Lucky Break: How I Became A Writer

By Howard Junker

In Lucky Break, Howard Junker introduces you to nineteen contemporary authors who describe their struggles-and good fortune-in transforming themselves into writers. For some, the idea of being a writer seemed to run in the family. For others, writing was a way of breaking with their families; for still others, writing was the only way to find their own voice, to preserve what is uniquely theirs. Collected from the pages of ZYZZYVA, the West Coast literary journal, these are very personal essays in which, nevertheless, other writers will discover something of their own stories and journeys. Among the authors featured in Lucky Break are Sheila Ballantyne, Opal Palmer Adisa, Philip Levine, Jewelle Gomez, Justin Chin, David Rains Wallace, and Sallie Tisdale. Becoming a writer is a mysterious, momentous process. The writers in this collection suggest that beyond talent and hard work (and a lucky break), there is more hard work-the task of "being" a writer. They offer accounts not of the craft of writing, but of the many strands that must be woven together to create an identity as a writer.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0325001561
• ISBN13: 9780325001562
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Heinemann
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.9" x 0.4" x 5.8"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

TRANSFORMATION INTO A WRITER

Have you ever wondered how some authors made the commitment to become writers? Did they know at birth what their destiny would be or were they just plain lucky? Your curiosity will be satisfied as you read about the struggles and triumphs of nineteen people who chose writing as their vocation. All of the authors profiled come from a variety a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Their way into writing did not follow a clear cut linear path. One poor soul could barely read, another failed english in school while still another had to wait through hippiedom, motherhood and being flat broke before she began to write. Their paths to the vocation were different but the passion and commitment to writing is the thread that ties them together. Being a writer moves beyond knowing the mechanics of technique or being talented or working hard on endless manuscripts. A writer is in the process of creating his or her own identity as they struggle through the craft. Justin Chin, Jewelle Gomez, and Bill Berkson are just some of the few writers profiled in this inspirational and philosophical work. You will be touched by each unique voice as they share their craft and reasons for taking it up as their life's vocation. Howard Junker has provided you with an engaging and eye opening book on the transformation of ordinary people into writers.

Justin Chin's portrait of mentor Faye Kicknosway rocks

Justin Chin's touching and lurid portrait of his mentor Faye Kicknosway (also poetic mentor to the amazing writers Zack Linmark and Lois Ann Yamanaka in Hawai'i) rocks and probes, revealing the terror and stand-back brilliance of her zen pedagogy of dismantlement and rebirth; his "lucky break" was indeed to get away from Singapore and to create "a line of flight" to Honolulu and San Francisco, brilliant in its oblivion and charm. I am not a big fan of coffee-table poetics, however sheer and cheery pluralist the genre, but this collection on authorial tactics provokes and gladdens the will to write literature amid the postmodern market muck.