The Bluegrass and Beyond

Tuesday is the National Day on Writing. Do you have a sentence or two to contribute?

If so, the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning wants to hear from you. To celebrate this day, the center is putting together what it calls the “longest short story ever written.”

The center is seeking contributions from average folks and from established local authors, including Ed McClanahan and Bobbie Ann Mason. First lady Jane Beshear plans to finish the story during an event at 5:30 p.m. at the Carnegie Center in Gratz Park.

The idea is to put together a snapshot of Lexington and what’s going on in people’s lives this day, said Neil Chethik, the Carnegie Center’s writer-in-residence.

People can add their contributions by stopping by the Carnegie Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or at the following places and times: Starbucks in Chevy Chase, 7-9 a.m.; Starbucks downtown, Third Street Stuff or the Eagle Creek Library, 9-11 a.m.; Joseph Beth Booksellers or Barnes & Noble, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; The Morris Book Shop, Waldenbooks or Northside Library, 1-3 p.m.; or the Village Branch and Central libraries or Common Grounds Coffee, 3-5 p.m.

Ed McClanahan

McClanahan has started the story with these two sentences: “I found her sitting on a bench in Woodland Park. She looked up when my shadow fell on the letter she was writing.”

McClanahan, whose books include The Natural Man, said he doesn’t know what will come from this community story.

“It will generate some interest among people (in writing), I’m sure,” said McClanahan.

He said writing is a useful exercise for anyone. “It is an opportunity to examine one’s life and experiences and thinking processes. It’s a way of looking at yourself and what’s going on in the world.”

This community story will be written on butcher paper, the pieces of which will be taped together into a big scroll. Excerpts will be published online, including on www.galleryofwriting.org, the Web site of the National Council of Teachers of English, which sponsors the National Day on Writing.

It sounds like a fun project. I’m just glad I don’t have to edit it.

“I’m glad I don’t have to, either,” McClanahan said.

Journalists love anniversaries; they provide a flimsy but convenient excuse for writing about things we find interesting.

This week marks two important anniversaries for people who love good writing.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Elements of Style, my favorite guide to good writing.

E.B. White, best known for his children’s book Charlotte’s Web, updated a writing manual used by his Cornell University professor, William Strunk. With simple commandments — Be clear. Omit needless words. — the book is a beacon in a world of blather.  National Public Radio has a piece about the book that’s worth hearing.

Reviewing The Elements of Style for Esquire magazine in 1959, Dorothy Parker wrote this piece of classic Dorothy Parker wit:  “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”

White’s essays for The New Yorker remain classics. Two of my favorites are Here is New York, which captures the energy of the 1940s city, and The World of Tomorrow, which describes the New York World’s Fair of 1939 and man’s hubris.

Monday marked the 100th birthday of the late Eudora Welty, the Mississippi author and photographer.

Her novel The Optimist’s Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize. Her many stories, such as The Petrified Man and Why I live at the P.O., are great studies in human nature and Southern culture.

White and Welty were great literary stylists. Strunk would have been proud of them both.