WCU_syllabi

Fall 2008 Syllabi & materials

David Irving's The Destruction of Dresden {free download for educational purposes}

Creative Writing:

Anne-Marie Cusac answers student questions

Tim Hernandez answers student questions

CRW 201 | 201 fiction

CRW 301-01

CRW 301-80/Eng 605

June 09, 2009: Anne-Marie Cusac answers questions about Silkie.

Kyle Kelly asks: I was wondering about the quotes from an interview that are throughout Silkie--did you find that interview with Silkie in mind or had you read it before?

Hi Kyle,

The quotes come from interviews in a publication called Cape Breton's Magazine, which is a terrific little oral history magazine that is no longer publishing. I first heard about it from my poetry teacher Alan Shapiro, who knew that my family came from the area. (He had heard about it from the wonderful fiction writer D.R. MacDonald, who has family in Cape Breton.) So I subscribed and read the magazine for years, beginning about twenty years ago. When some of the interviews came out in book form, I purchased the books.

As I was writing Silkie--particularly in the last few drafts of the book--I did bear in mind some of those interviews. Some of the poems echo the interviews in indirect ways --this is particularly true of the poem called "The Tunnel," which talks about a method of eating an orange that I first heard about in Cape Breton's Magazine.

This is a side note, but I have often found that idiosyncratic reading--which is definitely my way--is not a bad thing. You never know when something odd but interesting you read will surprise you and inform a writing project.

Kyle Kelly asks: How long did it take you to complete Silkie? How long did it take you to find a publisher?

It took me about four years to write the book. I was writing a few poems. Then I had a month at Vermont Studio Center, where I wrote a loose draft of most of the book. After that, it was a process of making huge cuts in the manuscript, adding new material, cutting, adding--rather like an accordion.

Just as a comparison, I should tell you that my first book took me about eighteen years to write--mostly because I used some work I did early on. So Silkie seems like a quick project. I think the difference is that I knew with Silkie that I was writing a book (something I didn't know with the first book), and I wrote very hard in the direction of finishing that book. I wrote pretty obsessively on it--couldn't let go much of the time.

Silkie found a publisher within about 6 months, which astonished me. I had planned for a longer haul in terms of waiting on a publisher. I feel very lucky--and also to have had such a good publisher, which did such a beautiful job.

Alison Lewis asks: I wanted to know why she chose to add scot boyd into the novel? considering everyone in the town shuns dulsie, yet scot still harbors feelings for her.

Hi Alison,

Scot came into the novel naturally--that is, a bit subconsciously. I'm trying to remember how it happened. I know that, as I was writing poems from many different voices, there were several that had a kind of fascination with Dulsie, and even a longing for her. After a while, one of these developed into Scot. To some extent, this competition with the Silkie ended up being useful in a dramatic sense--in that it had the potential to build tension. That is, Scot's connection to the larger town gave those who wished harm to Dulsie and her Silkie more reason to feel anger and resentment.

And I also think, in terms of meaning, that Scot is more than a former boyfriend. I see him as emblematic of the village or the land--someone trying to call Dulsie back to what she once was (and still is), someone who pulls her back to her earthy life when the myth of the Silkie tries to capture her.

All of this is in some ways trying to describe in a rational way something that happened instinctually in the writing of the book. So I am not positive that this is all how it happened, but it is what I think in retrospect.

Dec 10, 2008: Tim Hernandez answers student questions about his poetry book Skin Tax:

Mehdi Essmidi asks regarding "Mama’s Boy":

1) This poem takes something that is considered safe and honest like being a Mama’s Boy and uses it as a catalyst for true manliness, what interest me most about that is the process that brought you to that point. What train of thought brings a poet to a sense of honest that is artistic and yet legitimate the way this poem is?

There really is no train of thought about this, only a natural urge to convey an idea with as much honesty as possible for the eye that witnessed it, and the hand that wrote it.

Because let's face it, Socrates said it best, "The only thing I truly know, is that I know nothing." Therefore, all anyone can write is their own real experience of existence. It is also worth noting that this poem was a direct response to Sandra Cisneros's poem,

Loose Woman. Hers is a womanly manifesto of sorts, and I immediately loved the idea and decided to write my own version. I encourage you to read her version too.

