5 Medium Writers Over 60-Years-Old With Stories to Tell
When we listen to people of all ages our world expands
I never met my paternal grandfather. He lived to 92, but all I know of him are his stories and poetry. He also kept a journal at the turn of the last century (1899-1900) when he was 16-years-old.
I would love to have more stories from him.
Imagine what he must have seen: World War 1, 2, and the Boer War. The first cars, planes, televisions, vacuum cleaners, computers!
Our worldviews expand when we listen to stories from people of all ages.
Many of my writing heroes are in their 80s and older:
- Vivian Gornick (86), author of Fierce Attachments which was named the #1 Best Memoir of the Past 50 Years.
- Toni Morrison and Joan Didion (who both passed away recently aged 88 and 87).
- New Zealand author, CK Stead (89).
- And of course my first writing mentor, Shirley Corlett who is now 81.
We hear a lot from younger people online, but there are some wonderful older storytellers here too.
Here are some I enjoy reading:
Stories from Older Writers on Medium
95-year-old James Frank Sanders tells stories you’ll want to consume one after the other. I did.
He writes in a gentle, easy-to-read voice about his friends, the death of loved ones, living well, and knowing your value.
Jan M Flynn is a skilled writer and some of her creative nonfiction pieces are my all-time favorites here on Medium. She delivers beautiful lines and thoughtful prose, like this one:
“I know, in a way I couldn’t possibly know at age twenty or thirty, that life is a swift journey through an ever-changing landscape, an event as ephemeral as a sandcastle.”
Tessa Schlesinger is a 70-year-old writer with strong opinions and decades of writing experience. She writes fiction and researched pieces reflecting on the state of the world and society.
You don’t have to agree with everything she writes — she wouldn’t expect you to either — but she certainly has many interesting ideas worth hearing.
This is a personal piece of hers that I found particularly moving:
I suppose Aspergers (being autistic) is part of it. I just didn’t notice people. So I never said hello or goodbye or please or thank you. Part of that was also that I was never taught anything by my parents and I grew up in isolation. I simply was, I suppose, to some extent, not socialized.
But I was never a mean person or a spiteful person or an unkind person, and I was always a generous person.
Being disliked hurts.
New to Medium in 2021, Verbieann Hardy is making the most of her 8th stage of life with gratitude, faith, and connecting to others through her writing.
Helen Cassidy Page is a skilled, entertaining writer in her 80s. She hasn’t written for a couple of months, but she has a backlog of stories for you to enjoy from personal essays to writing tips.
Have you discovered other older writers you enjoy reading? Or are you one?
Let me know in the comments.
Kelly xx
P.S. Thank you to my wonderful writer friend Joanne Creary for clarifying older doesn’t mean old!