DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 390 065 CS 215 170

AUTHOR Mitchell, Roger, Ed.; Shermis, Michael, Ed. TITLE Creative Writing. INSTITUTION Indiana Univ., Bloomington. Office of Research. PUB DATE Jan 96 NOTE 30p. AVAILABLE FROMResearch & Creative Activity, Office of Research and the University Graduate School, Indiana University, Bryan Hall 104, Bloomington, IN 47405-1201 or via electronic mail: [email protected]. An online edition is on the World Wide Web: http://www.indiana.edu/Etilda] rugs/rca/toc.html. PUB TYPE Collected Works Serials (022) JOURNAL CIT Research & Creative Activity; v18 n3 Jan 1996

EDRS PRICE MFOI/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Authors; *Creative Writing; Higher Education; Intellectual Disciplines; Novels; Playwriting; *Poetry; Poets; *Scholarship; Writing Processes IDENTIFIERS *Indiana University

ABSTRACT This theme issue features 11 articles on the research interests of Indiana University faculty whose work on various campuses continues to advance knowledge about creative writing. Articles in this issue are "Creative Writing and the Future" (Roger Mitchell) which outlines the historical beginnings of the intellectual disciplines of Literature and Creative Writing; "IU's Creative Writing Program: Past, Present, and Future" (Heather Shupp); "It's a Matter of Character" (Susan Moke) which discusses the work of award-winning author and Indiana University professor Frances Sherwood; "Close to the Center" (Nancy Cassell McEntire) which discusses the work of author Scott Russell Sanders; "A Postmodern Twist on Modernist Concerns" (Susan Moke) which discusses the work of novelist Cornelia Nixon; "Speaking the Mind and Spirit of a People" (Bob Baird) which discusses the work of John McCluskey, Jr., Chairman of Indiana University's Department of Afro-American Studies and adjunct professor of English; "Poets as Teachers as Poets" (Mary Cox Barclay) which discusses three poetry and fiction writers on the Indiana University faculty; "Surprising the Poet" (Mary Cox Barclay) which discusses the work of English professor and poet Yusef Komunyakaa; "Poetry Made Accessible" (Mary Cox Barclay) about a radio show about poetry and poets; "Champions of Prose and Poetry Praise the 'Bloomington Experience'" (Bob Baird); "Playwright Haven" (Mildred Perkins) which describes the work of playwright Benjamin Sahl; "Behind the Facade: The Lilly Library's Creative Side" (Heather Shupp) which describes some of the material in the Lilly Library, Indiana University's rare book, manuscript, and special collections library.(RS)

*********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE U S DEPARTMENT THIS Once of Educahonai OF eDucAncx, MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTEDBY EDUCATIONAL Research and improvoenora RESOURCES INFORMATION Vcrlis CENTER (ERIC) Iflr 311,»,.0 document has been received from the reproduced as originating it person or organintion 0 Minor changes have been made improve reproduction lo quality - TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES - - - - - Points of viewor opinions stated INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" document donot nocessanly in thas official OERI regrows( position Of poky Research, both pure and applied, and creative activities are ongoing and essential aspects ot lite on the campuses of Indiana Universitc . The quality of instructional education at any institution is tremendously enhanced if based upon and continuously associated with research and creative inquiry. It is significant, therefore, that the emphasis at It: not only is placed upon fundamental and basic research but also is directed toward developmental activities designed to discover those applications of research that characterize the efforts of many of our faculty in the arts and sciences as well as in the professional schools. As an overview of the diverse and interesting programs ot research. scholarship, and creative activities conducted at Indiana University. Research 6, Creative Activity offers its readers an opportunity to become familiar with the professional accomplishments of our distinguished faculty and graduate students. We hope the articles that appear in Research 6- CreatiPe Activity continue to be intellectually stimulating to readers and make them more aware of the great diversity and depth of the research and artistic creativity under way at Indiana University. A full and c \citing life 1- being created here, now and for the future. From our readers %Ye welcome suggestions for topics for future articles in Research ,!--, C rea f tz.r A, t n.11 ii that %Yin demonstrate further the scholarly activity at Indiana University. Research & Creative Activity

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

\ ,thnne \ N. umber ; Creative Writing and the Future 2 Ianuar\ jou', IU's Creative Writing Program: 1. Past, Present, and Future 3 Roger Mitchell It's a Matter of Character 5 Close to the Center 7 Michael Shermis A Postmodern Twist on Moderntst C -ncerns 8 Speaking the Mini and ;pint ot a Peop:e 10 Tish Zapata Poets as Teachers as Poets 12 .iurprisina tt-tc P 13 Heather Shupp Poetry Made AccessCnle 16

iitortai Champions of Prose and Poetry Praise Alicia Crabtree the "Bloomington Experience" 17 Playwright Haven 18 14,.ad Behind the Facade: The Lilly Library s Creative Side 21 Jeff Alberts Jeremy Dunning From Inquiry to Publication 22 Books by Indiana University faculty members Roger Farr Curtis Simic George E. Walker

Research & Creative Activihy is published three times each academic year by the Office of Research and the University Graduate School, with support from the Indiana University Foundation and the IU Alumni Association. Subscription matters, requests for permi.sion to reprint material, and editorial correspondence should be addressed to the Associate Editor, Research & Creative Activity, Office of Research and the University Graduate School, Indiana University, Bryan Hall 104, Bloomington, IN 47405-1201 or via electronic mail to orugsRindiana.edu. Subscriptions are available upon request. All contents Copyright © 19% by the Indiana University Foundation. Printed by Indiana University Printing Services on recycled paper.

An online edition of this magazine is on the World Wide Web, The URL is http://wwwindiana.edut-rugshcaitoc.html Aeratd. j CL, Litt, elLftal.2Za "01.Ve4 dad-t Clue , zi .7 a rsurtr Cair

Disciplines neverseem to stand focus instead on the work of art and Amazing, we say, but that still. They keep beingrein- the aesthetics under whichit was may vented. Take literature. be where much of thefuture of cre- At one time written. The inevitablereaction to it was thought redundant ative writing lies. Creativewriting to teach that has now broughtus back to the literature of one'sown lan- one form or another of culturally- programs will certainly continueto find and ericourage guage. Anyone could read it,any- based criticism, which a good number tends to see of tomorrow's authors, one smart enough to be in authors less as conscious the task that artists has come to be their university, (hat is. Thestudy of lit- working independently central concern, and freely but already, at the erature was entirelyan extracurric- and more as agents of undergraduate large and level, the future Dickinsons ular enthusiasm. Thencame the complex historical forces. and Dreisers sit among large Germans with theirhistorically and The same restlessnesssur- numbers of their peers who lookto creative linguistically-based scholarship rounds creative writing.As we who said, in whatcame to be called know r t today, creative writing for other kinds ofhelp: help writing is with language "life and times" criticism,that applied aesthetics, the use, help with cre- training ative thinking .nd personal works of literaturecannot be prop- writers receive is similar expres- in intent to siveness, help with literary erly known withoutrigorous cours- the training painters receive in a interpretation. es in philology. school of fine arts. The faculties of The challenge that After that came critics(they the numerous (onehas to say, academic were called "new") who said, increasingly numerous) programs in creative writing face programs today is to meet ignore the biography andthe social in creative writing in a rapidly rising American col- interest in the subject forces surrounding theauthor and leges and universitiesconsist among both almost entirely of serious undergraduate and graduatestu- practicing dents and to do writers. Oddly, this is so in broad and a new condi- realistic ways that tion, one that the practice are not limited to and study the simple production of creative writing inour universi- of authors. A challenge, it seems tome, already ties has evolved intoonly in the last being met by themany fine writers forty or fifty years. D. G.Myers, teaching in the IUsystem. who has just publishedthe first full scholarly study of creative writing, Roger Mitchell, Director The Elephants Teach,traces the teach- ing of this subject back Creative Writing Program to 1880. As Indiana University Bloomington he points out, creativewriting was first introducedas an alternative tool in the teaching ofliterature, alternative to the standardtool of that day, philology. Creativewrit- ing was an antecedentto what we now call composition andwas intended solely to givestudents an opportunity to inhabit thespirit of the literature theywere being asked to read rather than tocatalog ety- mological obscurities.

