May 8, 2002
Curtis goes from body panels to best seller books
Award-winning author shares life story with local students
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
"People think you have to be a genius to write books, but you don't have to be a genius. I became an author through practice."
Award-winning author Christopher Paul Curtis held forth on writing, his life and the power of perseverance Thursday afternoon for hundreds of sixth-grade students from Traverse City Area Public Schools. That evening, he spoke to more than 100 people at the Traverse Area District Library and read excerpts from "Bud, Not Buddy." His appearances were part of the library's Live at the Library Series.
At both talks, Curtis dazzled his audiences with humor, humility and flair for storytelling. He discussed the writing, characters and plots of his two most famous books, "Bud, Not Buddy" and "The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963."
He also told his listeners to follow their dreams, because they could take you anywhere.
"These two books have made such a difference in my life because I followed a dream, my dream and my wife's dream," Curtis said. "Now I write and travel the country to talk about writing all because I followed a dream."
For the 32 sixth-grade students at Bertha Vos Elementary School who listened to Curtis Thursday afternoon, it was a chance to hear an author they had studied closely. Teacher Lavern Wolfgram said his students read Curtis' work last fall as part of a realistic fiction section. The students were so inspired that they wrote and produced plays based on Curtis' books, presenting them to the school and their parents.
"The kids were very excited to see him," Wolfgram said. "His work is funny but serious and has a common everyday kind of message; it is realism at its best. I think that's why the kids like it so much, they can really relate to the text."
Curtis described his beginnings as a writer, penning stories on breaks from hanging doors on 300 cars a day at the Fisher Body plant in Flint. Despite teasing from co-workers and having no clear goal in mind, he continued because writing made the time pass quickly. For half of each hour of his ten-hour day, he could forget about the factory and lose himself in words.
Curtis found this immersion integral to his development as a writer.
"I wasn't writing fiction at the time," he recalled. "But the writing gave me discipline and taught me to edit and move things around."
"It is really important not what you write but that you sit down and write."
This discipline, plus a giant dose of dreaming and perseverance, made Curtis a celebrated author, with Newbery and Coretta Scott King Awards to his credit. He acknowledged that this is quite a feat for a self-described unenthusiastic high school student who had never once considered a writing career.
"When I was a child I wanted to be a football player, a basketball player or a lawyer," he said. "I never thought to be a writer because I didn't think it was a real job. Even today, when my daughter is asked what her dad does for a living, she says, 'Nothing.' "
Curtis graduated from high school in the early 1970s. He followed the big money available in auto factories, which then paid the equivalent of $30-35 an hour to someone with a high school education. Over his mother's objections, he started factory work with a vague intention of staying just a short time to save for college.
Going from a $5 a week allowance to a weekly salary of hundreds of dollars, Curtis said he quickly discovered what money meant: an eight-track player, big speakers, a brand new Camero and his own apartment. College plans vanished and Curtis stayed 13 years in the factory.
"I dug myself in deeper and deeper and stayed longer and longer," Curtis noted.
While he did eventually complete a degree - from the University of Michigan, Flint, in 1996 - he spent years working a variety of jobs while writing on the side. His wife, Kay, however, saw great potential in his work, including many eloquent love letters he sent her during their long courtship. She offered him a year off to pursue writing, so Curtis quit his job at a warehouse in Windsor and began working seriously.
Curtis spent his mornings that year in the Children's section of the Windsor Public Library, churning out in longhand "The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963." Published in 1996, the book put him on the map in literary circles and launched a new career.
"I really have fun writing," Curtis said. "I just laugh and have a good time. You just start with a little seed and develop a story from that."