May 18, 2012 | Random Thoughts, The Writing Life
In truth, I skim uplifting forwards in my email, and only if I have time. But today, one of the messages resonated and I want to share a piece of advice:
Give up the past. I know, I know. It’s hard. Especially when the past looks so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the present moment is all you have and all you will ever have. The past you are now longing for – the past that you are now dreaming about – was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.
I so love the idea that the past we are longing for was ignored when it was the present!
I am finishing up my semester with my Goddard students. As we look back on what we have written, and face a future of ripping that apart and rewriting, it can be exhausting and scary to think of the work ahead; how much easier it would be to be able to rest on what is already done! This takes the form of what I call page conservation, and editing (moving those blocks of text you like around with your handy computer!) instead of re-envisioning. I have a book now that needs re-envisioning, even though I have re-envisioned it several times. Yes, it would be lovely if my readers could just see it the way I would like it to be seen now. But since they cannot read my mind, only my pages, the reality is this: If I don’t rewrite, if I am not writing, then what am I? Not a writer. Just a woman who is putting her books in a box and taking them out again.
May 13, 2012 | Random Thoughts
It’s been so long since I wrote on this blog that I forgot my password.
I have been moving – renovating, painting, packing, buying light fixtures and crown mouldings. But in the midst of this all, a beautiful bouquet of Mother’s Day flowers and a lovely walk in the park that is now two blocks from the house with my two young men who brought the flowers (tropical!) and the chocolate.
Apr 19, 2012 | Hiroshima in the Morning, The Writing Life
Once our stories leave us, they have a life of their own. Your story will touch many lives: give voice to some who may have felt voiceless, and remind others that they are not alone. The best part is when the storyteller herself is given the gift of hearing from others and discovering the community that has always existed around her.
Recently, I had the privilege of seeing one example of how my own memoir has journeyed: from 2001 Hiroshima to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. On her blog, Michelle Embree writes about reading Hiroshima in the Morning:
I could feel [Reiko’s book] taking shape inside of myself, it was taking me to a place of greater strength and understanding for writing my own memoir (which is currently half complete and in a perpetual state of change and discovery). I was reading and writing and taking deep breaths and starting over again and again with the belief that I can, in fact, write this book, tell my story, find words for it all, find a reason to be who I have become.
I invite you to read her story here.
Mar 12, 2012 | Events, Hiroshima in the Morning, The Writing Life
We talked about reinvention, and revision. About a different ending, and about how sometimes, when you don’t know who this voice in your head is, all you have to do is ask. We discussed picking a cold place for a story, going to Paris, and passing: passing up, passing for, passing through. We did some math: What is love plus freedom in your book, and what does love minus freedom equal?
We had a wonderful day in Baltimore, Bernice McFadden, Jacqueline Luckett, Leila Cobo, Linda Duggins and I. It was an encounter made possible in part by Joy Bramble, publisher of the Baltimore Times whose earlier chance encounter with Linda Duggins began with “My feet were killing me…”. Many thanks to the Enoch Pratt Library, Judy Cooper, and everyone who supported the event, who came, who asked questions.
At one point, an audience member got up and gave us an amazing gift. She had read every book, and she told us what she learned from each one and the reasons why she will never be the same person as she was before she read them. Thank you, Ella Curry, for your words.
Love plus freedom: math I never had to do in school.
What does love plus freedom mean to you?
Mar 10, 2012 | Events, Hiroshima in the Morning, The Writing Life
The DC Examiner wraps up a series on all the International Women’s History Month panelists today with a short article on me. If you can’t make it, check out the series to see what you are missing. Thank you, Wendy Coakley-Thompson!
Rizzuto is passionate about the power and cultural significance of storytelling in general and women’s stories in particular. “Storytelling – as humans but especially as women – is our way to build consensus and community, and the more truthful we are when we stand up and say ‘This is who I am, this is what I believe, or what I did,’ the stronger and more beautiful that community will be,” she declares.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Rahna Reiko Rizzuto prescribes storytelling as an antidote to historical silence – Washington DC Publishing Industry | Examiner.com
Mar 9, 2012 | Our Nuclear Age
Here are the links and sources for some of the statements I made in my last two articles on the Fukushima disaster. You can find the articles on the Progressive Media Project and The Huffington Post.
1. White House Press Release about the bombing of Hiroshima.
2. Speechwriter McGeorge Bundy’s role in the statement of the number of causalities avoided by the atomic bombings, as discussed by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin coauthors of “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.”
3. The American Nuclear Society’s report that American nuclear plants are safe, and that “the off-site health consequences” of the Fukushima meltdown “may ultimately be minimal.”
4. The Associated Press report that three quarters of the U.S. nuclear plants were leaking radioactive tritium.
5. TEPCO plans to “contain” the radioactivity in the nearby bay by cementing it over with 73,000 square meters of cement.
6. Computer models of tangible tsunami trash.
7. My article on the effects of radiation on survivors of Hiroshima published last year after the Fukushima disaster.
8. A map of more than 2050 nuclear tests and accidents since 1945.
9. Japanese government delays release of information on telltale signs that the Fukushima reactors has melted down for months.