f

Roger Mitchell, Professor of English and Directorof the Creative Writing Program,Indiana University Bloomington

2 INDIANA UNIVERSITY 774thaz.i. awA oneuz44freeti. ..diudAette.,.0cat.e. TU's Creative Writing Program: Past, Present, and Future by Heather Shupp

When Indiana University Yellen, who both taught creative notes. For Mitchell, combining established the second cre- writing until the early 1970s. teaching with writing has been ative writing program in the nation By the time Mitchell arrived rewarding. "Being able to teach in 1948, it set a precedent that has on campus in 1975, IU was begin- English has continuously fed my been followed by nearly every ning to have trouble attracting top writing," he says. "I have some- other creative writing program creative writing students because it times written poems in response to established since that time: it devel- did not offer a Master of Fine Arts some of my students' poems, and I oped its program within the Eng- in creative writing, a degree that respond all the time to the literature lish department. "Although the had begun to be offered at other I read to teach." University of Iowa had already universities in the 1950s and '60s. For M.F.A. in creative writing established its program in the By addir% the M.F.A. in creative candidates at IU who do wish to '30s," Roger Mitchell, a poet and writing in 1980, "We opened our- teach, receiving their degree from a professor of English on the Bloom- selves up to a larger group of stu- program that exists within an Eng- ington campus who has taught in dents," Mitchell explains. The lish department may stand them in IU's writing program since 1975, addition of the M.F.A. was also an good stead. "We require our stu- explains, "Iowa from the outset impetus for the department to add dents to take sixteen hours of grad- established its creative writing pro- more faculty. Today, although there uate literature courses," Mitchell gram separate from an English are more applicants in fiction (stu- says. "Because of this heavy litera- department. There is only one dents must choose either fiction or ture component, a graduate can other department that I know of in poetry when applying), the Bloom- the country since that time that has ington faculty has finally achieved followed that lead, and that is a balance. Of the eight professors in Johns Hopkins. Every other pro- the Creative Writing Program, four WV gram in the country has followed are poets and four are fiction writ- the lead of IU." ers (the fourth just joined the facul- Two factors may have prompt- ty this fall). One of the fiction ed IU to begin offering an Master writers also writes nonfiction. of Arts in creative writing in the While there is no M.F.A. pro- late 1940s. The university had been gram at IU for nonfiction writers, hosting a writers conference since Mitchell says the nonfiction writing 1940, which perhaps sparked inter- course offered within the Creative est in creative writing among IU's Writing Program is very popular. English professors. In addition, "it "There has been an interest for was right after the war, and this some time in blurring the lines was the beginning of a transforma- between fiction and nonfiction, fic- tion of American universities," tion and poetry," he says, suggest- Mitchell notes. "The student body ing that creative writing is perhaps changed; there were new interests best defined not by a narrow focus out there." on fact or fiction, but by the nature A young fiction writer named of the "authorial presence." Cre- Peter Taylor, who was associated ative writing is "powerfully driven with a group of scholars called the by the author, by an authorial pres- New Critics, was brought to the ence, and that's what probably can Bloomington campus to found the spill into nonfiction and make that program. Initially, the M.A. in cre- kind of thing creative rather than ative writing was merely a modi- critical," Mitchell says. fied M.A. in literature. Two of the Over nine hundred students .0466X1 seminars required for the literature take a creative writing course at IU degree were replaced with creative each year, but no more than twelve I graduate students are admitted to /.s writing workshops, and a creative Indiana Review is 1,diana'soldest literary magazine, pub- rather than critical or literary thesis the Creative Writing Program annu- lishing poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and photo-essays. Ran was required. The program pro- ally. Most of the students who pur- entirely fry graduate students, it sponsors visiting writers duced its first graduate, poet David sue an M.F.A. in creative writing at and local readings. The listing forIndiana Reviewin the Wagoner, in 1949. Taylor, who IU want to teach at the university 1996 Poet's Marketstates, "This magazine's reputation con- remained at IU only a few years, level, but "there are noticeable num- tinues to grow in literary circles. It is generally acLepted now

as one of the best publications, featuring all styles . . was succeeded by fiction writer bers who go off willingly into other . William Wilson and poet Samuel areas such as editing," Mitchell present himself or herself as some- fiction writer. IU's one who could teach literature M.F.A. in cre- ative writing candidates graduates with M.F.A.'s,unless courses at an undergraduate further creative writing evolves and level." immerse themselves in the devel- He also notes thatcreative writing world ops in directions I think it is of contem.)orarywriting by editing graduate students at IUhave the already moving in, namely Indiana Review,a nationally recog- in the opportunity to teach creativewrit- direction of becominga version of ing as well as composition. In nized literary journal.The journal, many which prints composition or way of doingcom- programs, graduate students teach poems, short stories, position, or in the direction author interviews, andbook of only compositioncourses. This being a tool of self-expressionor breadth of experience reviews, has been publishedfor prepares more than fifteen years. The something like therapy" Henotes graduates of the IUprogram "for editor that he has seen at least and associate editorof the journal one univer- life in a real Englishdepartment sity advertisingan M.F.A. in "pro- are always graduate studentsin where creative writingteaching fessional writing." Thisnew twist creative writingonein poetry, the opportunities might be limit- other in fiction. on the M.F.A. is designedto "teach ed," Mitchell says. you how to write commercially Reflecting on how teaching or Creative writing students make money with at creative writing has evolved your writing," IU also benefit fromthe over Mitchell says. the twenty years hehas been at IU, presence of the Indiana A booming job marketand the Mitchell says, "Thebiggest change University Writers' opportunity to makea lot of money is that creative writingas I knew it Conference on probably are not, however,the pri- when I started teachingback in the the Bloomington early '60s was something mary reasons students choseto campus each sum- that you pursue M.F.A.'s in creative writing. did only if you wantedto." Now, mer. The five-day "People want help withtheir writ- however, some students,such as conference, which ed9cation majors ing, and they also wanta writing has been described by preparing to community. I think that has tiAach English,must take a creative been a Kurt Vonnegut Jr.as real draw of creative writing course to fulfilldegree writing pro- "the most respectable grams," Mitchellsays. "Many writ- requirements. This hascaused writers' conference I Mitchell and other ers that we know or whoare know," attracts nationally creative writing making names for professors at IU to rethinktheir themselves now known writers to teach have been throughan M.F.A. pro- teaching strategies. "Theway I classes, lead workshops,and learned creative gram or something like it." While give readings and talks. writing, the origi- some critics claim that M.F.A. nal mechanism,was the work- pro- Mitchell, who directedthe con- shop," Mitchell grams have become conventional ference for ten years, says. In a says, workshop, each and traditional and thatthey may "What writers' conferences participant sub- tend to homogenize have mits a piece of writing creative work done and perhaps still and it is cri- by giving all writers doto tiqued by the group. The similar experi- charge people's batteries.The ences and outlooks, Mitchell effectiveness of this methodfor spark is fading,or they've been asserts that M.F.A.programs are teaching beginners hasbeen ques- too long in wherever it is,some tioned in recent simply part of thecurrent cultural little town somewhere, years, according to and all Mitchell. Less critical mechanism for producingwriters. of a sudden they throwthem- methods such "Shakespeare didn't get as free writing and "sharing,"in an M.F.A., selves into a place where but if Shakespearewere alive which students readtheir work to there are 100 or 150 other today, you can besure he would the class andpeers make only posi- people like themselves. tive comments, get an M.F.A. Shakespearedid are being used what was culturally It is one of the most more often in introductory available to creative him at the time, which energizing experi- writing courses. For was writing ences you can have." more plays for the very popular advanced writers,however, the Eliza- Other experiences that bethan theater," Mitchellsays. workshop is stillconsidered useful, can stimulate students but Mitchell points Although he believespursuing an out that it has M.F.A. is a useful are attending and giving its limitations. "You mechanism for readings. For the past three could put Par- becoming a writer, Mitchell adise Lost in front ofa workshop readily years, the Students' Choice and any good workshop acknowledges its limitations."I Readings series has brought would find myself saying find ways to criticizeit. Also, as to students, you acclaimed poets and fiction don't need an M.EA.to write. If wnters to IU Bloomington much as peer evaluationis useful to and instructive, the you've got some otherway to do it, read. Writers including best teachers then you ought to John Ash- are and always will be the explore that berry, T C Boyle, CharlesSimic, gfeat option. An M.F.A. isn't writers that a writercares for." a license to James Tate, and JamaicaKincaid write, and it doesn't Looking ahead, Mitchell guarantee you have given readingsat IU as part of are going to write, but ifyou are this series Graduate believes that theteaching of cre- students in ative writing in looking for personal helpand creative writing also give universities "hasor their own will shortly reach encouragement for your writing, readings Each of the some limit, well-attended defined I suppose by there is nothing better." readings usually pairsa poet and a there being less and less ofa job market for

