'Because I Love Her': Daughters write about Mom May 10, 2009
Her mother was a professional dancer, her grandmother the famous author Tillie Olsen. She said her relationship with her grandmother was "fraught," and after her death in early 2007, writing about it let her process it in a different way than one can with friends or in therapy. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Looking for the right words for friends Apr 29, 2009
I went from text to text, Zora Neale Hurston to Tillie Olsen, but most of the writings were about escaping slavery and oppression. Not good wedding material. (Boston Globe)
New film festival celebrates movies about aging Feb 19, 2009
"Tillie Olsen: A Heart in Action," an homage to the activist author by Annie Hershey, includes footage from Olsen's readings and interviews with Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker and others. "Sweet Old Song," by Oakland filmmaker Leah Mahan, unspools the life story of singular African American musician Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong through the lens of his longtime romantic relationship with Barbara Ward, an artist 30 years his junior. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Silences by Tillie Olsen Feb 8, 2009
Tillie Olsen's Silences, When Writers Don't Write is an absolutely fabulous piece of writing ... Olsen gives examples of people who have suffered from these types of silences including Mark Twain, Isaac Babel, Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Eliot, Joyce Cary, Joseph Conrad, Emily Dickinson, and Tillie Olsen herself, who has also experienced a period of silence. (Suite101.com)
