Author and Alum, Kyle Boelte, Speaks to Upper School on Writing About Self

Kyle Boelte, CA ’00, visited with Upper School students in the Coming of Age classes, Middle East electives, and Tragedy electives on Monday to discuss his memoir, The Beautiful Unseen, which examines fading memory, his brother’s abrupt death, and San Francisco’s fog. 

 

Boelte discussed writing about self by reading excerpts from his book, which is filled with startling prose juxtaposed by actual documents — “A Field Guide to Fog,” a disciplinarian referral, his brother’s death certificate.

 

“One of the things I’m trying to do,” says Boelte, “is to collage, like in fine arts, with multiple different pieces into the book, imagining a life through those papers. What does a death certificate or disciplinarian referral say about an actual person?”

 

A finalist for the Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction, The Beautiful Unseen, was reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “…more than another memoir of a loved one left behind by suicide. By juxtaposing the story of his brother’s short life and abrupt death with meditations on a seemingly unlikely subject — the history of San Francisco fog — Boelte has produced one of the most haunting books ever written about the fragility of memory.”

 

Boelte, who attended Colorado Academy from fifth through twelfth grades and went on to attend Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, shared overcoming not only the “fragility of memory,” but also dealing with dyslexia.

 

Says Betsey Coleman, who taught Boelte in ninth grade and was his advisor for four years, “His process of revision — ten drafts of the book — and extra perseverance because he is dyslexic are great lessons for students. He is what any of them could become. And they all have stories to tell.”

 

During his time at Colorado Academy, Boelte was a recipient of the Jennifer Wu Fellowship, which was established in memory of Jennifer Wu, CA ‘92, and provides financial support to junior students to pursue a special summer project.

 

Through the fellowship, Boelte spent one week in the wilderness of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains hiking, climbing, reading and learning to be self-reliant. He now works as a writer in Seattle covering environmental issues, and his writing has appeared in Orion Magazine, Full Stop, Sierra, The Rumpus, The Millions, and High Country News.

 

Boelte will be reading from The Beautiful Unseen at the Tattered Cover on Colfax at 7:00 p.m. tonight, Tuesday February 24, 2015. The event will be facilitated by Shane Boris, CA ‘00. Boelte will return to CA to speak to remaining classes on the topic of writing on Wednesday, February 25, 2015.