Telling Time: Angels, Ancestors, And Stories

by Nancy Willard

In thirteen essays, Willard explores the possibilities created when pen is put to paper. An invaluable book for those who participate in the writing process, as well as those who enjoy the end result. "Willard's perspective on the relationship between writing and personal experience is uniquely enlightening and affirmative" (Robert Pack, Director, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference).

Genres: Essays, Writing, Nonfiction

267 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 1993

About the author

NANCY WILLARD was an award-winning children's author, poet, and essayist who received the Newbery Medal in 1982 for A Visit to William Blake's Inn. She wrote dozens of volumes of children's fiction and poetry, including The Flying Bed, Sweep Dreams, and Cinderella's Dress. She also authored two novels for adults, Things Invisible to See and Sister Water, and twelve books of poetry, including Swimming Lessons: New and Selected Poems. She lived with her husband, photographer Eric Lindbloom, and taught at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Reviews

[lakin · Rating 5 out of 5]

i knew nothing about nancy willard when i picked up this book at a used bookshop. the title caught me right away and i am SO THRILLED to know of her storytelling world. what a magical, creative writer.

[Renee B]

One of my all time favorites.

[Richard L. M. Byers · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and helpful writing structure and technique.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The books that I live with are not a static collection. I try not to hang on to books forever. If I kept every book that I liked, there wouldn't be room for my husband in our house. I try to purge my library on a regular basis.

However, there are always some books that get to my bookcases and sit for years without me opening them at all. These are often books that I "rescue" from my library's book sales. I buy them in hope that having them in my house will make it more likely that I will read them. I will always be an optimist when it comes to reading. Somehow I am convinced that I can read everything that I appeals to me before the end of my life.

So before I went to San Diego for the holidays, I picked up two books that I had been planning to read. I promptly left one of them in the Dulles airport. (I hope it found a new owner.) This collection of essays made it on the plane with me. Thank goodness.

This book is amazing. I loved Willard's way with words in Things Invisible to See and I had recently reread her selected poetry in Water Walker. Neither of them prepared me for Telling Time. Willard, in these essays tells the truth with a capital T.

A teacher once helped me understand that things that are true are not always fact. Sometimes, stories, myths, folk tales tell more truth than the New York Times. Stories tell us about how we are as people, how community works. True things that we humans need to know. True things that have been true for a very long time.

Willard showed me some of these true things through her essays. I found her essay on children's books and the essay titled "Close Encounters of the Story Kind" especially powerful. However, there were sentences in almost every essay that stopped me dead in my tracks.

I recommend this book to anyone for whom reading or writing is a passion. Writers may find the essay, "The Skin on What We've Said" helpful. Readers will learn some things about life, books and how family stories are created and kept.

I picked this book up in hopes that I could read it and then give it back to the library book sale. After reading it, I am putting it back on my shelf to be treasured for a bit longer. I had no idea what truth was sitting on my shelf. I love this book too much to let go.