In 100 days, 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered.
A seminar on nonfiction writing could not have ended on a more somber note. The crowd of over 50 people in Kelly Writers House on Wednesday night painfully swallowed eye-witness information about the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Even a year after the slaughter, writer Philip Gourevitch had to watch his feet as he stepped over skulls of the massacred Tutsi tribe in a visit to the African country.
Gourevitch, who has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1997 and is currently covering the 2004 presidential election, read two passages from his first book, entitled We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda.
According to English professor Paul Hendrickson, who introduced Gourevitch and has been friends with the writer for many years, "the idea of this seminar was to show what good nonfiction is all about -- in many cases, it can be as emotional as a novel."
In this book, Gourevitch examines -- largely through eye-witness interviews -- war-torn Rwanda following the infamous genocide in the spring and summer of 1994 when the Hutu tribe brutally massacred close to one million members of the rival Tutsi tribe.
His insights into documentary writing were invaluable for much of the audience.
In fact, some of those in attendance, like College junior Emily Brotman, are students of Hendrickson's and plan to use Gourevitch's advice to help them with the documentaries they write for Hendrickson's class.
Nevertheless, it was virtually impossible for even the most serious of writers not to lose focus on the technicalities of the craft itself.
Gourevitch drew the audience into the horror of the genocidal fields of Rwanda, and in a disturbingly clinical and calm manner, recited, "Perhaps even extinction had lost its shock."
When he had finished reading, even Gourevitch had to admit, "I always forget what fun this book isn't."
Gourevitch spent several years examining this painful subject, claiming, "I would have felt more uncomfortable if I had chosen to ignore it."
After finishing the reading, Gourevitch took several questions from the audience. Many wondered how his several trips to Rwanda since the genocide had impacted him personally, while others wondered whether those responsible for the genocide had been brought to justice.
Others tried to draw a connection between Saddam Hussein's genocide in the early '90s with that of the Hutus.
Hendrickson, along with Penn's Creative Writing Program, helped bring Gourevitch to the Writers House to speak about his experiences as a nonfiction writer.
Gourevitch is the first guest nonfiction writer that Kelly Writers House has introduced this semester.
