Oregon Humanities

Bringing Far-flung Places Closer

Before I turn forty I feel destined to complete an odyssey that began when I was five and my parents drove the kids from Ohio to Florida. I’d like to spend time in all fifty states. I’m currently forty-nine down with just one final state to go. Maybe you can guess which? Alaska, get ready for a visit from me and it’s going to be a blow-out.

I’ve spent time on other continents, and I’m a voracious reader of everything including travel writing. Still, there’s nothing like access to writers from far-flung places to brew up a genuine “O. Hm.,” scratch-the-head, really-lean-into-it moment. It’s easy to forget how different the humanities look in other countries. That is until a writer from someplace else describes, in person, her process. And you realize you’ve never heard anything like it.

Earlier this month Portland was graced with a visit from the International Writing Program sponsored by the University of Iowa. Five writers came to town—in part to read at Wordstock, in part to join other literary communities around town. Lucky for me, one community was the Narrative Image studio class at Pacific Northwest College of Art, which I’m helping teach this semester. All five writers read their work at a PNCA reception in the evening but Fflur Dafydd, an amazingly-prolific writer from Wales, spent an hour in our classroom.

Fflur is not what you’d call shy. She popped herself onto a stool at one end of the room and proceeded to describe Wales, the writing culture in Wales, her process as a writer, her work as a pop singer (turns out she’s a bit of a phenom). Then she read passages from her only novel in English (most of her work is published in Welsh) and sang a couple of songs.

Fflur was such a flurry of energy my head was spinning a bit already. What really struck me though—nearly knocking me off my own stool—was what she said about Wales. Turns out in Wales, writers are often identified in their teens (Fflur’s first book was published when she was 20). State-sponsored support follows. A loyal readership follows. Awards given at a once-yearly ceremony featuring heavy robes and sheep follows. In a small country with fewer of every kind of professional, when you’re a writer then you’re a writer.

Living my whole life here, I’ve always thought of the United States—with its democratic way of life—as the luckiest place in the world for artists. You can wake up one day and just decide to be one. And it turns out that while the United States (and Portland particularly) is doing pretty well on that scale, we’re no Wales. I’m okay with that. But once I finish my other odyssey, who knows? Perhaps it’s time to dream beyond Alaska. I may need to take a trip to visit Fflur, and a lot of other places besides.

About Sara Guest

Sara Guest is a program coordinator with Write Around Portland. A recent Oregon Humanities Public Program Grant helped fund a documentary film about the organization, To Pay My Way with Stories, which will be shown at the NW Film & Video Festival in Portland on November 10 at 7:30 p.m.

29 October 2009 | Posted by Sara Guest in New Ideas
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