Mehdi Essmidi asks regarding "I’ve worn that Feminine Skin":

1) In the first line there is a hyphen that confuses me. Why did you choose that particular punctuation and to what end was it use?

I don't have a copy of my book with me as I am writing you this email, so I will answer this at a later time, if that's okay. I have to see how I used it. I can say this, however. I generally use hyphens, or M dashes, as a way of pacing the rhythm. Because most of these poems are very rhythmic, there were times where I felt I needed to hault it completely by throwing a proverbial wrench in the machine, and dashes and hyphens make good wrenches.

2) The last stanza has an overwhelmingly sexual feeling to it, yet it mains all the sexiness of passion without using terms which would be boring and profane. The poem practically elevates sex to what seems like a sacred experience and it fascinates me that you were able to do that because I have a lot of trouble finding good words for poetry of such an intimate nature. How do you find the words for such things?

Sex is a very sacred thing! As for the words to describe it, I guess they arrive like anything else in writing, you keep your poetic third eye attuned to the life pulse around you, to the banging machinery, the colorful and merciless wild-life, the laughing streams, and infinite expressions that make up the whole experience of life, no matter how seemingly un-important they may seem, this is where language jumps out at you, and you have to be ready to grasp it. The goal is to make yourawareness as expansive as possible...at least it's what I subscribe to.

Mehdi Essmidi asks regarding "We’ve Been Afraid":

1) Do you have rapping experience?

2) If you don’t have rapping experience then how is it that you are able to write poetry, which reads like a rhythmic song, and has the slang filled attitude that your poetry does?

3) Does it take you a long time to come up with a meter?

4) Is creating a poetic meter hard for you or does it come easily?

5) Where you trained in spoken word?

No rapping experience, but I am a HUGE fan of music, and I surround myself with it every chance I get. I believe whatever rhythm finds its way into my poems comes from this influence. I listen to hip-hop, tex-mex, alternative, banghra, reggae, electronic, and whenever I feel warm and fuzzy, country. The slang comes from the people on my block, in the neighborhoods where I grew up. So, meter is rarely something I am concerned with. As for the Spoken Word question: I was trained in physical theater, Polish Lab, Jerzy Grotowski, and such. I enjoy presenting my poems so that they also have some quality of entertainment.

Thanks for your great questions. Keep up the good work!

Ryan Eisenstein asks:

The impression I get from your poetry is that you want to try to publicize the private. I believe you do a brilliant job of showing those strong, yet sensitive, emotions. However, your poetry tends to arouse emotions that may typically, in American culture, evoke a sense of weakness or lack strong masculinity.

As an established poet it is sometimes hard to stay true to yourself while pleasing your critics. My question is how you deal with those struggles. Your work appears to be very personal and sincere but are there ever times when you feel like you can’t delve deeper than you want to? In other words, do you to ever have to change your wording or your style to conform to anything other than your own and if so, how does that make you feel.

Wonderful question, I was just talking about this very subject with my wife last night. The short answer is yes, I always feel like I'd like to delve deeper, but stop short because of the multi-headed behemoth called FEAR. However, it is not the "critics" that I fear, but the critic inside myself. I always try and push myself to a place of complete freedom in my writing, but the flip side of that is that such freedom is truly scary, possibly akin to witnessing the actual face of some diety, or ghost.

Another way to think of it is like this...I have this re-occurance in my dreams, not the dreams themselves but what comes upon awakening. I find often that when I wake up from a dream I usually kick myself in the ass, wondering why if I was dreaming did I not just "do what I want" in my dream. I think most people experience this? A longing to wake up within a dream and go flying off the cliff with wings and other dreamed up ideas. But then, if it is as our indigenous elders say, that life is truly a dream, and that death is the real awakening, then why not do what I want or say what I want or be what I want now, in this life?

To answer your question....In the end, I never change my words to cushion a blow, not at all. Instead, I continue to work on freeing myself from my own illusions, hang-ups, fears, and ego, in order to write honestly and without self-imposed borders. I work on letting go.