10. Japanese government increases acceptable levels for radiation exposure to five times that in the U.S.
11. When radiation in spinach, milk and beef exceed legal limits, the Chief Cabinet Secretary says “Even if people eat these products, there will be no immediate effect.”
12. When high levels of radiation are detected in tea in Shizuoka, the governor declares the tea safe and refuses to have it tested further because it might “confuse” people.
13. The Japanese government loosens the definition of “cold shutdown” in December in order to declare its leaking, vulnerable, still-actively-being cooled reactors “stable.”
14. In Japan, 52 of 54 reactors are currently offline due to safety concerns.
15. The U.S. has generated approximately 71,862 tons of waste and has nowhere to store it; three quarters of it sits in over-capacity water-cooling pools like those in Fukushima.
16. Japan is expected to run completely out of room to store its waste in 10-20 years.
17. Radioactive waste has a much longer lifespan than we do (from 500 to 500,000 years).
18. The U.S. approves the first nuclear power plant since the 1970s, with an 8.3 billion federal loan, despite an objection by NRC Chairman, Gregory Jaczko, who requests that enhancements and improvements based on the lessons of Fukushima be implemented.
19. Water used to cool the fuel has been measured at up to 7.5 million times the legal limit for radiation.
20. The Japanese government deliberately dumps 11,500 tons of radioactive water into the sea in April (calling this act “regrettable and unfortunate” and also mentioning that it was carried out “at the strong urging of the U.S.”).
21. In December , Japanese government warns that its 100,000 ton storage tanks will be full by March.
Mar 7, 2012 | Events, Hiroshima in the Morning
Looking forward to talking about women’s history this Saturday – the history of family, love, loss, death, community, and not the machinations of conquering countries.
For more information, here’s a lovely preview in the Baltimore Times.
“Hiroshima in the Morning” forces the reader to contemplate memory, history and personal truth. Rizzuto says she hopes it encourages readers to discover, “What’s important to you, so you can stand on the mountain top and you can say what happened. This is my story.”
And a link to the topic and the amazing writers who will be joining the panel with me. See you here:
March 10, 2012:
International Literary Festival
1:00 pm until 4:00 pm.
Enoch Pratt Free Library
400 Cathedral Street
Baltimore MD
Feb 28, 2012 | Events, Hiroshima in the Morning, The Writing Life
At our last residency for the Goddard MFA in Creative Writing in Vermont, we had three amazing and successful alumni return to talk to our current students. Mary Johnson, author of An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life, spoke with Kenny Fries and me about the pitfalls and pleasures of crafting a resonant, universal story from our daily “here’s what happened next” life. We spoke for over a hour, and I am pleased to be able to share it with you here.
Here’s a sample from the beginning:
My question (one of many!) to Mary: “There are those things we are afraid of…that we don’t want to relive. Could you talk about what you left out of your memoir, and why, and how you got what you did onto the page?”
Mary: “Fear was a big thing for me…putting it down on the page for anybody to see was really scary. Kenny was my advisor for my first two semesters at Goddard. I had written a few things… During one particular packet, I started to write the sex stuff. And it was really hard for me. I wrote this piece and I sent it off, and when I came back from the post office, I wrote Kenny an email and said, ‘I just sent my packet to you, please don’t open it. I will send you another one.’ And he wrote me back and said, ‘Oh! So at last you have finally written something worthwhile!’”
2012.01.11 Transformation From Personal Experience to Published Memoir from Goddard College on Vimeo.
Feb 8, 2012 | Events, Hiroshima in the Morning, The Writing Life
Looking forward to a March 10th discussion in Baltimore on “the intersection of place, time and culture in literature and in the lives of women” with four amazing women:
Leila Cobo, a Fulbright scholar from Cali, Colombia, novelist, pianist, TV host, and executive editor for Latin content and programming for Billboard. She is considered one of the country’s leading experts on Latin music. She is the author of Tell Me Something True. Her second novel, The Second Time We Met (Grand Central Publishing), will be released February 29, 2012. (www.leilacobo.com)
Jacqueline Luckett, author of Searching for Tina Turner and the newly published Passing Love (Grand Central Publishing). She participated in the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and, in 2004, formed the Finish Party along with seven other women writers-of-color. (www.jacquelineluckett.com)
Bernice L. McFadden, author of seven critically acclaimed novels, including Sugar and Glorious. She is a two-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist. In her new novel, Gathering of Waters (Akashic Books), McFadden brings her own vision to the story of Emmett Till and the town of Money, Mississippi. (www.bernicemcfadden.com).
Linda A. Duggins, moderator from the Hachette Book Group.
More details here
Jan 19, 2012 | Hiroshima in the Morning, Motherhood in the Media, Our Nuclear Age, The Writing Life
Appearing in Sixers Review today, a brief conversation with Goddard MFA graduate, Shokry Eldaly, who will someday be a literary marvel himself when he gets that half-finished novel done. Here is a sneak peek:
“Are you asking what you do when you are asked to conform? You don’t. It’s very simple. Why would you? Why would any person ever think that another person, or a structure (like publishing, or banking!), or a cultural assumption, knows what you need and who you are better than you do? You are the expert on you, and you have an urgency in your own preoccupations that is important for the rest of us to hear about. Otherwise, you become a bad copy of a character that someone else has made up.”
Read the entire interview and take a look at the journal here.
