Coming late to the writing life
What if it was all leading here?
I called my last newsletter “Full Circle Moments” but I think the fullest circle moment might be the one that’s still coming: On November 17, I’ll be presenting Still True at Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis. My conversation partner will be Frank Bures—the man who started my writing career 17 years ago.
Seventeen years ago, by the way, I was already 30 years old; married, with a first grader at school and a baby on my hip. I’d parlayed my liberal arts history degree into a decade-long stint selling coupon advertising. I’d never written anything for publication—had never even considered writing anything for publication—when a continuing studies brochure caught my eye in the waiting room at the doctor’s office.
It was a $19, two-night course called “Introduction to Freelance Writing.” Not only had I never heard of freelance writing—(I guess I thought “real writers” were either over-caffeinated journalists in bustling news rooms or patch-elbowed professors ensconced in a distant ivy-covered fortresses)—but I had no idea that the instructor, Frank Bures, was (and still is) one of the best to ever do it.
I showed up to class on a frigid Wednesday night in February 2006 and from the moment Frank started talking, I could hardly hear him over the celebratory orchestra in my brain. He gave us an assignment for our next (and last) class: Write a practice pitch letter to an editor. Instead, I got home at 9:30 p.m., set up a Yahoo Small Business website and ordered business cards that said “Maggie Ginsberg, freelance writer.” In the morning, I called the Mount Horeb Mail Newspaper and asked if I could write something for free. Long story short—some of which has already been told here and here, I showed up to Frank’s final class a week later not with a pitch letter, but with a published clip. Wide-eyed, Frank helped me pitch Madison Magazine next—he was their star freelancer, so they listened, but they wanted to see more of my previously published work (which of course did not yet exist). I called the newspaper back, got another assignment, yanked it hot from the presses to make a photocopy at the bank across the street, stuffed it in an envelope with last week’s article and my newly arrived business cards, and sent it off to Madison Magazine with a note that said, “Just a couple of my latest clips.”
I was all in. Two weeks after Googling “How to Write a Newspaper Article,” the Mount Horeb Mail made me a staff writer. I’d never been happier, never more sure I was finally doing what I’d been meant to do all along. For an entire year, I researched, interviewed, photographed and wrote two articles a week, a tremendous education. Three months into that gig, I wrote an article that would garner a Wisconsin Newspaper Association award. I also published my first magazine feature (not yet for Madison Magazine, where I’m now a senior editor on staff) for the long-ago-shuttered Wisconsin Trails Magazine. It was about a local, rural man who’d raced the Iditarod. When I sat down to write, I emailed Frank for advice—he made suggestions that entirely reworked my lede into something more crackling, vibrant and evocative, more reflective of the story’s content, and more like what he’s made an impressive living doing. That article also won an award—Gold—from the International Regional Magazine Association. I felt like I was off to the races myself, in so many ways.
But what did any of this have to do with writing fiction? Nothing, I honestly thought. Similar to my ignorance about freelance journalism, for the next 11 years I admired but dismissed fiction writing as something entirely outside my wheelhouse. Novels have always been my favorite thing to read, but I had never written so much as a short story before I wrote the first draft of Still True in 2017—a tale for another day. Suffice it to say, the leap into fiction came as the result of yet another “eureka moment” delivered by another set of writing teachers, but I certainly never imagined that I would not only publish a novel, but that I’d also be presenting that novel at a legendary independent bookstore in Minneapolis with one of its equally legendary writers.
Looking back through a nearly two-decade long lens, I can’t help but wonder if it was all leading here all along. The type of creative narrative nonfiction that Frank has mastered is so different from the inverted pyramid of who-what-where-when-why journalism I googled almost 18 years ago. Don’t get me wrong, that journalism is critical to our functional society and I would be lost without the hardworking newspaper reporters I admire—but I have always been more drawn to the style of magazine storytelling that makes nonfiction read like a thriller novel or gutting memoir. I’m grateful for the nuanced human interactions I’ve been paid to understand and the exposure I’ve had to the countless ways in which our real lives rival anything I could ever make up. These things—it being my job to listen to people without judgment so I can explain them back to you—have given me a way of being in the world, and fiction has expanded that world for me even more.
