In the heart of the heart of reading
Ann Colwell - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: 80 Hours
- Page 1 of 1
William Gass wasn't expecting a call last spring saying that he'd been awarded the 2007 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism.
"I usually don't get these kinds of things," he said with a light laugh, clearly pleased. The Capote Award's monetary value is the largest annual cash prize for literary criticism in the English language.
An essayist, novelist, short-story writer, and a professor emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, Gass will accept the prestigious award today at 4 p.m. in the Old Capitol Senate Chamber. The trustees of the Capote estate chose the Iowa Writers' Workshop to administer the award.
His book, A Temple of Texts, was selected by a panel of six international scholars and practicing literary critics. Each judge submits two books from the past four years that he or she finds distinguished. The judges read and rank the books, deciding on the best book of literary criticism for the Capote Award.
"[Gass] is a an enormously deserving candidate, given both his passion for literature and the brilliance of his own writing," said Garrett Stewart, a UI English professor and member of the selection committee.
"I'm sort of seduced by new territories I haven't been in," Gass said in describing why he writes about the subjects he does. "An editor will say, 'Hey, there's a new book out on somebody. Would you write about it?' And I'll say, well, I've never done that; I'll give it a try. Sometimes, they're not just new subjects, but writers who are neglected or sort of out of the public view."
Published in 2006 by Knopf, A Temple of Texts is a collection of 25 essays on various writers that have influenced Gass - such as François Rabelais, Robert Burton, or Elias Canetti - and examines a number of literary works, book reviews, and literary ideas such as the nature of evil. He will present a lecture at the award ceremony on a topic that continues to intrigue him - why we read what we read.
"It's something that I'm interested in as a critic, of course," Gass said. "In a sense, it's the problem of trying to find out why a work of literature is good - what it is that really does it."
And surprisingly, he doesn't believe that a person needs to be anybody special to make these kinds of judgments, saying literary criticism isn't necessarily what college students and readers need to embrace.
"Good readers are people who read carefully and enjoy what they read," he said. "They don't have to be experts or knowledgeable in the field. It's like driving a car. You don't really need to know how it works. It's nice if you want to know, but it's not necessary."
So what exactly does he have planned for that $30,000? Nothing flashy.
"Part of the award money is going to pay for a furnace," he said. "Our furnace failed, and we had to put in a new one. We're also going to take advantage of the trip [to Iowa City] and go to a few places we haven't been before, and drive slowly back to St. Louis."
E-mail DI reporter Ann Colwell at:
ann-colwell@uiowa.edu
"I usually don't get these kinds of things," he said with a light laugh, clearly pleased. The Capote Award's monetary value is the largest annual cash prize for literary criticism in the English language.
An essayist, novelist, short-story writer, and a professor emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, Gass will accept the prestigious award today at 4 p.m. in the Old Capitol Senate Chamber. The trustees of the Capote estate chose the Iowa Writers' Workshop to administer the award.
His book, A Temple of Texts, was selected by a panel of six international scholars and practicing literary critics. Each judge submits two books from the past four years that he or she finds distinguished. The judges read and rank the books, deciding on the best book of literary criticism for the Capote Award.
"[Gass] is a an enormously deserving candidate, given both his passion for literature and the brilliance of his own writing," said Garrett Stewart, a UI English professor and member of the selection committee.
"I'm sort of seduced by new territories I haven't been in," Gass said in describing why he writes about the subjects he does. "An editor will say, 'Hey, there's a new book out on somebody. Would you write about it?' And I'll say, well, I've never done that; I'll give it a try. Sometimes, they're not just new subjects, but writers who are neglected or sort of out of the public view."
Published in 2006 by Knopf, A Temple of Texts is a collection of 25 essays on various writers that have influenced Gass - such as François Rabelais, Robert Burton, or Elias Canetti - and examines a number of literary works, book reviews, and literary ideas such as the nature of evil. He will present a lecture at the award ceremony on a topic that continues to intrigue him - why we read what we read.
"It's something that I'm interested in as a critic, of course," Gass said. "In a sense, it's the problem of trying to find out why a work of literature is good - what it is that really does it."
And surprisingly, he doesn't believe that a person needs to be anybody special to make these kinds of judgments, saying literary criticism isn't necessarily what college students and readers need to embrace.
"Good readers are people who read carefully and enjoy what they read," he said. "They don't have to be experts or knowledgeable in the field. It's like driving a car. You don't really need to know how it works. It's nice if you want to know, but it's not necessary."
So what exactly does he have planned for that $30,000? Nothing flashy.
"Part of the award money is going to pay for a furnace," he said. "Our furnace failed, and we had to put in a new one. We're also going to take advantage of the trip [to Iowa City] and go to a few places we haven't been before, and drive slowly back to St. Louis."
E-mail DI reporter Ann Colwell at:
ann-colwell@uiowa.edu
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