Discovering Books

Jeff McDaniel, poet and a participant in the PEN Center USA West writing workshop at Los Angeles-area high schools:

My father used to read to me every night when I was a child. He would read me bedtime stories. He encouraged me to read voraciously.

It was always enjoyable to be with my dad and read. He read me Peter Rabbit and the Grimm fairy tales, and he would make up his own fairy tales too.

As a 10-year-old, I spent a a lot of time on books and a lot of imaginary situations inspired by books, like where my bunk bed would turn into a spaceship and my stuffed animals would be my crew and I was acting out a story.

Probably the fairy tales that my dad told me had a profound effect on me. I honestly believe that all the work that he did with me as a child paid tremendous dividends. I think it made all the difference in the world for me.

I started writing my first poem when I was 14. I then considered myself a poet. From the age of 15 to 17, I filled 50 notebooks with bad rhyming poetry and other thoughts and ideas about the world.

I read a lot now. There’s a pleasure in it. In this day and age, it’s a most revolutionary act to pick up a book and read, because so many people just turn on a TV.

A lot has been given to me over the years by my father and my teachers, and the one thing they have instilled in me is giving something back.