INDIANA UMW 1.3614.44.1afi Qtts.m. al.Pun '621144;d....atdiect., :If".42. <4.- . I ev'aeir .detv.i . al-Lae 6tro It'saMatter of Character by Susan Moke

In Frances Sherwood's novel The three stories described above Green, the unworldly daughter of have at least two things in common: Mormon parents comes of age dur- they all offer interpretations of ing the Beat era in a small California American cultural contexts and town. Fleeing an alcoholic mother experiences, and they do so from a who locks her in closets and a chau- clearly defined generational per- vinistic father who habitually wakes spective. Each story was recently her from sleep to spend the wee published by ail award-winning hours of the morning scrubbing Indiana University professor whose woodwork while he lectures her work belies the old adage that those about cleanliness being next to god- who can, do, and those who can't, liness, Zoe McLaren searches alter- teach. Frances Sherwood is a profes- nately for freedom and sanctuary. sor of English at Indiana University She turns first to the freethinking South Bend. Tony Ardizzone is a family of her Negro friend Margo professor of English at Indiana Uni- and then to a succession of other- versity Bloomington, and Alyce wise marginalized individuals. Miller recently joined the faculty of the Indiana University Bloomington English department as an assistant professor. In Tony Ardizzone's story "Baseball Frances Sherwood followed Fever," an Italian American boy her highly acclaimed 1993 novel growing up on Chicago's North Vindication, a fictional retelling of Side draws his own conclusions the life of eighteenth-century British about whether to live according to feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, with the Baltimore Catechism sternly Green (1995). Sherwood's new novel imparted to him by the Sisters of explores the more recent history of Christian Charity or to follow the the 1950s and 60s through the : 4 creed of the "line-drive slugger's through the eyes of Zoe McLaren, a V commandments" he's developed gawky seventeen-year-old afflicted Frances Sherwood, Professor of English, with his neighborhood cronies. A with a nervous blink and a desire to Indiana University South Bend tragic accident during a Saturday learn about the world that lies Before Vindication was pub- morning sandlot triple-header beyond her family's Danish modern lished, Sherwood herself was some- leaves the boy racked with guilt and living room and restrictive Mormon what of an outsider in the world of imagining that the rest of his short beliefs. Sherwood says she is inter- publishing. Although she had life will be spent lingering just out- ested in outsiders, in marginalized already won two 0. Henry awards, side the door to one of Hell's wait- points of view, and her books cer- received a National Endowment for ing rooms. tainly give voice to that interest. In the Arts grant, and been a Stegner Vindication, Sherwood depicts Mary Fellow at Stanford, Sherwood could Wollstonecraft as a woman who not find an agent willing to repre- In Alyce Miller's story "Summer in lived outside the bounds of propri- sent her novel. Finally, she took Detroit," a sick-at-heart African ety and within a crowd of radical matters into her own hands and American track coach revisits scenes eighteenth-century intellectuals sent the Vindication manuscript, from his youth. As he sits in the (including William Blake, Tom with what must have been a com- house of his dying German grand- Paine, and William Godwin) among pellingly persuasive cover letter, to mother, from whom he has become whom she was the only female. her "dream publisher," Farrar, estranged over the years, the man Similarly, Zoe McLaren, the heroine Straus & Giroux. An editor rescued relives glorious summer afternoons of Green is an outsider in nearly Vindication from the slush pile, and that he spent as a child in his grand- every context she encountersin Sherwood's first novel subsequent- mother's flower garden. Counter- her own Mormon household, in the ly appeared on the New York Timo poised to these sunlit reminiscences family of her left -wing intellectual Notable Fiction List and was fea- are memories of the painful events friend Margo, aid among the beats tured in Publisher's Weekly Top Nov- that transpired during the Detroit and hippies with whom 'lie eventu- els of 1993. It was also nominated riots that irrevocably changed his ally associates. for the highly prestigious National life and that of his family. Book Critics' Circle Award. Tristar Studios, proposing Jonathan Demme as director (Silence of the 05. quips, "Needless tosay, I was very Because just as thegame aware that this was not a Mormon has its men in black who Temple with a baptismal call tub in the the balls and strikes, thefairs k basement or where I wouldget and fouls, the safes and 5. outs, so magic underwear for life anda my life has its crew of women secret name to get into heaven. dressed in black hoods, floor- Everything had happenedso fast. I length black robes cinchedby could not quite believe Iwas even beads, and oversized white getting married. I had to keep bow ties. The Sisters of Christ- insisting to myself that this ian Charity, to whom Iwas was the delivered at age six by most important day ofmy life, ... my well- that marriage meaning parents for instruction was marriage and I and the salvation ofmy eternal had better watchmy step." soul. Imagine the toughest In the over-the-edgeenviron- Marlboro cowboy driving the ment in which she eventuallyfinds naive calf from its mother's herself, however, Zoe"watches her shadow and then ropingit, step" to no avail. When hergroom tying off its hooves, drawing descends into drug-inducedschizo- out horn the Pentecostalflames phrenia, Zoe is thrown backon her of the campfire the red-hot own meager resources and forced brands of Guilt and Fear,and to then burning the calf's hide find sanctuary wherevershe can. while it writhes andsqueals Tony Ardizzone, Professor of Compared with Vindication,Green like one of the Three Little English, Indiana University traces a more contemporary Pig- Bloomington and gies being devoured by theBig personal development offeminist Bad Wolf, and you havea fairly Lambs and Philadelphia) andTed Tal- sensibilities and thus hasa certain accurate picture of my life's ley as scriptwriter, hasjust optioned generational appeal. One could early religious education. the film rights for Vindication. almost call it a feminist Per- recasting of Ardizzone's reviewers have haps this is part of thereason Sher- Kerouac's On the Road. Thenovel's noted that the storiescollected in wood refers to Wollstonecraftas her section names ("Howl,""Lunch," Taking It Home patron saint. "Dharma," "Road," "Kaddish") are rendered in "an fur- unusual mix of styles that To a certain extent, Vindication ther reinforce the reference range to Green's from urban realismto comparative- found a ready-madeaudience beat-generation literaryprecursors. ly experimental to sinister."Com- among feminists and historians. Sherwood is currentlyat work on a menting on the evolution ofIris Green, on the other hand,offers novel that continues thestories of writing styles, Ardizzonesays his readers an interpretationof more some of the characters in Green. approach has grown andchanged recent historythe prefeminist, Like Sherwood, Tony Ardiz- with each book he has zone also transforms his cultural published. convention-bound years of the His first novel, In the Name Eisenhour era during which milieu and personal history of the Sher- into the Father (1978), advanceda spare, wood herself came ofage. One of stuff of fiction. In thespring of 1996 minimalist style ina story about her reviewers has notedthat both of Ardizzone will publish hisfifth three young men of differentethnic Sherwood's novels teaseout "the book, Taking It Home:Stories from the backgrounds coming ofage in drama of a feminist sensibilitysur- Neighborhood, a collection ofstories facing at a particular time that offers firsthand Chicago during the 1950sand '60s. and place. experience of He tried new stylistic forms She writes with passion old neighborhoods and with his about old ways. short story collection The abuse, alcoholism, and As one of his reviewers Evening profound has noted, News (1986), which garnered friendships between Ardizzone "has a special him women." capacity the 1985 Flannery O'Connor While the language (if for appreciating the Award not the sub- values of home for Short Fiction. Ardizzone ject) of Vindication is somewhat and family, of ethnic pride says he for- and more fully explored some possibili- mal and staid, and thenarrative is humor, and of street smarts."Sever- ties of first-person voicein his third rendered from a cool,removed, al of his stories drawon Ardizzone's book, a baseball novelcalled Heart third-person perspective,Sherwood Italian American backgroundand of the Order (1986),which begins in has characterized thelanguage of rely on a sense of traditionfrequent- Chicago and moves tothe American Green as distinctly"smart-ass Amer- ly offered in counterpointto an South and West. In Larabi'sOx ican." Describing herwedding in a engagingly contemporarysensibili- (1992), a collection of fourteeninter- beat-pad, basement-roomceremo- ty, as the opening of hisstory "Base- related stories set inMorocco, ny, Green's first-person narrator ball Fever" from TakingIt Home illustrates. Ardizzone says he workedwith a level of language thatwas more

