評論
打印
The three writers I wanted to meet were Carole Maso, Lynne Tillman and Peggy Phelan.
我想見的三位作家是卡羅爾·馬索，琳恩·蒂爾曼和佩吉·費倫。
These were not famous, best-selling authors,
她們不算是最知名和暢銷的作家，
but to me, they were women-writer titans.
但是我把她們奉若神明。
Carole Maso wrote the book that later became my art bible.
卡羅爾·馬索的書后來成為了我的藝術指導。
Lynne Tillman gave me permission to believe
琳恩·蒂爾曼給了我信心讓我相信
that there was a chance my stories could be part of the world.
將來我的故事會被世界上的人所知曉。
And Peggy Phelan reminded me
佩吉·費倫則提醒我
that maybe my brains could be more important than my boobs.
我的頭腦比胸部更加重要。
They weren't mainstream women writers,
她們不是主流女作家，
but they were cutting a path through the mainstream with their body stories,
但是她們用自己的故事題材在主流文學中獨樹一幟，
I like to think, kind of the way water cut the Grand Canyon.
另辟蹊徑。
It nearly killed me with joy to hang out with these three over-50-year-old women writers.
能和這三位50多歲的女作家聊天，快把我樂瘋了。
And the reason it nearly killed me with joy is that I'd never known a joy like that.
因為我從來不知道 生活可以這么開心。
I'd never been in a room like that.
我的生活中從來沒有打開過這樣美好的一扇門。
My mother never went to college.
我的母親沒有上過大學。
And my creative career to that point was a sort of small, sad, stillborn thing.
從這一點來說我的創作生涯本來就是一個很小的，卑微的，會胎死腹中的事。
So kind of in those first nights in New York I wanted to die there.
在紐約的前幾天我希望就死在那里。
I was just like, "Kill me now. I'm good. This is beautiful."
我想說“殺了我吧。我要葬在這美好之中。”
Some of you in the room will understand what happened next.
接下來發生了什么，屋子里的一些人會理解。
First, they took me to the offices of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
首先，他們把我帶到了法勒，斯特勞斯和吉魯的辦公室。
Farrar, Straus and Giroux was like my mega-dream press.
法勒，斯特勞斯和吉魯是我的終極夢想出版社。
I mean, T.S. Eliot and Flannery O'Connor were published there.
艾略特的詩集和弗蘭納里·奧康納的小說都在那里出版。
The main editor guy sat me down and talked to me for a long time,
主編讓我坐下和我聊了很久，
trying to convince me I had a book in me about my life as a swimmer.
一直在試圖讓我相信我寫了一本關于我自己是游泳運動員的書。
You know, like a memoir.
就像用備忘錄讓我回憶一樣。
