Writing Guideposts

Hannah Tinti is a writer, editor, and teacher.  Her short story collection, Animal Crackers, has sold in sixteen countries and was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award. Her best-selling novel, The Good Thief, is a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award, winner of the The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and winner of the Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award. She is now finishing a new novel.

Hannah has worked at bookstores, magazines, publishing houses, and literary agencies. In 2002 she co-founded the award-winning magazine One Story and for the past 12 years has been its Editor in Chief. In 2009 she received the PEN/Nora Magid award for excellence in editing and in 2014 One Story won the AWP Prize for Best Small Press. In 2011, she joined the Public Radio program, Selected Shorts, as their Literary Commentator, interviewing authors and actors about the importance of literature and reading.

More at www.hannahtinti.com

More on First Draft on Aspen Public Radio: aspenpublicradio.org/programs/first-draft


First Cuts from First Draft - Hannah Tinti

How do you pronounce pecan? Is it pee-KAHN or PEE-kan? And why are there different pronunciations of the name of this nut? The word pecan was borrowed into English more than once, and from numerous Native American languages. So not only were various versions of the name for this hard-shelled nut borrowed from indigenous languages, they also migrated into English in different ways--picked up by the French, for example, as well as speakers of Spanish borrowing it from the French, and the English borrowing it from the French in Louisiana. The pee-KAHN pronunciation is generally more common in the South. Elsewhere, you may hear PEE-kan or pee-Kan. Some people say that the word pecan is pronounced differently depending on whether it’s eaten raw or baked in a pie, but there’s no solid historical reason behind such variations. http://waywordradio.org

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If you’re described as a tall glass of water, that’s a good thing. It suggests, especially for men, that you’re good-looking. A little more than a century ago, that phrase suggested a person was bland and boring, but it’s much more positive now. http://waywordradio.org

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A moving visit to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, and the nearby Freedom Monument Sculpture Park there on the banks of the Alabama River, prompts a Massachusetts woman to reflect on the history of slavery in the United States and the phrase sold down the river. Although today sold down the river may simply mean “betrayed,” the phrase first appears with reference to selling those who were enslaved and sending them down the Mississippi River to labor under even harsher conditions than farther north. The terrorizing threat of being sold down the river is referenced in such books as Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. http://waywordradio.org

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A Louisiana listener shares a favorite passage from Laurie Lee’s memoir Cider with Rosie (Bookshop|Amazon), about his boyhood in post-World-War II England. http://waywordradio.org

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The terms upper-case and lower-case to designate the size of letters stem from printer’s slang from the days of typesetting. Since they used small letters most of the time, so they were kept in a case that was lower, and therefore more easily accessible. Less frequently used capital letters went in the upper case. Jumbled pieces of damaged or discarded type, were tossed into what printers called a hellbox, and left for apprentices to carry and sort through. http://waywordradio.org

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The new book Gesture: A Slim Guide (Bookshop|Amazon) by linguist Lauren Gawne includes some fascinating studies about the movements that accompany spoken or signed language. In one, participants were asked to learn rules of a game, then explain those rules to someone else they were going to play the game with, either a teammate or competitor. Each time the people giving the instructions used pretty much the same words, and made about the same number of gestures. The key difference? Their gestures were smaller when explaining the rules to a potential opponent, suggesting they didn’t want to be as clear or emphatic. http://waywordradio.org

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A memorable commencement speech by author Kurt Vonnegut celebrates books and “the sweet reluctance of their pages when you turn them with your sensitive fingertips.” http://waywordradio.org

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Why is it harder to talk if we don't gesture? Why do we still move our hands if we're talking on the phone but the other person can't see us? Such questions are tackled in the new book Gesture: A Slim Guide (Bookshop|Amazon), a sort of survey course of the state of gesture studies. The author, linguist Lauren Gawne of Latrobe University in Melbourne, Australia, is also cohost, along with internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch, of the Lingthusiasm podcast, an entertaining, informative show that all about, as they put it, “what’s neat about linguistics.” http://waywordradio.org

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Quiz Guy John Chaneski calls this week’s puzzle “Three of a Kind, Four of a Kind,” but it has nothing to do with cards. The challenge is to find words that have either three occurrences of a letter or four. For example, if the letter in question is B, what’s a word that has three instances of it, and what’s one that has four? Hint: One of them denotes something that doesn’t stop until it pops, and the other appears in the song “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?” http://waywordradio.org

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Italian food expert Fred Plotkin describes some of the unusual varieties of pasta that you can find in Italy — and the reason behind their different shapes. Historian Jeff Biggers explores the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where sites dating back to the Bronze Age are found across the island. And tour guides from Tuscany and Sicily bring us the scoop on how to find the best gelato in Italy.

For more information on Travel with Rick Steves — including episode descriptions, program archives and related details — visit www.ricksteves.com.

718a Pastas You Should Know; In Sardinia; Gelato

In writing, a first draft is where creativity flows, a story takes root and the voice of a writer emerges.  On Aspen Public Radio First Draft highlights the voices of writers as they discuss their work, their craft and the literary arts.  This weekly show hosted by Mitzi Rapkin will primarily feature fiction and non-fiction authors along with occasional poets, screenplay writers, playwrights and songwriters.  First Draft is a celebration of the writing and the individuals who are dedicated to bringing their carefully chosen words to print as well as the impact writers have on the world we live in.  In addition to interviews with authors, First Draft will feature readings, literary news and other special features.

First Cuts from First Draft - Hannah Tinti

First Draft

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