Continued on page 9 6 INDIANA UNIVERSITY Close to the Center by Nancy Cassell McEntire

When he is writing, he is at his students to write as a way of discov- computer by six a.m., or ering who they are. "The ability to even five or five-thirty if the long write clearly and cogently and con- light of summer gets him started cretely is a tremendous skill for stu- sooner. Six days a week, five or six dents to develop," he says. "It will hours a day, he works at his craft, enrich their capacity as thinkers. It producing novels, essays, and sto- will make them notice more about ries that touch people from all their world and reflect more on walks of life. their lives." During the twenty-four years Sanders describes himself as a that he has been teaching literature man preoccupied with "place and and creative writing on the Indiana land and nature and family," who in University Bloomington campus, recent years has been "moving Professor of English Scott Russell towards an interest in community." Sanders has been part of what he His newest work, a book about describes as "a cluster of writers" at hope, "will speak of healing and Indiana University, professors who renewal, within individuals and work steadily at their art and "teach within communities and within the out of their practice." There is no larger culture." Many writers, substitute for that, Sanders says, for including himself, have "invested a students in his writing classes are lot of energy in identifying wounds learning from someone who knows, such as loss, suffering, causes of first-hand, the writer's life. He is liv- harm to people and to communi- ing proof to them that art matters ties," he says. "I am at a point in my enough to him that he has to do it. life where I feel the need to speak to "If you want to be a musician," he my children, to my students, to the says, "you have to play music every younger generation coming along, day. If you want to be a writer, you about what resources I feel we have have to play your instrument and what resources the planet has which is languageevery day." for renewal." After fifteen years of writing Sanders' collection of essays Writing from the Center was just Scott Russell Sanders, Professor of English, only fiction and six years of writing Indiana University Bloomington both fiction and nonfiction, Sanders released by Indiana University has become almost exdusively a Press (Fall 1995). "It dwells a lot inward search for the source of our writer of nonfiction. He has done a more on the Midwest than my other being." As he balances the responsi- few children's books, which he books have," Sanders says, "and on bilities of being a writer, a teacher, a describes as a "little outlet for fic- what, if anything, distinguishes this husband, a father, and a son, tion," but his energies have turned region, this culture. The center I am Sanders says he tries hard to stay mainly to the personal narrative. I talking about in that book has sever- close to the center in his own life. discovered," he says, "that what I al meanings. One is geographical He is moving towards it, and he is do best and what I do in the fullest our dewelling here in the center of writing towards it, "always seeking and most complete way is to write the continent, this great heartland. to lead a whole and gathered life." about the things that concern me in Other meanings are social and eco- light of my experience and my logicalour dwelling within the observations." Sanders draws from circles of family and community this practice as he encourages his and place. And yet another mean- ing of 'center' is spiritualour Postrnodern Twist

