Past Instructors
When did you first feel like a writer?
I'm not sure I've ever felt like a writer—as opposed to, say, feeling "like" I'm writing. I prefer "writing" the verb to "writer" the noun. I feel most like a writer when I'm rewriting, because the labor of shaping raw (very raw) material feels more like art. No writer is a writer unless he or she is writing.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
Good teachers encourage. But they also say when a poem relies on cliché, hokey sentiment, platitudes, melodrama, or writing that lacks formal virtue. They don't mean that the student is a cliché, hokey, melodramatic, or lacking in formal virtue. They mean that the student's poem is not (yet) an event of language. Your writing, when you complete it, no longer belongs to you.
When did you first feel like a writer?
Is there a particular book, essay, or poem that made you want to write?
There are almost too many to name. My first love was certainly William Faulkner, and the first of his books that burrowed deep under my skin was The Sound and the Fury, for its deep psychological insight, historical sweep, extraordinary poetry, and fascinating characters. I loved Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman at a very young age, along with the Metaphysical Poets, John Donne and Henry Vaughn. Of course there's that Shakespeare guy, who must have taught Faulkner how to pit language against reality and watch them wrestle. Of the American poets writing today, I'd have to mention Reginald Shepherd, DA Powell, Anthony McCann, Tessa Rumsey, John Casteen, and lots of others that I apologize to now for neglecting to mention. Oh, and John Ashbery and Jorie Graham and Charles Wright and Rita Dove and Greg Orr, I couldn't forget them.
What's the number one thing that distracts you when you're trying to write?
The worst thing for me is maintaining any sort of focus, and distractions come in all forms—weather, wind, food, phone calls, web surfing, and so on. When I don't want to be writing the world lets me know pretty quickly, and I find that an hour reading, two hours writing, then another hour writing, followed by some time revising preexisting work can be a good one to follow. I also have a problem with over-revising my poems, in the sense that I will sometimes reread and tinker with them rather than working on something that isn't quite working, and that can be frustrating.
If you could write from any location, where would it be?
This strikes me as a very strange question. Of course the physical world is very important, but I don't buy this idea that you need to be in exotic locales to write. I abide by William Carlos Williams' theory that if you can't find it in your back yard, it isn't anywhere. That having been said, I love to travel, and have been to Morocco, Russia (where I lived for a year and a half) and all over Europe and America. I would love to return to all of those places because I was inspired by all of them, but Charlottesville, Virginia works for now, as long as I keep finding the time to wake up early and walk at the Ivy Creek Natural Area.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I don't know if I have ever felt like a writer, but I have felt like an aspiring writer for about as long as I can remember. There was a story I wrote in the first grade in which the dynamic protagonist was an egg that refused to hatch. The big mystery was: Why won't this egg hatch? What is wrong with this egg? I eventually decided that the solution to this big mystery was [the hard scientific reason] that the egg was simply not fertilized. For some reason, I thought this was brilliant, and feeling that feeling of having solved that problem - a writing problem - was a feeling I knew then, as a six-year-old, I wanted to experience over and over and over again. So, here I am. Still trying to solve some of the same problems I was trying to solve in the first grade: the problems of endings.
When did you first feel like a writer?
It started to sink in when my husband, Harry Landers, and I entered a play-writing contest in Columbia, Maryland, and we won. Watching actors speak the lines we'd written was intoxicating. During the performance, I couldn't help but let my mind wander to all the other things I could have made those actors say.
What's the number one thing that distracts you when you're trying to write?
Putting a writer with ADHD (that's me) in front of a computer and expecting her to buckle down and write is like putting a child in a Chuck E. Cheese and expecting homework to be done. In the old days, the only thing that came out of a typewriter was what the writer put into it. The Internet is dazzling and wicked.
If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why?
I'd like to meet Queequeg, the cannibal in Moby-Dick. You could sit down with him and have a drink, and know that every story he'd tell would be riveting. Plus, you'd get a good look at those amazing facial tattoos.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I began my writing career at seven, pecking out stories on my mom's Royal typewriter. All my plots were the same: Some disaster (plane crash, rampant disease, ravaging insects) took the lives of parents and other authority figures. Consequently, the kids had to collect wild berries and skin rabbits to make clothing. Without exception, by the end of each tale, the sturdy little survivors had created a utopia and lived blissfully ever after. Unfortunately, it never occurred to my parents to call a child therapist.
When did you first feel like a writer?
When I graduated from college, I worked various jobs to pay the rent, but I didn't have a sense of vocation. I started writing all kinds of letters, cards, and poems for friends and family. When I knew my audience, the act of writing was intensely liberating and rewarding. This was also a time of dramatic intellectual and personal growth, so I experimented constantly. Ever since that time, even when I don't know where the writing will end up, I know why I'm writing and what it means for me.
