Dillard's Readings on National Public Radio

Annie Dillard featured on National Public Radio!


Tale of Bohemian Love by the Sea

This radio interview is Dillard discussing some of her style techniques, specifically for her novel, "The Maytrees".  She talks about concision and how she often tries to replace a two-syllable word for a one-syllable word to get the effect she desires.  She has learned to take out everything other than the meaning she wants to display.  In other words she wants her writing to be "clean as a whistle".   As far as techniques for writing, she says to slow down and think.  "A story should be simplified and enlarged".

In this interview, Dillard also admits that she can not write anymore.  In her aging, she can no longer write with her fingers.  She also feels that as a writer, "The Maytrees" was her "great story", and she can not top it.  It also took her ten years to write, and "nearly killed" her.

The Maytrees

This passage is from Annie Dillard's novel "The Maytrees".  In this reading Dillard's nature theme is prevalent.  However, through her descriptions of nature, a deeper thought is usually located just as in this passage.  Dillard ends with the description of a "wad of air" which is very characteristic of her.  She often uses uncharacteristic descriptive phrases such as "wad of" to create fantastic imagery.


Dots in Blue Water

In this essay, Annie Dillard discusses the Tsunami that hit Bangladesh on April 30, 1991 killing over 138,000 people.  She opens with a conversation with her young daughter, who says that it is easy to imagine this tragedy if you think about the people as "blue dots".  Dillard plays with this idea discussing the fact that people neglect the idea of starving people in Haiti when they are scarfing down a meal.  The people are just blue dots.  However she comes to the conclusion that despite this, people ultimately try to save the blue dots whether they can see them or not.  In Dillard's typical style, she takes a moment and comes away with revelations and life lessons.


Dillard Quote:
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” 
― Annie Dillard