In an unassuming house on Clouser Avenue in Orlando, Jack Kerouac lived with his mother while awaiting the release of
On the Road. Following the book's overwhelming success, Kerouac spent several weeks celebrating in New York City, but finding little satisfaction in the celebrity gained by success, he returned to Orlando.
There, as he had for
On the Road, he began to write Dharma Bums on ten-foot lengths of teletype paper to prevent his flow of inspiration from being interrupted by changing paper in the typewriter. In a writing marathon of a dozen days, the manuscript was completed.
The Jack Kerouac Writers in Residence Project of Orlando, Inc., is a tax-exempt organization that maintains the house, and offers four three-month residencies to authors selected from those who apply for the grant. To read more, check out the website:
www.kerouacproject.org.
On May 16th, the author who recently completed her residency, Kimberly Elkins, gave her workshop entitled
How to Use Truth, History, and Research in Fiction and Memoir. Elkins' writings have appeared in
The Atlantic Monthly, Glamour, and The Village Voice, among others. Her credits are heady, including three plays produced in New York City, and a screenplay optioned. Her current project is a novel,
What is Visible, which began life as a short story for The Atlantic Online. The book is an imagining of life from the viewpoint of Laura Bridgman, the first blind and deaf person to learn language. Her story has been largely overshadowed by Helen Keller's years later. Elkins writes with an amazing ability to step into Laura Bridgman's body and feel her way into the girl's world. Having read the short story, I can't wait for the book to be published.
On the Road, might make a good bumper sticker for my car as I head out to the next workshop of my choice. Let's see . . . where's that list of events for writers?