Writers are Alive

Admittedly, I’ve set up this blog entry to plug and write about some authors I really enjoy. While self-serving, I think it underscores an important point to bring into our classrooms. While literature’s canon may be important, it’s more important to find storytellers that students are engaged by and interested in. For some, especially the ones disinterested in traditional literature, they are much more likely to connect with writers who are working now and have present-day tones and themes to their works.

Here’s a list of authors I think are worth looking into:

Philipp Meyer – The author of the critically acclaimed American Rust is a Cornell graduate I met working for their alumni magazine this Spring. His writing channels the big American authors of the twentieth century like Hemingway and Faulkner, but is set in modern times. The story he tells in this book and in some of his short nonfiction works (available at his website here), are very relevant and connected to larger struggles in American culture.

Ellen Hopkins – She wrote the book Crank that I’ve seen lining bookshelves at Barnes and Noble and Borders next to copies of Twilight. It tells the story of a young straight-A student who becomes addicted to the drug crank (hence the title) and documents her life’s spiraling tailspin in poems. Students female and male alike would enjoy her creative storytelling technique.

Dave Zirin & Michael Lewis – Male mtudents who are big into sports are often ones who won’t participate in English classrooms. Instead of selling old authors to them, a more efficient approach is to use their interest in sports foster an interest in reading. Zirin’s Welcome to the Terrordome and Say My Name, Fool! and Lews’ Moneyball and The Blind Side, offer deep, meaningful perspective on sports that may interest young athletes. Their registers should be approachable for middle to upper-level high school students.