Life as a writer

Suzan-Lori Parks may not be what you’d expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner. With her laid-back style and sarcastic if good natured-demeanor, Parks more resembles an English graduate student than a nationally recognized playwright.

After her play Topdog/Underdog opened on Broadway in 2001, Parks said the high pressure of the famous New York stage was exciting and fun, but hard work.

“It’s a lot of hard work,” Parks said, “but it’s something where the process is more important than the outcome.”

When people tried to alter her play, Parks said would not go for it. She said one man came on set to suggest some changes to the show-she refused to yield.

“He came in wearing a mink coat, and told me, ‘Oh, I would change this, I would change that.’ Why would I change something I’m working on?” she said. “Just because you’re on Broadway doesn’t mean you have to become one of those people. It’s important to be yourself.”

Topdog/Underdog landed Parks the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2001, making her the first African-American woman to receive the award. Parks came to Portland State Friday morning, giving students insight on writing in its different forms while offering up some of her own experiences in the field.

Writing, Parks said, is all about faith.

“Writing is 98 percent personality management,” Parks said. “It’s all about me, my, your, whoever, getting in the way of the writing.”

“It’s like that scene in Indiana Jones,” she said. “There’s a giant rock rolling towards you and you’ve got to get out of the way. The writing’s already written. Believe in yourself and that you’re on the right track.”

But staying on the right path is only half of the answer, Parks said. Just as important to the writing process is rewriting, which takes its own brand of courage.

“Writing and rewriting are separate. They’re two different things. Writing is like being in a rich forest canopy, and rewriting is like you’re riding a horse in the desert with a huge sword with ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ playing the background as you’re cutting without mercy.”

Among students and community members who attended the lecture, Parks’ visit sparked discussion about their own opinions of writing.

“Rewriting is an outpouring of the unconscious mind, and making something that conforms is the work in it,” said Ralph Cook, a retired Portlander and PSU student who attended Parks’ lecture.

In contrast to her casual manner of speech, Parks’ thematic material, which often deals with typically heavy or controversial subject matter, can come off as surprising.

“She’s great because her plays can be so intense, but she’s a puppy,” said Megan Hefferman, a PSU student. “She’s a very inspiring person.”

“Listening to Parks is enrapturing,” Cook said. “It’s easy to write a short story or a novel and get readers, but why choose a new playwright? A playwright is competing with every playwright in history.”

Parks said that writers should not only continuously write, but also write quickly.

“The naysayers are stuck in a psychological tar pit,” she said. “All those people saying it’s no good, you can’t do it, et cetera, are moving very slowly. Write fast–fast is good. If you write fast you don’t have time to listen to them.”

Parks spoke for a short time about screenwriting, which she is no stranger to, having written screenplays in the past for Spike Lee (1996’s Girl 6) and Oprah (2005’s Their Eyes Were Watching God).

“It’s all writing,” Parks said. “Even if you’re doing work-for-hire, it’s still writing. It still comes from you.”

When asked if her writing changed over the years, Parks laughed. “Thematically, no,” she said. “I’m probably going around in the same circles. Maybe writers only write about one thing-deeply.”

Parks’ talk was a joint venture between Portland State and Literary Arts Downtown, a local literary association that holds local events. Over 100 people were in attendance, according to Peggy Savage, the literary events manager for Portland State’s English department.

“Suzan was such an inspiration to students,” Savage said. “Her sense of humor and her knowledge mingled together so well-it was wonderful. We could have listened to her for hours.”

The event was part of Literary Arts’ Portland Arts & Lectures series, underwritten by the English department at PSU. Parks is the author of several plays, including her Broadway-produced Topdog/Underdog, 365 Days/365 Plays and Venus, and two collections of plays, Red Letter Plays and The America Play and other works. In 2003 she published her first novel, Getting Mother’s Body.