on Modernist Concerns by Susan Moke

Cornelia Nixon, a professor of Nixon has the visionary's habit lives before they meet. You see [the English on the Indiana Uni- of talking about her characters as woman's] life the way she experi- versity Bloomington campus, is a though they are real people. She enced it. It's not the background for woman who practices what she says she composes her characters' her marriage; it's her life." teaches. I remember sitting, several lives out of details drawn from her Nixon's anxiety about the risk years ago, in an undergraduate own experiences or from the lives involved in her current narrative class she was teaching about mod- of people she has met. She may take experiment must be somevlhat ernist novels. She talked about how the mannerisms of one person, the diminished considering the praise James Joyce and Virginia Woolf for- profession of another, the back- published excerpts from the novel ever changed the way our inner ground of another, and then layer have received. "The Women Come lives are portrayed in fiction. She these details one on top of the other and Go," published in Prize Stories used D. H. Lawrence novels to until the character takes on a life of 1995: The 0. Henry Awards, is a illustrate how marriage became the her own and starts "to talk and do story about her female protago- subject of the modernist novel things and become someone else." nists' first experience of sexual self- when it had traditionally only been Nixon says her characters are consciousness. It won a 1996 the happy ending. Nixon talked "absolutely real" to her. Pushcart Prize and was naned by about how modernist writers Nixon's first book of fiction, a the 0. Henry judges as the best worked to reflect what she called novel-in-stories called Now You See short story published in 1994. the anomie, the chaos and fragmen- It (1991), tells the emotional truth Nixon has also published three tation of a world where Enlighten- from the vantage of both the par- other stories from the novel: "Risk" ment certainties no longer held ents and the children of a family (Prize Stories 1993: The 0. Henry true. As a late twentieth-century living in Berkeley, California, Awards), "Charm" (Ploughshares, writer, Nixon can't really be called a through the decades of the 1940s, spring 1995), and "Season of Sensu- modernist, but her writing explores '50s, and '60s. New York Times ality" (The Gettysburg Review, sum- this range of subjects. reviewer Michiko Kakutani praised mer 1995). the collection of seven interrelated As a teacher of creative writ- stories as "a luminous and com- ing, Nixon helps apprentice writers pelling book, a captivating photo discover and refine their ability to album filled with vivid verbal tell the stories that really matter to snapshots of familial love and dis- them. She says teaching literature is integrafion" and noted that Nixon quite different from teaching fiction "also creates a finely shaded picture writing. "In a literature class, peo- of Berkeley and its noisy embrace ple aren't as implicated. It's not of the 1960s counterculture." their woik under discussion. You For the last five years, Nixon don't have to maneuver around the has been at work on a novel that ego factor as much." Nixon offers a postmodern twist on mod- explains that she remains vigilant ernist depictions of marriage. She about her students' vulnerabilities renders the fust half of the novel in in part by repeating her own ver- parallel narratives that chart the sion of a writing teacher's mantra trajectories of two people toward before going into a classroom or a one another and their eventual tutorial: "I tell myself to be humble. marriage. She says the novel is Not to show off. To suggest criti- somewhat of a narrative experi- cisms rather than hammer them. ment. "It used to be that novels And I tell myself that I don't have about marriage ended with the to be right. What I really want is to marriage. Nowadays they almost enable the writer to see what is always start with [it], and the novel wrong with her story without me looks at the marriage itself with a pointing it out, because that means few little flashbacks to past rela- so much more." tionships and events to show how they bear on what is happening in the relationship. The thing I am doing in this book that is scary, and may in fact not even work, is show- Cornelia Nixon, Professor of English, ing the reader Rhe characters' I early Indiana University Bloomington ! work, they runaway from it. I think truly good writing riskssentimen- tality but doesn't indulgein it." Like Sherwood's and Ardiz- zone's work, Alyce Miller'sThe Nature of Longing (1994), whichwon the 1993 Flannery C, ConnorAward for Short Fiction,moves beyond cul- tural boundaries created bygender, ethnicity, and race. Millersays the seven short stories andone novella in the Nature of Longing"are connect- Alyce Miller, Assistant Professor ed r :lost obviously by of English,Indiana University Bloomington their concern with the points at which complex than that ofany of his Mr` races inter- chapter set in 1912 inLawrence, sect." the title story, an aging, ceding books. He allowedhis lan- Massachusetts, at the outbreak secretly gay, black librarian guage to be influenced by the rich of in a small the Lawrence TextileStrike. This Midwestern town models history of Islamic art andarchitec- his soli- chapter, narrated by thefamily's tary life after the ture and to becomemore elaborate courage and refine- oldest brother Gaetano,depicts the ment he admired in his long-dead and ornate while at thesame time Italian strikers becoming retaining fundamental so desper- Cousin Pearl. In "ColorStruck," accuracy of ate that they sent their children detail. Larabi's Ox which reviewers have praisedfor its was selected by away on trains to New York City writer Gloria Naylor to subtlety, a new mother'sinability to as recipient of be clothed and fed. This the 1992 Milkweed National and other think of a name for thealbino child Fiction chapters incorporate oral Prize. It also wo, a Pushcart folktales to whom she has given birthserves Prize and include characterswho are ani- as a thin disguise for her inability and the 1993 Ch,ago Foundation to mals, including a crueloverseer accept the infant. In "Summerin for Literature Award forFiction. In named Don Babbuinu addition, Ardizzone has been (Sicilian for Detroit," a middle-aged, black, baboon) and his sadaccomplice junior high school track coach awarded two NationalEndowment Don Gattu, a cat whowitnessed the spends an afternoon with his for the Arts fellowshipsin fiction. dying murder of his seven childrenand German grandmother who The novel Ardizzone iscur- is white. whose tears areso copious that a While his grandmother rently working on marksanother hovers in the river forms wherever hewalks. "narrow distance betweensleep and departure in his style in thatit con- "When Don Gattu stands tains elements of magical still," death," the alienated middle-aged realism. Ardizzone says, "minnows In the Garden of Papa and tad- man (Franklin) revisits scenes from Santuzzu relates poles leap over his tail. the stories of a Sicilian The chap- his youth that Miller renderswith a family's ter's narrator, Ciccina seven children who immigrate Agneddina, compelling lyricism. Shecounter- in claims that the mourningdove poises the man's disillusionment three waves to Americaat the turn received its name becauseit drank about the dreams destroyed of the century. As thegrandson of in the so deeply from Don Gattu'ssalty dark smoke of the Detroitriots Sicilian immigrants, Ardizzonesays river of grief that its that he knew all of his life coat turned against his memories of strolling that he gray and its cry became sad and would one day write through his grandmother'sgarden a book about plaintive." the immigrant experience. as a child on a summer afternoon: "I saved Ardizzone says that he the material until I became was older and a writer because he "envied the ... he looked out the win- more certain I'd get it right," he dow where the gardenused to power that writers have" andhe says. His book combinessome sto- be. Silence reigned.Butterfly- wanted to do what heenvied. One ries told to him by hisgrandmoth- wing silence, so quietyou of the most strikingaspects of could imagine the creatures' erhis grandfather diedbefore Ardizzone's work lieshis ability wings beating as they alighted Ardizzone was bornas wellas to convey powerful emotion many he has simply imagined. with- on flower petals. At least that's what Freida had told based on reading and out spectaculari zing the feelingor Franklin research in reducing it to sentimentality. so long ago, when they used to historical archives including Ardiz- the zone explains his approach stroll through that once-flour- Library of Congress' to liter- collection of ary expressions of deep feeling: ishing garden, there inthe old immigrant oral histories. "Many writers learn part of Detroit, where The stories thl t make to avoid senti- up In the mentality to the extent that grasshoppers sizzled in the Garden of Papa SafitliZZII when white heat of include a genuine sentiment summer in the crops up in their long, tall grass growingalong