I don’t know why it took me so long to get to this place but it kind of feels like I’ve been here all along.
If you’re in Minneapolis on Thursday, please join us at Magers & Quinn. For more upcoming events, read on! Until then, read everything Frank Bures has ever written—starting with his latest newsletter.
Upcoming Events
Spring Green, Wisconsin / Sunday, Nov. 13 at 1:00 p.m. / Arcadia Books
If you know, you know: Arcadia Books in Spring Green is an absolute treasure. It not only looks like something straight out of a charming small town movie set, it’s also richly curated and staffed by thoughtful literary citizens. Co-manager Todd, who has already read 80 books this year, wrote this on the little Hey! cards inserted into some books: A kind and tender narrative that speaks true for every character, no matter how settled or flawed their lives are. An easy story to fall in love with, and one of my favorite titles for 2022! He also insisted I read another local author’s book while I was standing there signing stock. What would we do without independent booksellers recommending and hand-selling our work? For those of us who aren’t Stephen King, it can be a tremendous game-changer. I’ll be hanging out at Arcadia between 1pm and 2pm this Sunday to chat and sign books, please come visit us!
Minneapolis, Minnesota / Thursday, Nov. 17 at 7:00 p.m. / Magers & Quinn
Magers & Quinn is one of the largest independent bookstores in the Midwest. It’s on Hennepin Avenue in Uptown and it’s got a zillion and one new, used, rare and unusual and discounted books of all kinds. I’ve stopped in on nearly every visit to Minneapolis over the years so I still can’t quite believe that I’ve got an event there. I’ll be in conversation with Frank Bures, who is part of a strong and vibrant Twin Cities literary community and I’m stoked I get to be an honorary member for the night. The event is free but registration is required. Hope to see you there!
La Crosse, Wisconsin and La Crescent, Minnesota: Special Double-Header Event
La Crosse, Wisconsin / Friday, Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. / Pearl Street Books
La Crescent, Minnesota / Saturday, Nov. 19 at 10:30 a.m. / La Crescent Community Center
This is going to be so fun! The fine folks at Pearl Street Books and La Crescent Public Library have teamed up to co-sponsor a super fun La Crosse-area weekend. First, on Friday night, I’ll be in conversation with writer and La Crescent Public Library Director Jess Witkins at Pearl Street Books—another absolute gem of an independent bookstore in the heart of the Driftless Region in downtown La Crosse. We’ll do a reading, Q&A and signing. Then, in the morning, we’ll head across the river to the La Crescent Community Center for a morning writing workshop on how to use your characters’ emotional arcs to drive plot, thanks to the generosity of the La Crescent Public Library. We’d love to see you for either or both events!
There are more events to come in December. Please visit my website for a full and regularly updated listing!
In the News
Back in October, I enjoyed a thoughtful, hour-long interview with Madison’s poet laureate, Angela Trudell Vasquez, on the WORT radio show, “Madison Bookbeat.” It’s a fantastic show started by historian Stu Levitan that now has a rotating set of hosts taking real time with authors every Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. We really got into things—check out this and all of the other episodes in the archives, it’s such a rich resource for anyone who loves writers and writing.
I’ve also recorded two other interviews that will be airing soon, so please check back.
More Thank You/Pinch Me Moments
Friends, I am having a ball. I’m so grateful for the warm welcomes I’m receiving in public and private ways, from heartfelt messages to bookseller love to invitations for book groups, college classrooms and civic organizations. Since my last newsletter, I’ve had readings at Kismet Books and Daydream Believer bookstore; the Wisconsin Book Festival (that recording is now available online); the Black Earth Public Library’s Local Author Fair; a luncheon presentation to the Lake Mills Rotary; a visit to an amazing book group made up of multigenerational men (several of whom are combat veterans); and a visit to a Lawrence University creative writing classroom where the students are actually studying my book (!). A lot of this goes undocumented but I do try to post some things on Facebook and mostly on Instagram. It’s still wild to me that people are reading this book, full stop. If you are one of them, thank you.
It reads and sounds more like Coming Just in Time to the Writing Life.
You absolutely created all of this. Coming home after that first class with Frank and setting up a website and ordering business cards -- who does that? Someone dreaming it real, that's who.