Author Megan Mayhew Bergman speaks about creative writing
Author Megan Mayhew Bergman gawked at the sight of Sanborn library, exclaiming she wanted to pinch herself before beginning a reading of a recent short storyThursdayafternoon. Students, faculty and community members listened attentively as Bergman shared the story of a female heiress, Joe, who purchased an island after getting PTSD driving ambulances during World War I.
English professor Catherine Tu isdish introduced Bergman, describing her discovery of the author’s work. After walking into Howe Library, a librarian pressed Bergman’s work into her hands and said she needed to read it.
Prior to the reading, which was the final installment of the English department’s summer poetry and prose series, Bergman revealed that while most of her stories focus on the inherent wildness in all of us, her most recent story collection follows women who live outside the boundaries.
“This is my lesbian story,” Bergman laughed. “Agents always want writers to stay within neat and clean boundaries but my new obsession is women with alternate forms of being.”
After an engaging reading, described by students as intoxicating and powerful, Bergman said she can only get inside a story when she can empathize with a character.
When questioned why the main character Joe was so masculine, Bergman replied that she wanted to convey the traditional power and authority of masculinity while building an island specifically for the reader.
“Joe had a lot of swagger — there’s no other way to say it,” she said.
“Writers cultivate a series of obsessions,” she said. “My writing often comes from something I can’t leave alone.”
Bergman’s first book, “Birds of a Lesser Paradise,” has earned praise from Publisher’s Weekly and The New York Times, which Tudish quoted during her glowing introduction.
“We want stories to stir our desires,” Tudish quoted from the review. “We also want them to lead us to places we don’t recognize and build us a temporary residence there.”