Tuesday, 10:00 a.m.
Introducing Jim Heynen, David Pichaske said "What I value most in his work is voice...." And he read a passage from Heynen's prose.
"But why have Pichaske doing Heynen when you can have Heynen doing Heynen," Pichaske said.
Writer of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, Heynen is a native of northwest Iowa. He attended one of the last one-room school houses in the state. His most recent collection of stories is The Boys' House. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is writer-in-residence at St. Olaf College.
Donald Hall once sent him a letter saying something nice about one of his stories, Heynen told us. Heynen used the quote on the cover of a book. Hall was furious: "I do not blurb books!"
Heynen read from his work.
"... That constant flow in the earth that wants to be glad...."
"The insecurity that those of us who grew up on farms have.... If you grew up to be a writer, of course you can get even...."
"The next morning in the cow barn, we didn't forget our insecurity...."
"I like to take vengeance sweetly...."
"I owe William Kittridge a debt," Heynen said. At a writer's get-together, Kittridge told an editor "You really out to go see Heynen." And the editor liked what he heard and asked for the book.
"Where are they now.... What are they up to...."
"Most animals were safe, but not the pheasants. Their eyes froze shut...."
"Who are those people anyhow?"
"Barns that were born ducking trouble.... Tired barns with swaybacks and no gumption...."
"So tired that wind feels like a massage...."
"I can't pray and can't sleep...."
"Smells that stay in the car, stay in your clothes...."
All the farmers hanging on "like mourners at a wake...."
"All the undone farms...."
"Dear God, I finally pray, send us a miracle...."
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