Portfolios, Journals, Links
Lydia suggested that I share links to posts Cari Luna and Dana Salvador wrote about their virtual visits to class. Hope you enjoy their posts–don’t be shy about leaving comments for them!
We’ll spend next week working on portfolios. Bring everything with you, including your laptop/tablet if you have one and want to work on it during class. I’ve got a handful of binders to bring and can get more if you need them.
I’ll spend a little time on Tuesday and Thursday reviewing your journals, so please bring them to class as well.
Finally, I have to say it again: you guys rocked your reading! Congratulations!
Student Spectacular Invitation
Please join WSU Professors Leah Nielsen and Beverly Army Williams as we present our Creative Writing (English 246) Student Spectacular. Students will read from works created this semester.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
5-7 p.m.
Scanlon Hall Loughman Living Room
Light refreshments will be served.
Creative Assignment #15
This is it. The final Creative Assignment of the semester. Oh, we’re not done revising, no sir-re Jim Bob! But this is the last CA prompt of Spring 2013. It may be my favorite one yet.
Step 1:
Pull out all of the RRWS from the semester; you’ll need them anyway for the Portfolio, so go ahead and gather them now.
Step 2:
Re-read your “What if” responses on each RRWS.
Step 3:
Select your favorite “What if” response, and write that piece. Genre is your pick.
This is due on Thursday, April 18. Have fun!
Manifesto Link Party
Not all of these are about writing. Not all are manifestos. But all proclaim a passionate view on life, on art, on writing, on fill-in-the-blank. These are your models.
Five Manifestos for the Creative Life
Life Hack’s List of Creativity Manifestos
Daring to Live Fully’s Manifesto + guide on writing your own.
Creative Assignment #14
As you prepare to write your Manifesto, I invite you to use Creative Assignment #14 to write a 2-3 page lyric personal essay to be titled either “On Art” or “On Writing”. What does art or writing mean to you? Why is it universally important? CA #14 will be due on Tuesday, April 16, in class.
Creative Assignment #13
You might have guessed that 13 is my lucky number. If not, now you know.
In honor of my lucky number, Creative Assignment 13 requires that you first read Wallace Stevens’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird“. Go on. I’ll wait here while you read.
Next I’ll ask that you mash poetry and creative non-fiction together. Blur some boundaries and write your own version: “Thirteen Ways of Looking at ___” Fill in the blank with your name.
Write short stanzas, 13 brief prose pieces…whatever works. Surprise the reader with strong imagery and meaningful moments.
***
If you were not in class when I distributed the next three pieces for workshop, stop by the English Dept. and find the manuscripts in a folder in my mailbox.
Creative Assignment 12
Write a 25-line memoir. Begin “If it were not for ___________, I would not be here.”
Mine, for instance, might begin “If it were not for my father’s blue eyes, I would not be here.” Or maybe “If it were not for Albuterol, I would not be here.” Or even “If it were not for my husband’s first wife, I would not be here.” In each case, the here is a different aspect of my life. Write at least five first lines, filling in the blank, before you write your 25-line memoir that opens up the first line.
On Thursday, we’ll discuss workshop pieces 3,4,and5. I look forward to it!
Reminder: Literary Reading Reviews for Cari Luna’s reading are due on 4/4; reviews for Dana Salvador’s reading are due on 4/9. If you have not yet written a review, consider writing one this week!
Finally, the last two narrative reading responses are due no later than 4/18. I’ll accept responses to “After the Harvest” or “The Female Body” by Margaret Atwood on Thursday.
Upcoming Events
Here are a few events that may be of interest to you:
Wednesday, April 3, 8:00 p.m. in The Owl’s Nest the Poetry Club is hosting their Spring Poetry Jam. Go and share your poetry and enjoy the works of students, staff and faculty.
Tuesday, April 16, at 6 p.m. in Ely Library, poet (and member of English Dept. faculty) Howard Faerstein will read from his book Dreaming of the Rain in Brooklyn.
Tuesday, April 23, English 246 Student Spectacular–YOU will read a selection from your work produced this semester. Details to follow!
Creative Assignment 11
Creative Assignment 11:
Burroway Try This 8.5 on page 236; write it attending to scene and character development and complete a 4-page double-spaced essay.
For Tuesday, complete a RRWS for Dana Salvador’s “After the Harvest” (it’s a lengthy essay, so give yourself plenty of time to read and digest it). Send me your thoughtful question for Dana by noon on Monday, April 1. Read Chapter 8 pp 230-42 as well as her essay as a springboard for your questions.
Pieces from our next three students going up for workshop should be in your email soon (Friday afternoon?). Please print them out so you may read actively, pen(cil) in hand. Review the Endeavors sheets about workshopping and add more details to your feedback. The more specific you are, the more useful it is to your writing peer.
Students 6,7, and 8, please email me your workshop pieces by 9 a.m. on Tuesday, and I’ll make copies for the class. Don’t know your student number? Check out the schedule in the sidebar–>.
As promised in class today, here’s a link Anne LaMott’s seminal “Shitty First Drafts” Her craft book Bird by Bird is a great one to add to the Reading section of your journal.
Guest Writer: Dana Salvador
On Tuesday, April 2, memoirist and poet Dana Salvador will join us for the second reading in our Virtual Readings Series.
You can read her essay “After the Harvest” in Fourth Genre.
Dana Salvador grew up in northeastern Colorado on a family farm. Her work has been featured in The North American Review, Fourth Genre, Water~Stone Review, Cold Mountain Review, Prairie Poetry and is forthcoming in Red Rock Review. Her essay, “In Migration” was a finalist for the Hunger Mountain Nonfiction Prize. She is also the recipient of a Vogelstein Foundation grant.