I recently got an email from a friendly woman at the Russian travel channel, “Teletravel,” asking if she could send me a few questions for the site, which she did. I sent her my answers back, and afterward she let me know when the interview was up. Then, for fun, I ran the site through the Babel Fish translator, just to see what I’d said. This is always amusing. For starters, “Frank Of bures – man, which it is first of all worthwhile to name writer, the secondly – traveller. It much wanders and even more greatly he writes about his adventures so that other people also could feel the taste of road.” I’m sure it sounds, and looks, much better in Russian: “Frank Bures – человек, которого в первую очередь стоит назвать писателем, во вторую – путешественником. Он много странствует и еще больше пишет о своих приключениях, чтобы другие люди тоже могли почувствовать вкус дороги. Frank жил в нескольких странах, прилично говорит на суахили, итальянском и тайском языках, но писать предпочитает на английском. Его рассказы о путешествиях печатали в антологиях, а также….” Read the rest (in Russian) here.
Archive for the Writing Category
From Russia, With Love
Posted in Press, Travel, Writing on June 29, 2010 by frankburesCharles Dickens: First Great Travel Writer?
Posted in Books, Clips, Travel Writers, World Hum, Writing on May 27, 2010 by frankbures
Back when the world wasn’t so known, travel writing wasn’t so much about being entertaining, or about letting the writer’s persona run wild. The point was to describe the world rather than to dance upon its stage. The purpose was to transport people to another part of the world in an edifiying, Victorian kind of way. It was something to make readers who couldn’t see the world become more worldly. It was more education than entertainment or art.
That’s certainly the type of writing I expected when I opened this new compilation of Charles Dickens’ travel writing, which dates from the mid-1800s. But to my surprise, I found something else—something that makes me think Charles Dickens may have been the first great modern travel writer.
Upcoming Class: Narrative Nonfiction
Posted in Teaching, Writing on May 11, 2010 by frankbures
This weekend, I’ll be teaching a couple classes at the Rochester Writers Festival, in Rochester, Minnesota, home to IBM, lots of geese, and a clinic where famous people go when they’re ill (and, no doubt, where they invented that delicious condiment). My class is titled “Writing Narrative Nonfiction: The Power of Stories,” and I’ll talk about why in order to write powerfully in today’s media environment you really need to be able to tell a great story. It’s not on the program yet, but trust me, I’ll be there.
Upcoming Class: Travel Writing on Madeline Island
Posted in Teaching, Travel, Writing on April 16, 2010 by frankbures
This summer, if you want to get out of the house, smell the air of the inland sea and learn how to write about your travels, I’ll be teaching a course at the brand new Madeline Island School, just a few hours drive from the Twin Cities, set in the cool waters of Lake Superior’s southern coast. The school is offering lots of other classes as well, but if you want to learn about turning your journal into an actual story, that’s exactly what we’ll be talking about. Here’s the description: “Narrative travel writing can be one of the most powerful forms of nonfiction writing. This workshop will explore what 
makes a great travel story, what doesn’t, and how you can turn your travels into tales. We will read selections from the Best American Travel Writing 2009, along with other great works of travel literature. We will discuss leads, structure, and the archetype of the journey and touch on the various markets for literary travel writing.” More details here.
Into the Twittersphere
Posted in New Writing, Writing on April 15, 2010 by frankbures
There’s probably no development that has polarized the ranks of writers more than Twitter. Many of the most serious writers and thinkers I know and admire shun it, dismiss it or just don’t get it. Others love it more than their children, and talk about it with a warmth that makes my inner technophobe deeply uncomfortable. Their enthusiasm sometimes feels a little like being invited to visit–just visit!–a kind of Jonestown of the mind.
But for those of us who spend our time trying to hold it together, trying not to be buried under a mountain of information, trying to push back the chaos long enough to get lost in our work–and lost in others’ work–the way we used to, Twitter looks like so much loose snow on a Himalayan ridge. Do we go forward? Or do we just head back down to base camp? Is twitter the most powerful social force known to humanity? Or is it a glorified gossip and time-wasting machine? The new center of gravity or a black hole? Or both?