1 2 Speaking the Mind and Spirit of a People by Bob Baird

Afro-Ametican Studies, he also their senses." He says you can teach His is a world of stories and them what not to do: "easy" satire ideas, characters and plots shepherds probings of Afro-Amer- or sarcasm, writing in a given form that spill forth like froth from a ican fiction, nonfiction, folkore, history, music, theater, and other that has served them in the past but good beer. The listener, whether a doesn't work in the present. student, literary buff, or visitor to art forms. Because black America One hears in McCluskey an his office, faces the happy dilemma is an integral part of the American overwhelming fondness and appre- of drinking it all in. For John experience, he is in a pivotal posi- tion to project his own voice and ciation for the American experience, McCluskey Jr., chairman of Indi- despite its growing pains, and for ana University's Department of comment upon past and present English literature in general. Names Afro-American Studies and voices and forces peopling the such as Did:ens, Twain, Joyce, adjunct professor of English, the American landscape. Faulknei; Fitzgerald, Williams, and froth of good writing is akin to By merit of his own writing, Albee surface in his speech, as do truth serum in revealing one's McCluskey is an occasional lectur- Welty, Baldwin, Ellison, Wright, depth and breadth of moral vision er in IU's Creative Writing Pro- Morrison, and Marquez. After any and understanding of the human gram and serves on M.F.A. exchange with McCluskey, one condition. McCluskey, an engag- committees. Invariably, he sounds comes away with greater respect for ing person who entertains as he a clarion call for being true to one's great literature and the mind and provokes thought, easily qualifies characters and telling a good story. spirit of a people. as a Renaissance man in connect- "Be open to your characters," he Besides numerous short sto- ing the past and present, one disci- says. "Be generous with them ... close to them; be consistent." Often ries, essays, and commentaries, pline with another. such as his foreword to The Collect- While literary history and a commanding voice resounds in ed Stories of Rudolph Fisher, which criticism color a lion's share of the McCluskey's short stories and novels, but he admits that some- he edited, McCluskey is the author courses McCluskey teaches in times two voices merge. He often of Look What They Done to My Song, takes a "selective omniscient" a humorous depiction of jazz stance as a writer, he says. His is music in Boston in the 1960s, and an eclectic world where mind and Mr. America's Ust Season Blues, an body, spirit and psyche explore, existential journey of a retired ath- examine, conjure, imagine, and lete working as a bartender in the invite r.,:rticipation. Midwest. He is currently working In all his endeavors. on two other novels, Chicago Jubilee McCluskey tends to inculcate an Rag, probing the last year of Fred- overriding concern: be true to erick Douglass's life, and The River yourself, whether you're an People, a sojourn into magical real- African American, southern white, ism, after the Marquez manner, big-city liberal, or an average describing people in pursuit of a bloke. "Listen to the voices," he compatible place. says, evoking response from any- In an age of CD-ROMs, the one who listens. "Listen to the Internet, and televised courtrooms, region from which you come; McCluskey remains optimistic refine the idiom; look closely to the about the future of creative writing. world around you." McCluskey's "I think the writing will get done," voice is didactic, but also inspira- he says. 'We should trust tlie areas tional. "Don't talk down to your where language can take us." characters or show contempt." Asked how he teaches students to write, he has a quick answer: "You really can't." Amazingly forth- rightsome say refeshingly so McCluskey continues, "You ce,, teach them discipline, to sharpen their eyes, refine Cleft voice, tune

John McCluskey Jr, Professor of Afro-American Studies and Chairperson, Department of Afro-American Studies, Indiana University BloomMgton 13 her fence. And always, always, out to write about a misogynist in with contemporary writers: "A the butterflies fanning the air the abstract, he would have lot like so many orange, brown, of contemporary writing by become a merely a target, and the and yellow angels. They women, people of color, gays, etc., is story would very likely have dete- vibrated over the brilliant challenging traditional notions of flowers, touched down still riorated into "a futile andpre- narrative, pushing boundaries." trembling, then skipped lightly dictable diatribe. Instead," she While practicing their craft, from cosmos to zinnias, the explains, "I worked hard to these faculty members inspire,sup- sun shimmering on their 'become' the character, to discover port, and encourage apprentice wings. As a child, Franklin his humanity, to explore the depth writers. Unlike Miller and Ardiz- feared the over-brilliant flow- of his flaws." Miller thinks that it is zone, Frances Sherwood teaches ers might devou- them. the flaws rather than the perfec- only undergraduates,many of The stories collected in 11;,., tions of human nature that make whom are nontraditional students. Nature of Longing focuson the unre- characters interesting. Miller has One such student, who herself solved and ambiguousmoments in completed three more collections wants to teach writing, praises Sher- life that Miller says "are often of stories that have all been indi- wood's ability to engage students underestimated." And although vidually published in literaryjour- and to free up their creativity. the stories depict characters nals. She is currently finishing grap- a "Rather than being the typicalcere- pling with problems thatare inex- novel called Diva: My Mother'sSong bral teacher, she is a practitioner tricably tied to their race and/or that she describes as "a love story" who is very excited about whatshe gender, t ley are not stories about between a young girl of unknown does. She's very uninhibited and race. They are about people in situ- paternity and her quirky mother, uses her humor and commitment to ations made difficult bya diversity an aspiring opera singer, who dies writing to break down her students' suddenly when the girl is barely of cultural forcesrace beingone inhibitions." Ardizzone has earned of those influences. Miller feels into her teens. that similar admiration from hisstu- because "we live in a racialized Miller comes to Bloomington dents who comment from a year-long appointment on his willing- society, race is always a factor,even as ness to take time to offer thorough when it's not the immediate visiting professor of writing and focus." lit- ahd thoughtfulresponses to their erature at Ohio University where Miller says that she writes work. "Tony makes it a priority she was also the department's to very "character-driven" fiction. first prepare students for the real Rather than setting out to choice for the tenure-track write position world," says one student whogoes about abstract ideas suchas racism they sought to fill. The chair ofthe on to point out that Ardizzone helps or misogyny, she creates a charac- Ohio University English depart- his students understand the ter with whom she can empathize. ment praised Miller assomeone processes and procedures involved Miller notes that "empathy with who "not only writes well, but in getting their work published. characters is essential. Even if teaches writing well." Millersays Ardizzone sees his prime objective you're writing, say, [about] the that her own writing gives hera as encouraging his students' pro- most despicable characters,you clearer understanding of whather ductivity and helping them build must be able to connect with them students struggle with in their own the strength of character requiredto on the page, or else you endup work. Miller does belive thatthe take a first draft through the craft of writing fiction neces- with stereotypes or clichés."She can be sary stages until it becomes a fin- gives an example of a recently taught. "Writing is not just writ- an intu- ished story. Like Flaubert, whotold ten story called "Sorrow" in which itive act," she says, "and writersare an apprentice to simply concentrate not simply innocent, charmed the protagonist, a disaffected male ves- on "putting the black on the white," academic, is given to pointless sels into which this elusivecreativi- getting the ink on the page, Ardiz- affairs with his middle-aged ty flows. Good writing is informed zone and his colleagues encourage women students whom he dis- by intellectual rigor and a keen eye their students to get the byteon the paragingly calls "the housewives." for the world at large " Sheadvises disk and take it from there. Miller explains that if she hadset her students to read widely in all genres and to be willing to engage 444.at ails on .ocy eee4

