Each day leading up to the 30th annual Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony, we’ll be featuring an exclusive interview with one of our 36 finalists. Learn more about these incredible local writers and gear up to see the winners announced live in person April 21.
Interview with Carolyn Porter, author of Marcel’s Letters: A Font and the Search for One Man’s Fate
Category: Memoir & Creative Nonfiction, sponsored by Faegre Baker Daniels
It is an immense honor to be on a shortlist with Amy Thielen, Linda LeGarde Grover, and Tom Rademacher. However, when I think about the awards’ thirty-year legacy of recognizing Minnesota authors, it can also be hard not to feel the weight of Imposter Syndrome. I had to look at the list of finalists a couple of times to be sure Marcel’s Letters was really on the list.
What does writing mean to you?
Writing Marcel’s Letters was a way to share the journey of designing a font and discovering a sliver of history that seemed lost to time. During the months I searched for information on Marcel’s fate I didn’t fully understand why his messages of love were alluring, or how my familiarity with his handwriting created a bond that transcended time and place. I simply wanted to know if he lived. Documenting the journey for others required reflection, which helped me make sense of the spectrum of emotions I felt during the search. Documenting the journey allowed me to find closure.
Why are stories important for our communities?
Stories bear witness to a time and place. Even stories that may not feel important at the moment may have relevance years down the road. I received a message from a reader of Marcel’s Letters whose father had been born and raised in France and, similar to Marcel, he had been forced to work in Germany during the war. The woman’s father is now 92. “This period in French history is never discussed,” she wrote. The topic of forced labor was familiar to her and her family, but she had never before seen a book addressing the topic in such a personal way. “France was starving at the time, no work and little hope. Thank you for talking about it,” she wrote.
Tell us something people might not know about you.
I am a graphic designer by training, not a writer. I’ve heard people express surprise a graphic designer can write, but I’m actually surprised more designers aren’t also writers! Many parallels exist between the professions. Designers and writers both have to pay close attention to structure, pace, and voice. Designers and writers both craft projects with specific goals in mind, such as to inspire or inform. And a designer building a brand is akin to a writer building a world. The biggest difference is the use of imagery. As a graphic designer I can evoke a mood or explain content using photography or illustration, whereas when I don a writer’s cap, I can only conjure those images using words.
What do you love about libraries?
Libraries are time travel machines, and spaceships, and magical one-way mirrors all rolled into one. Where else can you immerse yourself in a tale of some long-lost civilization (or Bigfoot or dragons), and travel to Mars, and read about the lives of presidents or pioneers, artists or spies? (OK, you can do some of those things on the internet, but the internet doesn’t have the secret ingredient: librarians!)
I have especially fond memories of the library in Verona, Wisconsin, the closest library to where I lived as a child. The original library has been torn down, but in my mind’s eye I can still picture the interior of the building, with cabinets of wooden drawers holding the neatly typed card catalog, and a nook that held colorful children’s books. I would check out an armful of books at a time. It was probably only five or six books — whatever the maximum number was I could check out at once — but it was an armful for a child.
More about Carolyn Porter:
Carolyn Porter is a graphic designer and self-professed typography geek who designed P22 Marcel Script, a connected cursive font based on the beautiful handwritten letters of World War II French forced laborer Marcel Heuzé. Released in 2014, the font has garnered four international honors, including the prestigious Certificate for Typographic Excellence from the New York Type Director’s Club, typeface competitions by Communication Arts and Print magazines, and was a selection for the 2015 Project Passion exhibition. Carolyn lives in White Bear Lake with her husband and their beloved black lab.
See the winners announced live at the 30th annual Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony!
