Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival

I'm having a blast at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival this week.  I was very hesitant at first to sign up for a two week long workshop.  Last week I struggled over the money and the time.  After finally settling into a nice routine of writing, running, and reading- I upset that routine with the final decision to attend the creative writing portion of the FSAF: no regrets.  The compromise was I signed up for just the first week.  It's been great.  I get to work with: Peggy Shumaker, a poet whose work I greatly admire and quickly learned to love after moving to Alaska but with a new appreciation I've found her stuff transcends just the Alaska experience and speaks to many feelings and issues in the world and in ourselves;  Daryl Farmer a writing teacher I've had the honor of working with the past two semesters at UAF, a fantastic teacher who always has something to teach you through examples of what good writing is, along with inquiry and just the right prompting; and two new teachers Rob Davidson (fiction) and Jeanne Clark (poetry), both from Chico State, and both spectacularly insightful teachers, writers, and warm people to have around.  Rob has showed me the power of good exposition, I can't wait to have a conference with him Friday.  And Jeanne has taught me several new forms (some which might appear on the blog once I do a little revision).

It's also been great getting to know more writers from the Fairbanks community.  Despite being at all levels of writing in our lives, it has been a great time of sharing.

"...discover your voice in what you like..." -Tobias Wolff

"... if you're constantly digging into your self to find your self, you're just going to create a whole you'll fall through..." -Tobias Wolff

This week I'm reading Back In The World: Stories, by Tobias Wolff.  I'm a little embarrassed to say this is my first time reading his work, but it certainly will not be the last.  His content, the stories in this collection, get at the heart of what I'm interested in writing.  Normal people living in a normal world.  That's an understatement, because who is to say what is normal?  I don't read mass market stuff.  But my impression of 'mass market stuff' is that its characters are, despite some trigger to start the story, meant to live on a pedestal.  The characters of back in the world are people we pass on the street, maybe even people we know, but are never allowed inside their head- with Wolff at the pen, we're allowed to know their deepest desires and in end feel deep empathy for them.  

The first clip has a sucky interviewer, but Wolff rises to the occasion and eloquently finishes her questions with astounding answers.  

At 4:00 there's a great conversation on finding your voice.

At 13:00 he talks at length on Hemingway as multifaceted inspiration.

At 20:00 he talks about teaching writing and makes a funny quip about Cormac Mccarthy.

The interview is concluded with "Why is art is essential?" at 25:30

This is a super short conversation on the vitality of a short story.

Big Think Interview With Tim O'Brien

You can tell I'm procrastinating on a writing piece by watching YouTube videos, but hey, at least it's better than the black hole of FaceBook.  

This is the last clip/video I'll share.  The first clip is 4 minutes long and very motivating.  Tim is talking about why he became a writer, and what power a veteran writer has.  The long video is the complete 45 minute interview with great comments on the voice of a writer and his craft

Last night Gretchen noticed I was reading The Things They Carried.  I've been reading and rereading it all week. She asked, "Haven't you read that before." "Yes," I said. "But never as a graduate student."

"I think of myself as a peace writer..."

After sharing two videos in the previous blog post, a friend shared this amazing clip.

"Literature is not a lap dog..." - Tim O' Brien

"Literature is not a lap dog... it's a way of opening doors and overcoming the silence (of war) that occurs." -Tim O' Brien

{Disclaimer} Tim O' Brien is my favorite writer, I idolize not only his prose, but his recollection and hypothesis of the combat experience in the fiction narratives he crafts. I've read most of his novels and story collections numerous times.  I can no longer keep track of how many times I've read The Things They Carried.  I poured over this collection of stories as an immature, naive high school student, as a curious college student about to embark on the adventure of combat, and as a jaded post-war veteran.  No matter how many times I read "On The Rainy River" and "Speaking of Courage" I weep in the end. I cherish his work.  If I could capture a fraction of his intellect and style in my own work, I would be euphoric.  

Reading as a writer is a new voyage.  Here are some interviews/discussion I dug up to better understand his work.

A conversation with Tobias Wolff on Writing & War at Stanford University.

Here's a few highlights:

"I wrote my work out of bitterness and hatred..." 17:20

(Paraphrased) Not many people worry about not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (21:45)

Discussing the cliches risen from some war stories 41:00

Discussing the memories of combat 46:00

Questions start from the audience at 57:00

There's an amazing response by Tim around 111:00 on PTSD.

How To Write A War Story
"You have to pick the times not to be scared."

"Every writer has to suffer some wound."

An older documentary not only highlighting the craft of Tim O' Brien, but Richard Bausch, Philip Caputo, and Carolyn Forche

Getting Published

Well, I'm being published soon.  That sounds so pretentious to say.  I revised and submitted three poems from April to the literary journal O-Dark-Thirty.  They chose to publish one in the forthcoming August edition of their quarterly journal.  I won't tell you which one, because you can barely recognize it in its revised state.

For fun, here is the bio I sent to accompany my piece.   Author's bios are always written in the third person.

If you've never heard of O-Dark-Thirty, you should check them one.  Its a wonderful new rag only about a year old, grown from the Veterans Writing Project.  They accept fiction, non-fiction, visual art, and poetry from veterans.  The project also hosts free workshops around the country for veterans on writing (I would love to attend, or teach at one of these workshops some day...).

I've Made It

Well I've finally made it- to Pacific University's Master of Fine Arts in Writing Summer Low Residency program.  

Forest Grove is a gorgeous small town about an hour west of Portland.  Situated at the base of the Oregon coastal range on the west side of the Tulatin Valley, the area is full of vineyards and farm land.  

The days are long, but exciting.  There are usually three craft talks (lectures) a day, a morning workshop looking at the nuts and bolts of student submitted work, then nightly readings by faculty in a gorgeous auditorium followed by readings by students in a local pub style atmosphere (without the beer).

My sponge was fully absorbed and spilling into the sink by the second day.  I could describe the residency here as a semester in 10 days, but that's not entirely true, because I still have a semester's worth of work ahead of me with my advisor (still to be determined).

A few more thoughts:

I'm excited about having two years to focus on my craft of writing.

I'm excited about being pushed beyond my limits to create better prose.

I'm excited about working with other writers sharing similar aspirations.

I'm excited about being part of a community that wants to see each other succeed.

I'm scared my stuff won't be good enough and the story won't be there when I want it to be.

I'm scared I'll have two years of bliss, then once the scaffolding is removed waver through the rest of life as a writer.

The End.  I mean, to be continued...  I mean, may the force be with you.