PageTurners, Winter 2012

This was the first time in the history of the SOJC’s PageTurners course that a work of fiction was studied. “I chose the book for the class because I admired the way that Ervin wrote the three linked novellas,” says Laufer. “For journalists and nonfiction writers there's a lot to learn from him and his book about how to take literary devices that are traditionally fiction devices and adapt them to non-fiction work we do as journalists, in order to provide the same kind of drama, attention to detail and character development.”

While a guest of the SOJC, Ervin gave a book reading and signing at Knight Library. The event was part of the annual PageTurners class, a hands-on story development workshop that focuses on diversity. This year’s two-credit class, taught by Laufer and held Feb. 18-19, helped students learn what devices of fiction are best adapted for use in journalism. Class size was kept small to enable students to work directly with Ervin.

Ervin spoke candidly about his writing and research process with students. When Laufer told him the students in the class were mostly journalism majors, Ervin admitted that he found fiction easier to write than nonfiction because “I can make it up.”

“There's a kind of truth that fiction can speak to for sure,” he continued. “I can encapsulate an entire decade in two days of time in a novella as I've done (in Extraordinary Renditions) but I find nonfiction incredibly daunting. I'm not sure I want to do that.”

Some students took issue with Ervin's writing from the point of view of an elderly man, an African-American man and a young woman, since he himself is none of these.

“Research for me isn't a matter of simply going and reading what great journalists have written about a topic. Reading about a subject is only going to do so much,” said Ervin. “Going and meeting people is only going to do so much. I immerse myself in characterization from the inside, where character is formed from the center of their being outward, not from outward appearances inward, and I get to live within their skin for a little while. That's part of the point of writing about three characters that are so completely different from myself outwardly. Put yourself in the character, not someone outside watching.”

Laufer appreciates his approach to creating diverse characters. “I think that it's quite empowering to hear him state that he rejects the idea of being in any way cordoned off from the opportunity to investigate, create and give voice to characters that are completely out of his own milieu,” said Laufer. “It is an ideal book for expanding our understanding of what a diverse culture we live in.”

Students also asked Ervin about his somewhat gratuitous use of profanity in the book. “There are no colors in a palette off limits to a painter,” he said in explanation. “There's nothing more restricting than language itself. We are limited by what we can imagine and we can only imagine that what our vocabularies allow us to.”

First-year communication and society master's student Maiko Nakai said the class exceeded her expectations. “The class…gave me the opportunity to learn beyond what a lecture or textbook can offer,” she said. “I was grateful for the wonderful and rare opportunity to meet the author of a book and work closely with him both in-class and outside classroom settings.” Nakai emailed Ervin a few days before the class with some of her questions, and he responded. Subsequently, Ervin's publisher, Coffee House Press, added their Q&A to its website.

Post-baccalaureate student Melissa Haskin had questions of her own. “Between sessions I had the chance to ask a question about the book that had really been bothering me,” she said. She asked Ervin about a graphic image in the book of a pregnant cat being put into a blender. “He explained to me that the quickest way to get to a reader's emotions is by putting young in danger. I'm glad that I was able to hear his reasoning.” 

“I loved the fact that we were able to interact with Ervin as much as we did,” said junior Journalism major Lauren Karell. “It was an incredible experience. Ervin was able to open our eyes to different aspects of the book and share with us some amazing stories that helped my understanding of the characters.”

“In the class we focused on telling stories in an interesting way,” Karell added. “Ervin had some really interesting tips that I was able to incorporate into my writing for a few other classes this term.”

“We're also writing for that part of ourselves we see in the people that we love the most, the people that we're most connected to,” Ervin said. “There's some reason for those relationships and we write to those connections as well. If, like ripples on a pond, those connections spread further and connect more people, that's wonderful…For me, that's why I write. I write to amuse myself. I write because there are stories that I want to read that no one else has written.”