Author and Roosevelt instructor Adam Levin’s was a part of Roosevelt’s Gage Gallery Reading series last week, where authors share their own works and offer advice on writing to Roosevelt students.
Levin discussed his writing styles and methods and read some of his short stories, such as “Frankenwichenstein.”
Levin currently teaches in the MFA program at Roosevelt. He also teaches fiction at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia University.
Originally getting an MA in clinical social work from the University of Chicago, Levin found that being a social worker wasn’t the career path he was destined for.
“I had fun talking and socializing with social workers,” Levin said: “But I had more fun with writers, so that’s the career path I took.”
Levin’s work has appeared in “Tin House,” “McSweeney’s” and “New England Review.”
Scott Blackwood, director of Creative Writing and the MFA Program at Roosevelt, said he chose Levin to speak because his writing expressed a liveliness in it.
“I was impressed with the writing and the energy in it,” Blackwood said: “It is something we’re hoping to mirror in our own program at Roosevelt.”
Levin read a selection from one of his short stories, “Frankenwichenstein,” which is a coming of age story of a Waukegan teenager.
The story encompasses several other stories that all relate to growing up. The story is told from the first person perspective with a very dry and witty sense of humor.
The story also has glimpses of a coming out story, an ear injury story, a broken home story and a story abut an anorexic doll.
Once Levin was done with his reading he discussed his own process to writing and offered pieces of advice to those that attended.
Levin said this short story really started out as an idea that just grew on him.
“This one I actually had an idea…not even a story,” Levin said. “Wasn’t really a story, so it became this thing were all the different narratives and stories came together to create many different things.”
Levin said his writing style is this: he starts off with sentences and lets it grow from there.
“I sit down and start writing sentences and then a story eventually rises,” Levin said. “I get to something that feels real but also something that feels sculptable that I can change around.”
Levin’s first novel will be published later this year and a collection of short stories will be published in 2012.
Be the first to comment on this article!