When did you first feel like a writer?
The first time was at age 7, when I published my first poem in School Bank News. It was called "My Magic Carpet," and the final line revealed that my magic carpet was my geography book. Years later, I read Emily Dickinson's "There is no frigate like a book / To take us Lands away" and was thrilled to discover that the Mystery of Amherst and I had a metaphor n common, though her development of it was, shall we say, more substantive than mine!
When did you first feel like a writer?
In third grade I wrote and illustrated a story called Detective Dan and the Case of the Disappearing Dogs. My teacher put a plastic comb binding on it, and I carried it around for weeks. These days, though, I generally only feel like a writer when I'm actually writing. Sometimes when I'm reading.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
Similar to my philosophy on writing, actually – there are no hard and fast rules, but there are guidelines you can follow that make a lot of sense. I like to mix critical and creative reading, and spend some time in each class talking about the elements of fiction – character, plot, setting, dialogue, narrative distance, pacing, etc. Most writers will spend their entire careers discovering the uses to which these elements can be put, and by reading you can intuit some of the rules – but a few weeks with Ezra Pound (The ABCs of Reading), E.M. Forster (Aspects of the Novel), John Gardner (The Art of Fiction), and James Wood (How Fiction Works), among others, can give you a jump start, and save you years of effort.
Is there a particular book or essay (or screenplay) that made you want to write?
I was read to frequently as a small child, poetry by my grandmother and all kinds of stories and newspaper items by my parents, so I can't remember not wanting to write.What's the number one thing that distracts you when you're trying to write?
The internet! (though it helps too at times). and household responsibilities — all the things I devise for myself to keep myself from writing.
When did you first feel like a writer?
Approaching the completion of my first novel. I couldn't bear to wait any longer to see how the book would turn out. I burned a week of (very precious) vacation time from the day job to speed the novel to its end. Every night that week I stayed up -- however late it took -- to finish a chapter. Every morning that week -- often only a few hours after I'd turned in -- I woke to the clatter of the dot-matrix printer, as my wife wouldn't wait to read what I'd just finished.
And then there was the day an editor called to make an offer on that book ...
When did you first feel like a writer?
The first poem I ever read to an audience was an ode to my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Haller, titled "Hot Lips Haller." It made both of us blush. Not sure that made me a writer, but it definitely made me realize the power of words.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
Writers know, sometimes only subconsciously, what they need. A teacher's job is to help them tear away the debris to find the treasure. It's best if this takes place in a community of support, but with the understanding that each person has to work hard and respect everyone, including themselves.
If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why?
Even though I haven't read it in years, Huck Finn is the first to come to mind. Who wouldn't want to go floating down the river with a friend named Jim. And who wouldn't also want to be named after a huckleberry!?
When did you first feel like a writer?
It took me a long time to really feel like a writer. Even though I had written poetry in high school and college, and sporadically in my twenties and thirties, it had never occurred to me to think of writing poetry as anything more than a hobby. Having grown up in a family in which math and science were embraced as the most legitimate forms of knowledge, it simply never occurred to me to think of writing poetry – or reading poetry, for that matter – as a legitimate vocation.
When did you first feel like a writer?
Might have been second grade, when the school newsletter published not just one, but a whole series of my poems.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
Well, the philosophy can vary depending on the class: seminar, workshop, lecture. For my upcoming WriterHouse session on "Writing What We Know for Love & Money," the main idea is for participants to learn enough so they'll leave the class with a good sense of exactly what to do next to achieve their writing and publishing goals.
If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why?
I'd love to meet Francie Nolan from Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I'd want to hear all about the book I expect Francie would have written after college. And I'd want to know if she did, in fact, end up staying with Ben.
When did you first feel like a writer?
This simple question requires a complex answer. By day, I work as a clinical psychologist. In that role, I have written (and published) five books and some 75 articles, all directed toward a professional audience. You could say I thrived as writer; but my writing, though non-fiction, was wholly expositional and hardly creative.
Late in 2011, I discovered WriterHouse and the two Jays – Kauffman and Varner. They introduced me to the creative side of writing – sensory description, scene building, character development, dialogue, sentence rhythm, and above all, seeking to convey truth and passion. I heard and understood – conceptually – all they taught, but only very recently have begun to absorb and use their wisdom. I guess you could say I feel I am a newborn writer – wobbly on my feet and awkward in my gait, still working to get my balance, but exited to be alive and eager to grow.
When did you first feel like a writer?
At age seven, I aspired to be a writer. I typed out a multi-page, single-spaced story, found out how to mail it to an editor, and received a very kind letter back from that editor.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
I feel that writers need to be readers first. Any class I teach will involve close examination of examples from literature.
If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why?
