Gray Hawks write stories of their lives

IOWA CITY - The Gray Hawk Memoir Writers Group has capped 15 years of meetings and writings with the publication of 'Yesterdays,” a collection of essays that range from recollections of World War II to childhoods lived in the Deep South, in rural Iowa, and above the Star Shoe Repair Shop.

The club has been meeting since 1999 when Sam Becker, then head of the University of Iowa Retirees Association (Gray Hawks), and Gordon Strayer, a longtime force in the UI's Office of University Relations, decided it would be interesting to start a group for memoir writing.

The group has had 27 members since its founding. Some have died, but five of the original members are still writing. 'Is their advanced age a sign that writing from the heart, among good-hearted company, is good for the heart?” wonders group member Alan Brody of Iowa City, who edited 'Yesterdays.”

The answer is undoubtedly yes, based on the supportive, attentive atmosphere that marks Gray Hawks' meetings every other Thursday in an out-of-the-way conference room in Coralville.

The members take turn reading aloud what they've written. The readings cannot exceed nine minutes, and the discussion of each piece can take no longer than five minutes. Critiques focus on how to improve the writing - use more description, cut some unneeded words, for example - along with praise for what works.

'Our writers come originally from different places, have passed through often very different lives and careers, and have very different (writing) styles,” Brody says. 'Perhaps under the influence of years spent in Iowa, however, they seem to share, in the way of ‘attitude,' a spirit of Midwestern common sense leavened with good humor.”

The Gray Hawks writers range in age from the 50s to the 90s. The size of the group is limited to 14, a manageable size that assures meetings are completed in 90 minutes. If people want to join and there are no openings, they're encouraged to start their own group.

Group members John and Sandra Hudson of Iowa City recently started a memoir writing group at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids. That group meets every other Thursday and has room for more members.

Those interested in starting a memoir writing group will find helpful guidelines at the end of 'Yesterdays.”

Why would you want to do that?

Brody, a retired UNICEF executive, provides an answer. The group's members, he writes, 'have shared with one another thoughts and experiences that they might otherwise have carried in silence to the grave: memories of joys from some long ago time, or of the still fresh hurt of a bruise that everyone else has long forgotten.”

READINGS

2 p.m. Nov. 16, at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City.

2 p.m. Nov. 23, at New Bo Books, 1105 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids.

Proceeds from book sales are being donated to the City of Literature program in Iowa City.