Finding what is ordinary in life is not hard, but presenting it in a way that makes readers interested is what is most important, New Yorker magazine staff writer Susan Orlean told more than 100 students, faculty and community members who attended her speech Thursday night.
Orlean’s speech, “Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary: Writing About Everyday Life,” focused on her writing life and the misconception that celebrities are the only interesting people in the world.
Orlean is the 2001 Johnson Lecturer, a program sponsored by the School of Journalism and Communication that funds an annual speech.
“I’m particularly interested in the tiny master; the tiny domain where the person is the master,” she said. “Quite often I’m interested in writing about people who are well-known, but not in the same parameter as celebrities.”
Orlean said she began her writing career focusing more on writing about celebrities than the “ordinary” people of the world. After interviewing Tom Hanks for a story, she realized that she was not interested in writing about those who are well-known.
“This was my first moment of saying there is something seductive and fun in writing about celebrities,” she said. Nevertheless, she said, people who are in the shadows are those who interest her the most, and she believes it’s important for her to use her gift to write about the unknown people of the world.
“Doing work you care about is an incredible privilege,” she said. “That’s a rare opportunity.”
Journalism professor Lauren Kessler said Orlean possesses a curiosity about the world that lends well to her writing and makes the reader to want to read more.
“Susan Orlean is a mistress of the impossible lead,” she said. “You read the first sentence and you have to read on.”
Tim Gleason, dean of the school of journalism, said Orlean is an important speaker to the students interested in her field.
“She is very much a natural fit for our students in literary nonfiction and magazine writing,” he said. “It’s a rare opportunity for students and faculty to interact with a writer of her caliber.”
Orlean said writing in her field is not easy.
“It’s not always easy to convince an editor to run a story about nothing,” she said. “[And] it’s not always easy to people who are not used to being written about.”
Orlean spoke of an instance in which she was asked to write about Macaulay Culkin, but instead chose to write about a 10-year-old boy who was considered ordinary by society’s standards. She had a problem in the end, because the child had become so enamored with her that he was upset when she was done with the story. But, she said, writers cannot become attached to those they write about and should never show their stories to their subjects before they are published, because then people may doubt that the writer is objective.
Orlean said she has a passion for her stories and tries to show that to those who read her work.
“All I can bring to it is a passion of my own and say this is really an incredible story,” she said.