Good Writers Read

It was great to have Larry Watson visit our campus and classrooms as part of Campus Read. In his presentation on March 11, he told us that he made the decision to become a writer when he was a student at BSC (then BJC). He was inspired by his reading, by the writing assignments in his classes, and by his teachers.

In an interview "Ten Questions for Larry Watson" with Laurie Hertzel of the Star Tribune (December 11, 2011), Watson said:

"When I was in my late teens I read "Catcher in the Rye" and Hemingway's short stories, and both made me feel as though writing was something that I could do. Before reading these books, I'd had writerly impulses, but I didn't know what to do or where to go with those feelings. Salinger showed me that a novel could be written in the slangy, digressive language of a troubled teenager, and Hemingway showed me that stories could be brief and powerful. I don't write like either writer (though I tried for a while), but both made writing seem possible for me."