{"id":76545,"date":"2014-09-09T18:42:43","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T22:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=76545"},"modified":"2014-09-09T19:42:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T23:42:26","slug":"the-words-are-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/09\/the-words-are-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"The Words Are Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LeGuin-Erdrich-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our congratulations to Ursula K. Le Guin, who will receive the National Book Foundation\u2019s 2014 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cUrsula Le Guin has had an extraordinary impact on several generations of readers and, particularly, writers in the United States and around the world,\u201d said Harold Augenbraum, the Foundation\u2019s Executive Director. \u201cShe has shown how great writing will obliterate the antiquated\u2014and never really valid\u2014line between popular and literary art. Her influence will be felt for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And additional congratulations are in order for Louise Erdrich, who has won the PEN\/Saul Bellow Award, a \u201clifetime achievement honor for American writers\u201d judged this year by E.\u2009L. Doctorow, Zadie Smith, and Edwidge Danticat, \u201cwho praised the \u2018awesome\u2019 breadth of Erdrich\u2019s work<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Paris Review<\/em> has interviewed both Le Guin and Erdrich for our Art of Fiction series, the former in 2013 and the latter in 2010. Erdrich advised aspiring writers<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\n

Begin with something in your range. Then write it as a secret. I\u2019d be paralyzed if I thought I had to write a great novel, and no matter how good I think a book is on one day, I know now that a time will come when I will look upon it as a failure. The gratification has to come from the effort itself. I try not to look back. I approach the work as though, in truth, I\u2019m nothing and the words are everything. Then I write to save my life. If you are a writer, that will be true. Writing has saved my life.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And Le Guin said<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\n

Fiction is something that only human beings do, and only in certain circumstances. We don\u2019t know exactly for what purposes. But one of the things it does is lead you to recognize what you did not know before \u2026 A very good book tells me news, tells me things I didn\u2019t know, or didn\u2019t know I knew, yet I recognize them\u2014yes, I see, yes, this is how the world is. Fiction\u2014and poetry and drama\u2014cleanse the doors of perception. All the arts do this. Music, painting, dance say for us what can\u2019t be said in words. But the mystery of literature is that it does<\/em> say it in words, often straightforward ones.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We offer both of them our best wishes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our congratulations to Ursula K. Le Guin, who will receive the National Book Foundation\u2019s 2014 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: \u201cUrsula Le Guin has had an extraordinary impact on several generations of readers and, particularly, writers in the United States and around the world,\u201d said Harold Augenbraum, the Foundation\u2019s Executive Director. \u201cShe has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2559],"tags":[12325,1132,1482,15246,4328,7782,3989],"class_list":["post-76545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin","tag-awards","tag-interviews","tag-louise-erdrich","tag-national-book-foundation","tag-pen","tag-the-art-of-fiction","tag-ursula-k-le-guin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Words Are Everything<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Congrats to Ursula K. 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