An award-winning author offered Shippensburg University an inside look into her writing process Thursday evening in Old Main Chapel.
Ann Burg began her career as a middle school English teacher and later became an author of several children and young adult books. Her latest book, “Unbound,” is about a girl fleeing slavery in the South just before the Civil War.
Burg said she knew she wanted to be a writer even as a child through visiting the library with her mother. She came up with the idea of creating a “recipe for writing” to pull together facts and experiences which, Burg said, is fiction. Facts have personal stories with them, she said, which is why she found “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank so interesting. Burg could identify with Frank because she also wanted to be a writer, but Frank lived a very different life.
“I believe one of the best ways to heal our broken world may be to recognize and celebrate our shared humanity,” Burg said. “For me, this is done through the power of stories.”
A personal story of Burg’s cousin explained her idea of personal stories behind facts. Burg said this is why she writes historical fiction. Facts such as numbers and dates do not show the emotions that go along with them, Burg said. She strives to create stories that go along with historical events.
To begin writing, Burg thinks of a character and then builds the setting and story around them. She then writes the story that belongs to the character.
While writing her novel “All the Broken Pieces” about the Vietnam War, one of the main characters, Matt, had dark eyes begging her to write his story, she said.
She decided to write this book, as well as “Unbroken,” in free verse.
Burg believed her characters deserved more of a voice and to be able to enter the hearts of her readers. The way for words to enter the heart, Burg said, was through poetry.
“Writers tap into what’s most authentic in the human heart and create connections,” Burg said.
“I liked how [Burg] sees herself as a story teller and the way she empathizes with others,” SU senior Codey Fickes said.
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