Writing for her life
Leigh Allison to close out Good Thunder Series today
by Leah Christensen
Issue date: 4/17/08
Section: Good Thunder Reading Series
Fiction writer Leigh Allison Wilson finishes Minnesota State spring semester Good Thunder Series today. She will conduct a discussion on craft at 3 p.m. in Ostrander Auditorium and read from her work at 7:30 p.m. in CSU 253.
Wilson grew up in east Tennessee but now lives in Oswego, N.Y., where she teaches at Oswego State University. Her first book, "From the Bottom Up," won the Flannery O'Connor award. Her second book, "Wind," was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Wilson has also seen her work published in Harper's, The Southern Review and Mademoiselle.
When Wilson was 13, her parents' marriage started to fall apart and she wanted to get out of her home. She had a high school teacher help her apply for scholarships to a boarding school.
The culture difference, however, soon left Wilson feeling incredibly homesick. She started writing at boarding school, "just to remember things."
"I did not start writing because I wanted to climb an ambitious ladder," Wilson said. "I had to write to save my life."
Wilson said like many writers she was always a big reader and entering the world of a book was a great pleasure. The first difficult book Wilson ever got into was Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" - and she's been hooked on Austen ever since.
Another writer Wilson enjoys is Flannery O'Connor. Wilson said when she first read O'Connor, she was knocked out by her.
"With 'A Good Man is Hard to Find,' it was the first time I realized the kind of power the author had on their material," Wilson said.
Wilson explained she enjoys the way both Austen and O'Connor critique their culture in a comical way. And though she likes O'Conner's harsher style of commentary, she thinks Austen did the same thing in a much milder manner.
When it comes to writing, Wilson said she can't think of a better feeling than when she sits down to write and things turn out better a she could have imagined. She still finds it incredibly lucky that she has the chance to teach and talk about what she loves to do. Wilson described how every semester, radically different versions of the world come into her classroom, and she gets to look at all of them.
"This is the only job I could possibly say that without it I would feel impoverished," she said.
Wilson closes what Good Thunder Series director Richard Robbins said was a packed year filled with great writers. He said the series is always trying to get a variety of writers from different parts of the country and next year will feature more big-name writers coming to MSU.
Leah Christensen is a Reporter staff writer
Wilson grew up in east Tennessee but now lives in Oswego, N.Y., where she teaches at Oswego State University. Her first book, "From the Bottom Up," won the Flannery O'Connor award. Her second book, "Wind," was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Wilson has also seen her work published in Harper's, The Southern Review and Mademoiselle.
When Wilson was 13, her parents' marriage started to fall apart and she wanted to get out of her home. She had a high school teacher help her apply for scholarships to a boarding school.
The culture difference, however, soon left Wilson feeling incredibly homesick. She started writing at boarding school, "just to remember things."
"I did not start writing because I wanted to climb an ambitious ladder," Wilson said. "I had to write to save my life."
Wilson said like many writers she was always a big reader and entering the world of a book was a great pleasure. The first difficult book Wilson ever got into was Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" - and she's been hooked on Austen ever since.
Another writer Wilson enjoys is Flannery O'Connor. Wilson said when she first read O'Connor, she was knocked out by her.
"With 'A Good Man is Hard to Find,' it was the first time I realized the kind of power the author had on their material," Wilson said.
Wilson explained she enjoys the way both Austen and O'Connor critique their culture in a comical way. And though she likes O'Conner's harsher style of commentary, she thinks Austen did the same thing in a much milder manner.
When it comes to writing, Wilson said she can't think of a better feeling than when she sits down to write and things turn out better a she could have imagined. She still finds it incredibly lucky that she has the chance to teach and talk about what she loves to do. Wilson described how every semester, radically different versions of the world come into her classroom, and she gets to look at all of them.
"This is the only job I could possibly say that without it I would feel impoverished," she said.
Wilson closes what Good Thunder Series director Richard Robbins said was a packed year filled with great writers. He said the series is always trying to get a variety of writers from different parts of the country and next year will feature more big-name writers coming to MSU.
Leah Christensen is a Reporter staff writer
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