Elwork ’04M Reflects on First Editorial Experience at Book Reading, July 8

By schwartzsa | July 15, 2011

Paul Elwork ’04M returned to the Glenside campus July 8 to read from his book The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead, which was published by Amy Einhorn Books (Penguin Group) in March. The even kicked off the Creative Writing Institute, a four-week program which gives students the opportunity to participate in face-to-face workshops, improve their writing and get specific feedback from Arcadia’s experienced faculty.

A question and answer session followed the reading. Elwork explained that he began The Girl Who Would Speak For the Dead as part of his culminating project while he was a student working with Dr. Richard Wertime, Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies in English and the Humanities.

“Working with Dr. Wertime was a fantastic experience,” said Elwork. “It was the first time I had ever worked closely with any kind of editor at that level—especially someone with such a strong sense of story and great instinct and taste. We would have deep conversations about the subtlest elements of the story. He had a great way of guiding me…. It was a good introduction to actually working with editors in publishing because he who would point at a scene or moment and say, ‘I think there’s more here.’ He didn’t tell me what to write but he influenced me to take another look. “