Howard Berk, a Distinguished Writer in Residence at UGA, wrote about an experience with legendary American novelist Ernest Hemingway in a story for National Geographic.
Berk met Hemingway in Cuba in 1952. The novelist, who gave Berk the nickname “Paco,” invited him home for lunch.
There, Berk shared wine with the author and witnessed a profanity-laced argument between Hemingway and his fourth wife, Mary Welsh Hemingway.
Though Berk only met Hemingway once, he wrote, the famed author offered a piece of writing advice that stuck with Berk.
Berk wrote, “Along the way, I kept remembering what he had said to me that day at the Finaca Vigía (Hemingway’s Cuban home) about writing: ‘There’s nothing to it. Just sit at a typewriter and bleed.’ ”