Carl H. Klaus: “Days into Daybooks, a Voice for All Seasons”

In his exploration of the writer’s voice, Carl H. Klaus asks the question “How often do we listen to ourselves on paper?” Klaus uses his own experience with the autobiographical essay to examine how a writer's conscious style choices and unforeseen circumstances inform one’s voice. Klaus maintains that the lesson of self-reflective writing is that “a voice can give rise to life, invoke life, embody a life, particularly when it is animated by the deepest convictions in one’s life.”

Listen: Carl H. Klaus presents at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival

Carl H. Klaus, a retired Professor of English at the University of Iowa, is the founder and former director of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program and the NEH/Iowa Institute on Writing. A widely published essayist on style, voice, and the personal essay, Klaus is the author or editor of several textbooks on writing and books about the teaching of writing. His most recent books include three works of literary non-fiction: My Vegetable Love: A Journal of a Growing Season (Houghton Mifflin, 1996), Weathering Winter: A Gardener's Daybook (University of Iowa Press, 1997), and Taking Retirement: A Beginner's Diary (Beacon Press, 1999). His next work, now in progress, is "The Chameleon "I": Versions and Evocations of Self in Personal Essays.

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July 13, 2007
Nonfiction | Summer Writing Festival Email this article

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