Ok. So you’ve heard of wordsmiths before. Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner are those wordsmiths who have made their way around the world. But let’s be honest. Those writers have all received plenty of credit…where it is due. Here are some more modern wordsmiths who—gasp!—are actually still alive. If you want to breathe fresh life into your prose try reading these innovative wordsmiths for inspiration.
Annie Proulx
Have you had the pleasure to read “Barkskins,” and if not, why not? As a wordsmith of the woods, you know I have. Pulitzer prize winning author, Annie Proulx, wrote the novel in 2016. The book itself is a wordsmith’s masterpiece.
You’ve got lines like “the moon, a blood-streaked egg yolk rolling in the shell of sky,” and “Inside Duquet something like a tightly closed pine cone licked by fire opened abruptly and he exploded with incensed and uncontrollable fury, a life’s pent-up rage.”
After all, this is a book about a bunch of immigrant woodcutters aka barkskins. It is their story, over a span of 300 years, of coming to New France, which was a broad swath of land that stretched across Canada and the US from Quebec to New Orleans and as far west as the borders of the Dakotas. This is the former home to ancient civilizations that were far more respectful to the bark they skinned. Highly recommend this one and the picturesque prose of Proulx.
David Mitchell
Here we have David Mitchell. Start with “Black Swan Green” and continue right on through to “The Bone Clocks” and “Slade House.” All are written by David Stephen Mitchell, the author from Southport, Lancashire, England, who is not to be confused with David James Stuart Mitchell, the comedian from Salisbury, United Kingdom. Or maybe you’ve seen one of the film adaptations of Mitchell’s works, Cloud Atlas starring Halle Berry and Tom Hanks.
As you can guess, “Black Swan Green” is my favorite book by Mitchell. Here’s a fabulous quote to show you this British wordsmith and Booker Man shortlisted writer in action:
“Me, I want to bloody kick this moronic bloody world in the bloody teeth over and over till it bloody understands that not hurting people is ten bloody thousand times more bloody important than being right.”
But it’s not just his prose that is invigorating. Mitchell’s way of structuring his stories is mind-boggling. When you get to “Cloud Atlas” and “Slade House,” you will see these ways for yourself. Enjoy!
“Welcome. I’m the Whispering Wordsmith of the Woods, An Old Man Willow type cunning the lit forest, Disrupting textbookish writers with grammar snaps and cracks.” As a professional web content writer for small-to-medium businesses, Miranda B understands how to effectively balance technical jargon and personal brand messaging. Her content is sticky, evergreen when expected to be, and always creative. Keep ’em coming back for more, that’s Miranda’s motto!
