Pure Manaʻo

Grann, D. (2018, February 12 & 13). The white darkness: A solitary journey across Antarctica. New Yorker Magazine . Retrieved from here . What the New Yorker  does for me is to bring into my periphery vision these people and their stories that I would not know about if I had not picked up the article. What the New Yorker  does for me is gather the most beautifully talented writers to bring these people's lives to life in a way that has me crying and cheering and rushing through while slowing down to savor the adventure, the joy and the bittersweet loss of living a real life. I will remember Henry Worsley and his wife Joanne, his son Max and his daughter that he calls "Shrimp" although his children are both adults. These Brits, via an American magazine found their way to a small Pacific Island surrounded by our own blue Antarctica. These are the kinds of pieces that I want to use as mentor texts for my students. Even when I do not know how I would use it exce...

Source: Anderson, S. (2017, September 28). The mind of John McPhee.  The New York Times Magazine . Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/magazine/the-mind-of-john-mcphee.html?_r=0 What is Sacred: I am not as familiar with John McPhee's writing, but based on this article, I need to be. I think what sold me on reading his new book  Draft No. 4  is the description by Anderson that in McPhee is writer as craftsman rather than writer as artist. I think the more scientific I can get about teaching writing, the more I will get pieces with intentional voice and craft. I also appreciate writers that are able to take their research and create intimacy through a complex organizational structure that reveals the workings of a complex mind. Anderson describes it best with his sentence: "McPhee has built his career on such small detonations of knowledge." I guess what is sacred, then, is the ability to talk about craft and the ability to know about small top...

Source: Harvey, G. (2015, June 10). Jenny Diskiʻs end notes. The New York Times Magazine . Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/magazine/jenny-diskis-end-notes.html?_r=1 What is sacred: This article by Giles Harvey is an obit essay of the author Jenny Diski through the time he spent with her at the end. I was pointed toward this article through my Austin Kleon weekly newletter and I find that he has very good taste in finding "end of life essays" that are able to connect me to some thought or emotion that drifts around unexamined. This does not go into sentimentality, but takes its time to honor the gallows humor of her wit and the power of her prose.  Although she is already dead and I have not heard of her before, I am left hungry to look up her essays and books. One sample Mr. Harvey includes of her writing is from "Stranger on a Train" (2002) where Disky rides the rails around America, dialogues with other passengers ...