poets who write and teach in a Maura Stanton, theRuth Lilly university often find thetwo Professor of Poetry science." Thoughinstructors can aspeCts of their on IU's Bloom- develop tried and professional lives ington campus, iscurrently director true techniques interrelated. Unlikea vast number of the Indiana that do seem tobenefit students, of workers who University Writers' Wojahn says, there necessarily must Conference, a post shealso held will always be stop work at the end ofthe dav, a from 1986 through challenges to suchapproaches. writer, whether producing 1990. Early in He adds, "every or not, her writingcareer, in 1974, Stanton workshop, every continues to perceiveand often was given a Yale Series class that you teachtends to be feels compelled of Younger situational." to communicateto Poets Award, andshe has received others intenselypersonal thoughts two grants from the Associate Professor ofEnglish and ideas. Three National Mary Fell teaches such contempo- Endowment for theArts. Stanton creative writmg, rary creative writers introduction to poetry, on the Indiana has published thepoetry collections and precom- University facultydevote their Snow on Snow position courses at (1975), Criesof Swim- Indiana Univer- time, careers, andattention to pur- mers(1982), and sity East in Richmond,Indiana. suing their creativity Tales of the Super- and develop- natural(1988), a novel titled Fell's collection ofpoetry,The Per- ment as poets and ficton Molly sistence of Memory writers as Companion(1977), and (1984), was well as to shepherding The Country I selected for the National both new Come From(1988), a collection of Poetry and experienced Series, and she has students through short stories aboutthe Midwest. published a the ins and outs of chapbook entitled writing. These Her fourth collectionof poetry, Life The Triangle Fire writers have carvedout for them- Among the Trolls, (1983). Fell is currentlyputting selves stimulating, scheduled to be together a chapbook fulfilling careers published in 1996,includes many of lyric poetry in which they havebeen fortunate poems that have appeared with the workingtitle Traveller's enough to catalyze inAmer- Advisory. A native of excitement, ican Poetry Reviewabout metaphori- Worchester, experience, and Massachussets, she even angst into cal trolls, "anybodywho stops you attended col- readable, tangibleprose and poetry from livinga free life lege there and foundherself in a in a public forum. ... land] culturally exciting keeps you from beingfully creative writing human," says Stanton. oasis where shemet a lot of work- ing poets, sometimes David C. Wojahn,a professor in the early of English and stages of their development. former Ruth Lilly Inspired by her Associate Professor of environment, Fell Poetry at IU became interested Bloomington, was namedby in creative writ- Richard Hugo ing and receivedher Master of Fine t as the 1981 winner of Arts in 1981 from the Yale Series ofYounger Poets. He the University of has received Massachusetts. Shesuggests that fellowships for the academia has become National Endowmentfor the Arts a haven for and the Fine Arts creative writing andwriters largely Work Center in because of the Provincetown, Massachusetts.A proliferation of member of the faculty M.F.A. programsin this country. of the Col- The university has lege of Arts andSciences since 1985, become "one of Wojahn is the author the few placeswhere the written of four collec- word is still tions of poetryIcehouseLights venerated," she points (1982), out, adding, however, Glassworks(1987),Mystery that she Train believes everyone iscapable of (1990), andLate Empire(1994). He also edited writing poetry, whetherattending a The Only World,a school or not. posthumous collectionof poetry by Stanton suggests the 1- Lynda Hull thatwas published last following June. Wojahn is theory: "I think whatthe college currently collecting can do is give [students] many of his previouslypublished some time essays for a book on .... It's the one period inyour life contempocary when you have American poetry.Wojahn teaches a little bit of time to an intensive graduate write. You need thatspace, that poetry work- time, to see if shop as wellas a large lecture- you are a writer." Whereas Wojahn and format introductorycourse on cre- Stanton teach ative writing. He creative writing at boththe gradu- JOU assures students ate and undergraduate that there are variedapproaches to levels at Mauro Stanton, RuthLilly IU Bloomington, Professor of Poetry,Indiana creative writing Fell's 1U East University Bloomington, instruction and students are all and Oleander labels it a "very,very inexact undergraduates, many of whom arereturning adult

12 Continued on page 14 INDIANA UNIVERSITY 15 Surprising thePoet by Many Cox Barclay

Tndiana University English Profes- literature is not removed from their 1;37,174 1sor Yusef Komunyakaa defines daily lives and the scope of their his love of poetry writingas "a imaginations." He defines success- healthy obsession." A prolific writer, ful poems as those of "celebrationas in 1994 alone Komunyakaawon the well as of deliberate analysis." Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his In his own writing, Komun- collection Neon Vernacular, the yakaa constantly tries to surprise Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry, the himself by working on threepro- William Faulkner Prize for Poetry jects simultaneously, aprocess that from Université Rennes, and the allows the imagery ofone poem to Alumni and Friends Award from influence that of another and often the University of Colorado at leads his poetry in new directions. Colorado Springs. Komunyakaa's Among his current projects is Plea- other published poetry collections sure Dome, a collection of lyrical nar- include Magic City (1992), Dien Cai ratives about modern historical Dau (1988), I Apologize for the Eyes lives, that is informed by world his- in My Head (1986), Copacetic (1984), tory and the African American and Lost in the Bonewheel Factory experience. Komunyakaa's inspira- (1979). tion to write the work, which he In addition to teaching a grad- anticipates will be a trilogy incorpo- uate poetry writing workshop, ratated into a single volume, Komunyakaa also teaches African stemmed from his readingyears American contemporary poetryas ago about characters like St. George, an adiunct associate professor in the Pushki, Zenobra, Terrence, and department of Afro-American Stud- Moshesh. "I had never seenpoems ies at IU Bloomington. Citing histo- about them, (and] I felt like they ry, philosophy, psychology, and were well-kept secrets," he says. He science, Komunyakaa remarks that chose to write Pleasure Dome in everything influences his writing three-line, indented, staggered stan- and that he tries to communicate Yusef Komunyakaa, Professor of English, zas, a form that he feels offers struc- Indiana University Bloomington this to his students so theycan expe- ture and allows the inclusion of rience "a whole percolatingreser- large amounts of information. Komunyakaa says he is con- voir of imagery." Komunyakaa Komunyakaa also plans to publish stantly challenged, stimulated, recalls, "I was a close observer of a poetry collection in 1997 titled often even surprised when writing things around me early on. That has Thieves of Paradise, an ongoing poetry. "I write everything down a lot to do with poetry... trying to work in seven sections about the and then go back to the poem with make sense of the world in all of its concept of paradise and the ways in the idea of cutting it." He adds, beauty and flux." Komunyakaa which it has been undermined. "Even when [my] poemsare pub- likes to talk about the surprises Komunyakaa is also workingon a lished, very often I'm still editing inherent in poetry; he wants his third collection of shorter, sixteen- .... So it is an ongoing process." students to be "surprised by the line poems in four-line stanzas; he musicality of the language, ... by has written about 50poems for the imagery, and surprised that what is likely to to be a 150-poem collection.

