HISTORY A PART OF IMAGINATION
Laura Aylesworth

Royal Purple News, WI
Oct 19 2006

UW-Madison professor and historical writer is the most recent author
to visit campus

Mitchell

"If you’re not a writer and you spend hours and hours in a room
filled with imaginary people – people might think you are a little
weird." This is an serious statement given by UW-Whitewater’s most
recent visiting author, Judith Claire Mitchell.

Mitchell, author of the historical novel "The Last Day of the War,"
associate creative writing professor and director of the MFA Program
at UW-Madison, came to campus on Tuesday, Oct. 10. She first visited
professor Alison Townsend’s current writing scene class to share her
insight on the writing life to eager students.

The novel took her six years to write and publish. It is based upon
her friend’s great-aunt’s letters describing her work as a Young
Mens Clubs of America volunteer in France in 1919, where she met an
Armenian who had lost his family. The story is of a Jewish girl from
St. Louis and an Armenian- American soldier at the end of World War I.

Mitchell had some Armenian friends and was inspired through them
to write a story about the Armenian massacres as well as the YMCA’s
efforts at that time. While researching the book, she noticed there
were no books on the Armenian genocide. After she realized this, she
felt it was important to write a story about this particular moment
in history.

At the Works in Progress Cafe, Mitchell unleashed what could be the
first chapter of a novel she is working on, with the tentative title
"On This Day in History." The novel features three narrators who
were all real people in history, only they are now speaking from the
dead. Mitchell admits that it’s easier to "tell the story from the
dead" because you can pretty much make up anything.

The next guest author, Amaud Johnson, is the assistant creative
writing professor at UW-Madison and author of the book "Red Summer".

Johnson will speak at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in 214 Heide Hall. Johnson
is also scheduled to speak at the Works in Progress Cafe at 4:30 p.m.
at Bassett House located at 708 W. Main St. Jesse Lee Kercheval is
the final guest lecturer and will speak Nov. 14.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress