Andrew Krueger referred to the visit from Kristi Heim and Kathleen Triesch Saul as an "insightful dialogue," which I thought it was and I hope the rest of you agree. We covered a lot of ground that night on reporting, writing, editing and many things related. Hope you found it valuable.And thanks, of course, to Kristi and Kathy (if you're looking in on us) for taking the time to prepare and to visit us.
Mary mentioned another article that appeared in the Pacific Northwest magazine recently about knife sharpening, and on the way home that night, Kathy said, "You know, that's an informed personal essay as well."
So I went back and looked at the article by Matthew Amster-Burton and found it an excellent example of how personal experience and research can blend together to entertain and inform.
I learned something about knives, how to sharpen them, how much it costs to have someone sharpen them for me, a good shop for knife sharpening and a web forum where I can learn more -- all wrapped into Matthew's sometimes bloody experience with honing an edge.
The piece is 957 words -- not much longer than your 700-word assignment.
"Writing is learned by imitation," says Zinsser in Chapter 6. This would not be a bad piece to imitate.
Tim Egan -- Seattle native, New York Times columnist, and author of several nonfiction books -- was recently interviewed in a local online journal. Not related to personal essays, per se, but I found it interesting. You can find the interview at:
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