Jessi Lewis has her MFA in fiction and an MA in Writing and Rhetoric. She was one of the founding editors of Cheat River Review and now works to bring her own fiction, poetry and essays to eyes each month.
Twitter: @jessiwrit
Happy birthday, Kurt Vonnegut. Your dark, brooding irony and complex story structures have led the world of books in a more creative direction. For those Kurt Vonnegut fans out there, it’s important not to let Vonnegut be forgotten. Get out there and honor this man:
Have you read Slaughter House Five? Cat’s Cradle? Do you remember them? The first thing that anyone should do is to dive back in and fall back into his pattern of approachable sentences with palpable humor and darkness: “All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true…”–That’s the first line from Slaughterhouse-Five.
Avoid television and read instead, unless you want to watch Cheers, because Kurt thought television was a rough path for entertainment, though he was a fan of the sitcom– all of this is according to Mental Floss.
Read other writers who are commonly compared to Kurt Vonnegut in style and imagination, like Octavia Butler and Haruki Murakami (as discussed here by the NYPL). Here’s a great list of where to start in Science Fiction and Fantasy short stories if you want to go broad.
If you’re inspired to write because of Vonnegut’s books yourself, test out Vonnegut’s 8 Basics of Creative Writing, posted here by Gotham Writers. Better yet, join a group that features classes like Gotham Writers.
Get to know him better by reading this interview with his good friend, Dan Wakefield, who can add personal commentary few can. Notice, Wakefield introduced Vonnegut’s collection of speeches too.
Check out how his wife, Jane Vonnegut, influenced and encouraged his work according to The New Yorker. Such an awesome story of support and eventual sadness.
