If it is true, as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop website claims, that “writing cannot be taught but…writers can be encouraged,” how can the university expect students to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for an MFA in writing? That’s a lot of money for encouragement!

I’ve been thinking about this question since I occasionally teach one-day writing workshops at colleges in the area. I came upon an interesting sentence at the Iowa Workshop website. “We continue to look for the most promising talent in the country, in our conviction that writing cannot be taught but that writers can be encouraged.”

I certainly encourage the writers who attend my classes, but I also believe students can learn certain elements — narrative drive, pacing, character development, plot, to name a few. Writing is not as easy as it looks but, like anything else, practice builds skills.

In my new book, Is It Night or Day?, I wrote my mother’s story from her perspective. I have only fictionalized this work for the purpose of point of view. My mother, like many survivors, cannot tell her own story so I am attempting to tell it for her. I think that this is one of the responsibilities of the second generation.

The new Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center

Thanks to all who came to the lecture and museum tour last Thursday. For those in Chicago who could not attend, don’t miss the new Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. I was deeply moved by the architecture of the building and the personal items survivors have donated for display.

As we walked through the exhibits, my mother began to consider whether her own items have value. She has many letters from the 1930s written by her parents, German papers about the “sale” of the family home they owned since 1721, and tax documents from the late 1800s that prove her family owned eight pieces of property near her town, Stockstadt am Rhein. She may donate these papers to the museum.

I am scheduling speeches for 2010 when my new book is released. I will post upcoming speeches, presentations and school workshops on the “News & Events” page of this website.