There are a raft of good writers, excellent craftsman that never gain international fame. Men and women who publish small works, teach at universities, coach and inspire the young writers coming behind them.

Percival Everett was one of those yeoman for quite some time. He shunned publicity, taught at the University of Southern California, published 25 novels, poetry and short stories.

He won a Booker Award, a Pulitzer, and still remained under the radar. Then he wrote James, the re-telling of the Huck Finn story from viewpoint of the slave Jim. He won another Pulitzer and became the darling of the literary press.

As I earned my Bachelors and Masters in literature, I met many a quiet author, scholar, mentor, all of whom have been a guiding light for those who happened to sit in his or her classroom.

Naeem Murr comes to mind. I met him when he was an instructor in the MFA program at Queens of Charlotte. At the time he taught regularly at a Chicago University. He published 3 books, was a writer-in-residence at several universities including Stanford, and earned Guggenheim and Stegner Fellowships.

His third novel, A Perfect Man, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and he was long-listed for the Booker. A Perfect Man is still on my favorites list. Murr was one of the best instructors I ever knew and a skilled writer, but he never exploded into greatness.

Robert Boswell is another example. He teaches creative writing at the University of Houston, has published 7 novels, a play, and short stories collections, including The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards, which inspired an anthology film starring James Franco. He’s earned a Guggenheim, and two Endowment for the Arts Fellowships.

Still, few people know of Boswell, his work, or the positive impression he makes on the writers lucky enough to sit in his classroom. I met this great mentor when he was a guest lecturer at Marylhurst University in Portland some years back.

Fortunately for the geographically-impaired, we can access Boswell’s wisdom through his nonfiction book, The Half-Known World, a guide to writing literary fiction. We all know that popular fiction is driven by plot. That is the “full-known world” that Boswell also associates with popular film or TV sit-com. Literary fiction is driven by character and message, and lives in a half-known world.

Boswell writes: “I have grown to understand narrative as a form of contemplation. . . . For as long as I can, I remain purposefully blind to the machinery of the story and only partially cognizant of the world the story creates. . . . I resist knowing until the story finally rubs my nose in it.”

He goes on to describe the ways to use this technique, but I won’t reveal more because I want you to buy a copy of The Half-Known World. If you have a young writer in your family, it makes an exceptional gift. While you are at it, throw in a copy of Naeem Murr’s great novel, A Perfect Man.

JONNIE MARTIN

(Photo by Clark Young courtesy of Unsplash)