Nan
A. Talese, editor and publisher, Doubleday
and
from the New York Times Sunday Book Review:
Now and then, Mr. Richard would send his work to
New York, to Esquire magazine, where it would end
up in the slush pile in Tom Jenks's office. "But the
stories always popped out," said Mr. Jenks.... "They
were filled with yearning and longing." The writer
had talent, but little technique and no discipline. "Sometimes
I'd work on his manuscripts and send them back," Mr.
Jenks said, "but he was always resistant to revising
them. Instead, I'd get four more stories."
In 1981, on a vacation to North Carolina's Outer
Banks, Mr. Jenks finally met the author. At one point that
day, as Mr. Richard remembers it, Mr. Jenks offered some
advice: "Tom said. 'You want to play hardball fiction?
You've got to come to New York.'" The industry was
in New York, and so was a large community of fellow travelers.
He needed to meet editors and mix with other authors, Mr.
Jenks told him; he needed to become serious about his work.
Six months later, Mr. Jenks got a call at his desk in Manhattan. "I
went around to the Old Town Bar on 18th Street off Broadway,
and there he was," said Mr. Jenks. "He had on
Maui shorts, a T-shirt and sandals. He said, 'Here I am.
What do I do now?'"
Mr.
Richard went on to publish a few stories in Esquire and
other magazines ... Later, with Mr. Jenks's help, he
picked up an agent, Georges Borchardt ... in 1989 Knopf
collected
ten of [his stories] in The
Ice at the Bottom of the World, which won
the PEN/Hemingway
Award and led to a Whiting Foundation grant.
Mark
Richard's novel, Fishboy, was published
by Doubleday/Anchor. His latest collection, Charity,
was later brought out by the same publisher. He
currently writes for film and TV in Hollywood as well
as continuing to write fiction. His short story
"All the Trimmings" appeared in the December 2002
issue of Harper's.
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