Bruce Conforth Extra Credit

Bruce Conforth Extra Credit

Danny Ziegelman

November 22, 2015

Last week, I attended a Q and A with Bruce Conforth, a Professor of the Blues who  teaches American Culture with an emphasis on folklore, blues and popular culture at the University of Michigan.  During the Q and A he was asked a range of questions about his writing and his writing style.  He was asked what his earliest memory of writing was and he responded with a  very distinct answer.  He would write in little address books as advertisement campaigns during the holiday time and would write novels in them (7-8 years old) writing stories in them.  Having a Ethnomusicology degree, he discussed the connection between music and writing and “When they’re working, they're both performances.  When I’m playing my best guitar, I forget that I’m playing and it is like the guitar is playing me.  The same goes for writing.”  That is extremely impressive.  He also discussed his process for writing.  He starts off as a mess with pages everywhere.   Needs to feel physically involved, needs to feel consumed and exhausted from the energy and tension that is created in the process of that performance.  He claims that he tends to work better early in the morning or late at night, but doesn't have a ritual exactly.  When asked about how he feels writing is, he said, “Writing should be about telling your story.  This is your chance to tell someone who you are.”  When he reads a students paper he said, “They should make me forget that Im reading.  Somehow they must absorb me into the now existing world they have created for me.