In his book on Herodotus, Ryszard Kapuściński talks about how as a young man, he found a book on 
Hinduism that contained instructions for how to increase one’s “creative powers” through breathing. After that, he would lie on his floor and try to cultivate “prana” or “vital energy” in his solar plexus, since it was a precious, finite thing not to be wasted.
Kapuściński may have used a little too much prana in his own reporting, but I think he had a point, as studies on attention are starting to show. It turns out we have (so they think) two separate attention systems. One is controlled attention, in which we make ourselves focus on something. The other is a stimulus-driven attention. So the question is whether Twitter (and the internet in general) amplifies or dissipates that creative energy. Do we control it, or does it control us? And as a writer, how do you balance between intake and output, consumption and production? Where, in other words, do you draw your lines?
Obviously, I have more questions than answers, and more ambivalence than enthusiasm. I can’t even decide whether social networks are the new connective tissue of society or a substitute for the real-world social ties we need to feel alive. But on the off chance that Twitter might be more the former than the latter, and in the hope that Twitter has some tangible use that has escaped me, I am treading lightly into the Twittersphere. And even though I don’t know where it’s all going you can follow me there: twitter.com/frankbures.
Upcoming Class: In Profile, the Art of Writing Lives
Posted in Events, Teaching, Writing on March 24, 2010 by frankbures
Do you like people? Or, do you at least like to read about people? And write about people? To find out how they got where they are, and where they might be going? To ask how they’ve succeeded and where they’ve failed? If so (and if you happen to 
be within driving distance of Minneapolis) you may be interested in a class I’ll be offering at The Loft called In Profile, the Art of Writing Lives, on April 17. I’ve profiled writers, senators, brain scientists and Klingon karaoke stars. Everyone has a story. You just have to know how to find it. More info here.
Something To Do With Love
Posted in America, Words to live by, Writers, Writing on October 23, 2009 by frankburesDavid Foster Wallace on Art and Love, via Zadie Smith in Harper’s.
“I’ve gotten convinced that there’s something kind of timelessly vital and sacred about good writing. This thing doesn’t have that much to do with talent, even glittering talent. . . .Talent’s just an instrument. It’s like having a pen that works instead of one that doesn’t. I’m not saying I’m able to work consistently out of the premise, but it seems like the big distinction between good art and so-so art lies somewhere in the art’s heart’s purpose, the agenda of the consciousness behind the text. It’s got something to do with love. With having the discipline to talk out of the part of yourself that can love instead of the part that just wants to be loved.”
Why We Write
Posted in Books, Words to live by, Writing on September 12, 2009 by frankbures
George Orwell from his essay Why I Write
“All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane. I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed.”
Interview: The Oregonian
Posted in Press, Travel, Travel Writers, Writing on August 30, 2009 by frankbures
Not long ago, I got an email from Shawn Donley, who writes a travel column for the Oregonian. He kindly asked if I’d do an interview for his column, and I said of course. But when I asked how he got started with his column, he sent me an article by an Oregonian reporter about his and his wife’s trip recent around the world. It’s a fantastic story and, as you can see from their photos here, will make you want to pack it all in, quit what you’re doing, and head out for the horizon. You can read the interview here, and Shawn’s story here. He’s also got a great blog from their trip, which is something I don’t say lightly.
Summer School
Posted in Teaching, Writing on June 22, 2009 by frankbures
For anyone who wants to sharpen up their storytelling skills, look into the history of New (and newer) Journalism, examine some of the new science on the role of narrative, you might be interested in a class I’m teaching at The Loft in Minneapolis called, The Search for Story: Writing Narrative Nonfiction. The description: “To be a successful nonfiction writer these days, it’s not enough to know how to type, to have a blog, or to be able to put an article together. To write powerfully in today’s media environment, you need to be able to
tell great stories. In this class, we’ll look at the evolution of narrative nonfiction and New Journalism. We’ll review some of the master nonfiction writers and learn how to apply narrative techniques in profiles, travel stories, features, and essays. Advanced or professional writers only. Please submit two writing samples (maximum of 5,000 words per sample) or clips to Loft Education by Friday, June 19 (not postmark deadline). Accepted students notified by July 1.“
