In 1993, she was invited to recite her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration, making her the first poet since 1961 to deliver an inaugural recitation. Writing Advice From The World’s Most Famous AuthorsMaya Angelou was one of America’s most beloved and celebrated poets and authors, with dozens of awards and over 50 honorary degrees attesting to her inspirational role at the center of American life.John Grisham’s 8 Do’s And Don’ts For Popular Fiction.TIP: If you want help writing a book, buy The Novel Writing Exercises Workbook. It might take me two or three weeks just to describe what I’m seeing now.” But I would continue to play with it and pull at it and say, I love you. When I would end up writing after four hours or five hours in my room, it might sound like, It was a rat that sat on a mat. Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. Of course, there are those critics-New York critics as a rule-who say, Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it’s good but then she’s a natural writer. It must look easy, but it takes me forever to get it to look so easy. I try to pull the language in to such a sharpness that it jumps off the page. Nathaniel Hawthorne says, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” If you pull it, it says, OK.” I remember that and I start to write.
And I’ll remember how beautiful, how pliable the language is, how it will lend itself. I’ll read something, maybe the Psalms, maybe, again, something from Mr. I just want to feel and then when I start to work I’ll remember. I go into the room and I feel as if all my beliefs are suspended.
I insist that all things are taken off the walls. But I only allow them to come in and empty wastebaskets. Sometimes in hotels I’ll go into the room and there’ll be a note on the floor which says, Dear Miss Angelou, let us change the sheets. I stay until twelve-thirty or one-thirty in the afternoon, and then I go home and try to breathe I look at the work around five I have an orderly dinner-proper, quiet, lovely dinner and then I go back to work the next morning. I never allow the hotel people to change the bed, because I never sleep there. To write, I lie across the bed, so that this elbow is absolutely encrusted at the end, just so rough with callouses. I rent a hotel room for a few months, leave my home at six, and try to be at work by six-thirty. “I have kept a hotel room in every town I’ve ever lived in. In an interview with George Plimpton in The Paris Review, she described her writing process: The first in the series, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , brought her international recognition and acclaim. She was best known for memoirs, which focused on her childhood and early adult experiences. In 2010, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the U.S., by President Barack Obama. Her career spanned more than 50 years and she received many awards and more than 30 honorary doctoral degrees. In 2000, Angelou was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton. Maya Angelou was an American author and poet who published six memoirs, five books of essays, and several books of poetry. Writers Write is a resource for writers and this post is about American author, Maya Angelou’s writing process.