They offered me money and a fellowship. Two years, not having to work, just going to school. That's where I wrote my first collection of stories. BU: Nathan Englander is a good friend of mine.
The teachers were great, Denis Johnson and Thom Jones, who I think are both incredible writers and great people. They came to visit and just the exposure to people like that is a really good thing. There were lots of good writers. It's an interesting place. It's not such a great place because it's a great place but because everybody who goes there is good. It's like Harvard, the people that go there are the best people.
So there you go. That's what's great about it, the people you are with. RB: It's an interesting nexus, especially in the light of the burgeoning of writing programs. Some people think that's a scourge and some see it as a necessity.
BU: I'm not sure what it is. All I know is that there are a lot more people who have the time and the means to write. The problem is that there are a lot more qualified people vying for a few spots and it's becoming harder for the gate-keepers to recognize who is the real thing and who is not.
There is a difference between talent and a polished prose style. RB: When I talked to David Shields , he hadn't thought to put that he was an Iowa graduate on his book dust jacket bio.
BU: I asked them not to put it on my book and they didn't here. And the publisher got very angry with me, "Oh, why wouldn't you want that? Just about everybody can say that these days laughs. RB: David Shields, if I understood him correctly, was disappointed that there was a greater concern with getting published than on writing and experimenting.
And when I talked to Conroy he was interested in knocking down the claim that here was an Iowa aesthetic. BU: Frank's right. There isn't enough time. People are there for two years and they come from varied walks of life, cultures and so they can't be. It's true also that the people that go there take a look around and say, "Well, this person did it. This is what they are writing and how they are writing. When I was there—Chris Adrian, Nathan Englander—there were all kinds of different writers, writing in different ways, writing from different styles, vastly different.
RB: The story goes that you never forgot your experience playing a football game at an Indian reservation school and that incident was the basis for The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint.
How long did you carry this idea around with you before you put it down on paper? BU: I'm not an extremely smart person, but I know good material when I see it. I knew it even then, I think. I knew that it was an exceptional place and that most people didn't know anything about it. I thought, well, if nobody knows about it, I'll be the one to write about it. I don't think I thought of it in those kind of explicit terms. But it was in my mind and I figured if I ever write a novel, this will be part of it.
So I guess in a way I always did know it from that time. BU: Yeah, I take nothing for granted. I never really conceived of leading a life as a writer. I thought maybe I could publish a few things here and there and then do something else. I had teachers who didn't publish very much and who expressed to us often and early how difficult it was.
So, I had no expectations. BU: It happened the way a lot of it happens these days. I was in my first year in grad school and an editor [Carol Houck Smith] noticed a few stories and she called and asked me to send a couple more and then she made a two book offer. I had written all of five stories. They said, "We want to do a two-book offer, do you have a novel or an idea for a novel? It's sort of ridiculous, really, and that's the way it's done these days.
BU: In a large way it has changed. The reason is—how do I put this? And that's a bad thing, I think. BU: Maybe, maybe not. Even with my editor, I've noticed—I don't think I'm revealing anything that I shouldn't—when push comes to shove, she works for Norton. She doesn't work for me. The agent works for me. It used to be the editors had the power to say, "I'm staying with this guy.
I don't care if his book didn't sell well. A few others might have that power, but it's largely a group enterprise when it comes to a [publishing] house deciding on a book. BU: Yeah, it's been optioned. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read.
Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Whitt Burnett Editor ,. Martha Foley Editor ,. Aryeh Lev Stollman. Quotes by Brady Udall. Thematically it has been compared to Charles Dickens. Currently, Udall continues working as a freelance writer, living in Boise, Idaho.
Udall is a member of the Udall family, a U. Its role in politics spans over years and four generations and includes his great-uncles former U. Udall is married. The couple has one child, Finn, and lives in Boise, Idaho. Looking for a job? Back to Profile. Something that takes little or no skill. Who was the best teacher you ever had and why? My high school English teacher, Mr Wing.
He was an old hippie who believed that anything and everything was possible. Then someone broke the news to me that he told everybody in class the same thing. Wing told me it was possible. What is the worst job you ever had?
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