StoryCraft: Jensen Beach and Kerrin McCadden’s Reading List

If you joined us for our recent event, in partnership with RETN, “StoryCraft: A Way with Words: Conversations on the Art, Work & Practice of Writing,” you know that featured writers Jensen Beach and Kerrin McCadden offered a wealth of great wisdom and advice. Our friend and host of the conversation, Gin Ferrara of Spindle & Widget, captured their recommended reading list in this blog post. We’re re-posting it here so our members can check out these recommendations. Happy reading!

There’s no better question to ask a mediamaker than, “What films have influenced you?” So naturally, if we asked authors Jensen Beach and Kerrin McCadden, our guests from “StoryCraft: A Way with Words,” what books have influenced them, we’d have quite a list.

Fortunately, we didn’t even have to ask them, they shared a great list with us during our talk. And we compiled the books they mentioned into a rather impressive list.

So, without further ado, we present:

JENSEN AND KERRIN’S RECOMMENDED READING (in order of mention)

1. Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen
2. The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot, by Charles Baxter
3. The Art of Syntax: Rhythm of Thought, Rhythm of Song, by Ellen Bryant Voigt
4. About A Mountain, by John D’Agata 
5. Ongoingness: The End of A Diary, Sarah Manguso
6. Stories of Happy People by Lars Gustafsson

If you missed the conversation, hosted by RETN and Burlington Writers Workshop, you can watch it now: http://www.retn.org/show/way-words-conversations-art-work-practice-writing

This is just one of our engaging StoryCraft conversations with Vermont artists, mediamakers, and writers on the craft of story making. Register now for our talk on April 14th, with Erica Heilman of RumbleStrip Vermont.