天美传媒

Samuel Autman was in his first newspaper job when he summoned the courage to write a first-person essay about his abusive father. It ran on Father鈥檚 Day 1990 on the Tulsa World鈥檚 front page.

鈥淭he response to that piece really told me that I had an interest in narrative writing,鈥� said Autman, an associate English professor at 天美传媒. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know that was what a personal essay was, but people were really moved by it.鈥�

He wrote more essays over the years, some for the newspapers where he worked and later, after he came to teach at 天美传媒, for publication in literary magazines. He spent 15 years writing and revising 鈥淥ur Eyes Were Watching Marcia,鈥� a personal essay framed by 鈥淭he Brady Bunch鈥� TV show. The Bellevue Literary Review published it last October online and in the hard copy of its 20th anniversary edition, 鈥渁 gift of visibility I could not have imagined.鈥�

The essay drew the attention of the principals at a New York literary agency, who sent an email telling Autman it 鈥渕ade us feel that you have the talent to write a publishable book.鈥�

Said Autman: 鈥淢y hope was to write a piece that would elicit this kind of response. That was my goal all along.鈥�

Now he is polishing his proposal, the skeleton of which has been in the works for years, to 鈥渕ake the voice more in line with what the agent liked about that piece.鈥� His next challenge, he said, is 鈥渉ow do you have a through line that you can continue for 15 to 20 chapters that will keep somebody interested? 鈥� I鈥檝e got it all mapped out. It鈥檚 just a matter of putting it in a voice. And maybe this agent won鈥檛 want it, but there are other agents out there who will want it.鈥�

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