I'd like to meet Dorothea from George Eliot's Middlemarch, not early in the book when she's young, but nearer the end, when she has come to know that there is "something better which she might have done," yet she does not repent her life.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I've been a writer my whole life. But I think that feeling like a "professional" writer maybe a bit different. I've worked for many years in different capacities as a writer, but I don't think I really felt like a writer until I started freelancing and writing books. As a freelancer, you have the responsibility for all aspects of your business--taxes, computer break downs, office supplies. And as you mature into the profession, you see how being a writer also means being all that other stuff and managing it well so that you can actually write and make a living.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I have been writing since I was a teenager, however, it was almost 20 years later before I felt worthy of naming myself "writer." What brought me to that moment of self-declaration was reading the book The Write To Write by Julia Cameron. In the book, there is an activity which asked me to write 10 affirmative statements completing the prompt: "Writers are _____." I was then to write these statements
5 times each day. I created self-affirmations from these statements by replacing the words "Writers are" with "Camisha is." After several days of writing these statements five times each day, I began to believe the truth of them.
What do you like most about helping authors promote their books?
Authors are so close to their work that often they can't step back and look at the big picture: what they're trying to accomplish with their book and how it fits into their writing career. I like to help them figure that out, define what makes their books special and devise creative ways to connect with their readers.
When did you first feel like a writer?
A few years ago my dad let me listen to a tape recording he made when I was a child. It’s of me telling him about a dream I had the night before: I found a stick and whatever I point that stick at turns into the color I want… The recording goes on for a long time, and eventually it becomes clear I’m lying. I drag it on, ham it up. Listening to that recording made me realize telling stories might be something I was born with. As for feeling like a writer, I don’t know when that hit me. Maybe when I first got published.
What’s your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
When did you first feel like a writer?
I think I first felt (a little) like a writer when I submitted a fictional writing assignment to my college English professor a long, long time ago and he told me I should join the college writing club.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
My philosophy about teaching--writing included--is to "do no harm," which is to say, try to encourage rather than discourage. I focus first on what "works" (for the reader) in a piece of writing, then move on to
what doesn't work (for the reader), or could work better (for the reader). I prefer to critique fiction from a reader's perspective rather than from its strict conformity to convention.
If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why?
When Did You First Feel Like a Writer?
When I was in grade school there was a poetry contest. Several of my friends knew I wrote poetry so they asked me to write all their poems for them. I did. I remember NOT winning the contest and one of my friends taking first prize with a poem I wrote for her. She stood up in front of a large group to read the poem and accept her 1st place certificate. I remember sitting in the audience thinking: Well, that was really stupid of me. I will NEVER ever do that again.
What is your philosophy for teaching a writing class?
Teaching is fluid and I try to structure a class which will adapt to the needs of each student. I don't actually think you can teach writing, you can break aspects of it down and teach the craft of it, but to me writing is more like a bad habit you pick up that you can't get rid of, or a like a virus that never goes away.
When did you first feel like a writer?
When I realized that I had built a reputation for being able to turn in clean and readable copy on a deadline. And yeah, when I held my first book in my hands--that too.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
I would not have gotten this far without a lot of help. I firmly believe in paying it forward. So I teach. Also, while I have certain opinions about the "right" way to do things, I recognize that not everyone wants to write by those rules; in which case, my job is to be sure they understand how to build and stick to an internal set of rules for their own style/voice.
If you could meet any fictional character who would it be and why?
Gandalf. I am DYING to learn how to create fireworks that look like dragons swooping down from the sky.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I always liked to write as a child, but never considered pursuing it seriously. Then I got to college and declared a writing concentration, mostly to avoid the Chaucer class that was a requirement for the literature concentration. In college I began to take my writing more seriously, and that's probably when I began to identify myself as a writer. As far as feeling like a writer, that depends on the day.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?I usually start by feeling out the students in the first session. I've taught three classes at Writer House so far, and I've structured them each a bit differently depending on the make-up of the class and what makes the students most comfortable. I find it's important to be flexible because writing - and certainly sharing writing - is a scary thing for most people, and I want to make sure no one is uncomfortable.
If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why?
Robert Wray will be offering Playwriting during the Winter 2010 session. His class begins Saturday, January 23.
Is there a particular book or essay (or screenplay) that made you want to write?
Actually, watching The Waltons as a kid inspired me to—albeit vaguely at the time—be a writer as I wanted to be John Boy! Also, reading The Princess Bride at an early age helped, and then Pride and Prejudice and Catcher in the Ryesoon followed. The rest is history.What's the number one thing that distracts you when you're trying to write?The phone! And when my coffee machine beeps that it's off. Ugh.
If you could write from any location, where would it be?
Wherever inspiration strikes: A mountainside, my room, a cafe. The main thing is: Someplace quiet.
