By Molly Tanenbaum
It’s not every week that high schoolers get to hear real poets read their stuff like it should be read, or learn about the life experience that would motivate someone to write their own memoir.
At Los Altos High School, for one week out of each school year, every student gets a taste of what it takes to be a professional writer.
The event, now in its 21st year, is Writers Week. Started by Los Altos mother Lee Cullinan Wooldridge as a memorial for her son, Tracy, and now funded by the PTSA, Writers Week has brought in the likes of Wallace Stegner, Amy Tan and others to share their experiences and knowledge with the students.
This year’s event featured a talk by acclaimed novelist Andrew Sean Greer. Every English class in the school received at least two visiting writers during the week.
“I know most of my kids aren’t going to become writers, but I want them to know there are many ways to have writing be part of your life,” said Keren Robertson, head of the English department at Los Altos High.
Nearly 30 writers spoke to all grade levels about how they became professional writers and came to be published. Many of the invited speakers this year — like Matt Miller, who spoke to Galen Rosenberg’s senior English class on Feb. 16 — are completing fellowships at Stanford in journalism, poetry and fiction. Some are Los Altos High alums (including Voice staff writer Jon Wiener), and even a former Los Altos principal, and many are professional journalists or writers in other capacities.
“It’s really exciting to have such a range of people, from people who are just starting out in their careers to people who are teaching and getting acknowledged,” said Michele Greenfield, parent and co-chair of Writers Week.
With a raspy voice from speaking to five classes that day, Miller engaged Rosenberg’s class with excerpts from his newly-published book of poetry, “Cameo Diner.” Students came prepared, having already read Miller’s poetry in class — as part of the event, visiting writers provide work samples ahead of time so students are familiar with them in advance — and requested their favorites to be read.
A professional poet and a Stegner fellow at Stanford, Miller was surprising, both in his football player build and his humility about the writing process.
“I think I’m just gonna say something meaningful and it comes out like awful drivel,” he said, getting sympathetic laughs from the classroom.
Miller’s talk integrated well with what Rosenberg’s students have been working on this year, including creative writing with in-class group critiques, said senior Carrie Chan. His need to achieve distance from his own work to be able to rewrite it struck a chord with the class.
“It made me want to go back and read my own stuff,” Chan said.
Writers Week definitely appeals more to certain students, who are already thinking about careers in writing, than to others, for whom writing an essay on “Macbeth” is about as appealing as going to the dentist.
But for senior Michele Baer, the week fit in perfectly with her senior project topic on memoirs and creative nonfiction. She visited several classes other than her own to hear writers like Phyllis Mattson — a Jew who escaped the Nazis as a young child to come to the U.S., and who recently published a memoir, “War Orphan in San Francisco,” using all the letters she and her parents wrote to each other while they were apart.
Baer is also writing a memoir for her project, so Writers Week gave her a chance to see how different writers go about conveying events from their lives.
“It’s nice because not all writers are the same, they don’t all see things the same way and don’t all want to write personal things,” Baer said.
Writers Week was topped off with an evening visit to the Eagle Theater by Greer, author of “The Confessions of Max Tivoli.” The event, called “Community Read,” was open to students, parents and community members who wanted to hear the San Francisco author talk about what inspired him to write his most recent novel, about a man who ages backwards.
Greenfield was pleased with how the week turned out, and appreciates the relevance of Writers Week for all students, whether they’re headed into technical fields or liberal arts.
“Writing is so important to everything you do today,” Greenfield said.
E-mail Molly Tanenbaum at mtanenbaum
