For Writers Over 50

 I doubt KH will find much to hearten him in 5 Over 50: 2022 from Poets and Writers. He will point out how four of the five are women, and that one does have an MFA degree. I would like to point out how all five kept on writing. They had more faith in their talents than I had in mine. For that alone, I would suggest you read their biographies. Striking closer to home were these remarks from David Santos Donaldson:

I had given up on the idea of getting published in my lifetime. By the time I reached forty, with an awful sinking in my chest I faced a brutal reality: I would never make one of those famous lists of “Writers Under 40.” I’d been haunted by an article I read in which Kazuo Ishiguro said most great novels were written by authors under forty. At first it sounded ridiculous. What about late bloomers like José Saramago and Penelope Fitzgerald? But there were multiple examples to back up Ishiguro’s claim. Sad and somewhat embittered, I began to mourn the artistic life I’d imagined for myself. When I turned fifty, and my latest novel was not picked up by editors, I faced the harshest reality of all: Not only would I probably never write a great novel, but I would also probably never get published.

There is a great teaching from Atisha, the eleventh-century Bengali Buddhist master: Abandon all hope. Initially this seems like accepting defeat. But the wisdom behind this teaching is that once we give up waiting for our fulfillment to happen in the future, we can fully accept what and who we are right now. Ironically I found that writing from that place of acceptance allowed me to write more honestly and urgently and even to face obstacles I may have been putting in my own way on the road to publication.

I came to the same conclusion when, after my arrest, KH suggested it was time for me to get back to writing. What I have written about is what interests me. I have been surprised by having had one acceptance. I have tried writing honestly without worrying about publication. In Mr. Donaldson's remarks I find much to reassure me that I have made good choices.

sch 10/16/22