16 students taking her classes as an elective. She says of their work, "I'm amazed. In the creative writ- ing classes, they do it so willingly. They have a lot of pressures, but I think because it [the writing they do] deals with them, it doesn't impose restrictions." Stanton fre- quently gives her new students numerous exercises and models to work with that contain enough imagery and concrete detail to help them get into the frame of mind of David Wojahn, Professor of English, Indiana University Bloomington poetry reading and writing. All the professors concur that any class in her students to approach poetry to devote more time to their cre- poetry writing must include poetry reading and their attempts at writ- ative writing assignments. Stanton reading, and Fell stresses the ing poetry from a level of play, she herself tries to write at least daily, importance of reading poems maintains that "they usually do usually in the company of one of aloud, asserting firmly. "You can't have fun with it and... can feel like her two cats, Oleander and Olive. really know a poem until you've they're not risking anything emo- She maintains, "I think cats have heard it." tionally." One of Fell's techniques is emotions and intelligence. I can Fell encourages her students to to provide at the beginning of the really talk to [mine] and they lis- use a notebook, which has also semester a poetic form for students ten." Stanton says she is aware of become a valuable tool in her own to follow whereby they often unin- an acute need to write if she writing. She recounts an affirming tentionally "get hung up on the neglects it for too long. anecdote about her own writing structure instead of the content," As a teacher and a working experience, stating "The notebook is says Fell. This allows them to poet, Wojahn strives to communi- a really valuable tool ... but [until express themselves without being cate to his students an undimin- several years ago] I never really inhibited. "I believe that you can ished enthusiasm for the art of understood how it worked. I went teach people to write better," she poetry. He admits, "I think [people] away to this artist's colony .... and says, "but you cannot teach them to who write poetry or fiction would I was feeling very anxious, uptight, be writers." Fell suggests that for like to spend all their time writing," and I had this notebook. I started students to succeed as creative and yet, he adds, "I am always very writing down dreams, observations, writers, they must learn to write stimulated in my own work when I anything .... I had written in it in concretely, using imagery rather teach." He stresses the importance May or June, but I went back to it than platitudes, and, in short, the of providing students with appro- [much later] and in October, I found process means "learning to write priate models of poetry to emulate the perfect poem." During her years honestly. ... and getting in touch and prosodic samples that encour- of teaching, Fell has discovered that with their own voices." age them to develop and practice many of her students enter the Perhaps because of or in spite essential poetry writing skills. classroom with conventional and of academic time constraints and Wojahn asserts, "If you are teaching sometimes negative assumptions initial nervousness about poetry, the work, it is important to always about poetry; they might believe students often find that the chal- be aware of how the models you "that they have nothing to learn lenge of writing has a unique teach are going to be models for from other poets," Fell notes. In appeal. Stanton explains, "I realize each writer in a very specific and response, she tries to foster in her that they are probably taking all very subjective fashion." students an appreciation from the kinds of other courses, but I think Stanton believes that perhaps writer's perspective. She states, "If that they really like [writing]. . it the greatest gift she and other people experience what it is like to makes in their week a kind of space teachers can offer is to save writers write poetry, then that experience that's probably different from the time in their own development by will inspire them" and, as with time they're devoting to studying sharing with them the professional, many situations, she notes that for tests, or writing papers, things published poet's experiences and "having tried it yourself, you have a like that" and as a result, Stanton insights. From her own poetry greater appreciation." Convincing notes, they find themselves willing writing experiences, Stanton says she has learned to "see what's her classes and often they extraordinary in the ordinary" only Ironically, time constraints and complete about tenpoems in a Furthermore, she notes, "I've the demands of full livesand teach- semester. She confirms that ina cre- ing schedules become the learned to pay attention towhat's ative writing class, teaching a teacher "can poet's lament while simultaneously going on around me," citing that introduce students to she found inspiration for contempo- feeding the desire and one of her rary poetry its subject matter, and motivation to write creatively and prolifically. recent poems in the image ofa the basic techniques of child's angel in the poetry writ- With an extremely busy teaching snow while she ing .[and] can also show them was out walking one evening. It schedule, the summer isgenerally how to search for theirown materi- was "perfectly beautiful in the Fell's most productive writingperi- al." She explains, "I'maware that od. Whether teaching moonlight," she says. Similarly,she when I sit down to write, a creative a lot of writing class to inexperienced was inspired to write a poem after things happen unconsciously or researching the history of to me advanced writers, she findsthat as a woman that I try to establishas habits in my whose portrait had hungon her she encourages and speaksto stu- students." Often, she givesnew stu- wall for years and whosestory dents, she is also addressingherself dents a writing assignment oftwo had begun to fascinate her.Stanton as a writer in a kind of self-talk. "I poems reflecting on their child- tell myself to keep going, offers aspiring writers of allages hoods. Stanton asserts that in spite of and stages of development through the fact that there'sno time." the such an introduction students can Ultimately, the creative writing uplifting assurance that "youdon't learn that "their own lives have to have any wasted days are sig- teacher has the all-importantand nificant somehow and thatthey can as a writer." certainly challenging task ofbring- make sense out of their world" ing people to poetry. Wojahn Fell agrees, noting thatone of through poetry. the most important revelationsfor observes that "in manycases, what Once a writer recognizes that happens in a creative writing anyone learning or continuing to his or her own passions and class write is that "it's not con- is that even if the majority of a question of cerns can be verbalized in writing, people how good you are, just that a you teach in a writing class leave you're true understanding of thepower of doing it." Fortunately,as Wojahn creative writing and of whatit affirms, "the process by whichyou means to be a poet begins to write bad poems, the failedpoems, is often as valuable emerge. Wojahn maintains that as writing the when a writer isaware of his or her successful poems." And Stanton's concerns, the subjects begin to own process illustrates the point. select the poets. Hesays, "It seems Currently, says Stanton, "I have to me that most writers reallyhave about three years worth ofpoems, a rather limited number of subjects but it will be a while before I shape that they keep coming backto. It's a book out of them." Out ofa col- not so much an issue of choosing lection of maybe 150 poems, writ- those obsessions because ten over five or six years, Stanton [they] are going to be there, whethera writer finds that she eventually settleson likes it or not." According about 40 for publication and to dis- Wojahn, this situation makes cards the rest. for an interesting career andcan aid any To encourage their students writer's development. Very and themselves as poets, often, Wojahn, he explains, "the interestprecedes Stanton, and Fell recognize that the writing" and the they must continually emphasize writer's task is to find a variety of waysto address the process of creative writingand issues so that, although topicsrecur, de-emphasize the product. Asa the writing itself continues result, notes Wojahn, "through to be a lot fresh. Fell explains that herown of trial and error, Ithe aspiring writing reflects thematic writerl will eventually create concerns some- of physical displacementin a differ- thing that is good. . and lasting." ent culture. As a nativeeasterner, Stanton insists upon having her her most recent students revise their poetry for poems describe the Midwest landscapes shehas observed.

Mary Fell, Associate Professorof English, Indiana University East 1 1 8

=k011/1111111116 lifts/MAO.. IL m dasum- Poetry Made Accessible by Mary Cox Barclay

Richard and Ann Burke recall, They acknowledge that they were that class and never write again or with humor, that Richard liter- influenced by the informative brevi- only very infrequently, [teachers] ally awoke one night several years ty of WFIU's A Moment of Science and have performed a valuable service ago with middle-of-the-night inspi- the guessing-game fun of the popu- because ideally [they] have created ration to produce a radio show for lar show Ether Game, which invites an audience of readers who are WFIU (the public radio station at listeners to play along and chal- going to be appreciative of poetry." Indiana University Bloomington) lenges their intellects. Wojahn says that "a lot of us about poetry and poets. Poets' Corner, Researching each poet carefully, turn to poetry writing for solace and which borrows its name from West- Ann and Richard offer in their nara- ... a lot of people turn to the reading rninster Abbey's Poets' Corner, tives biographical information to of poems for a kind of consolation" evolved on WFIU in 1990 and 1991 make the profiled poet more accessi- Creative writing teachers and writ- and, according to the Burkes, the ble to the listener and several lines of ers alike "hope that [they] can cat- show will be reborn in 1996. From poetry to bring the work itself to life. alyze people so that they are ready the start, Richard, a professor of Equally important to the Poets' Cor- to take the plunge .... Really you're telecommunications at Indiana Uni- ner creators is introducing each seg- bringing people to the diving board, versity Bloomington, and Ann, who ment with a reference to popular not to the swimming of the English teaches English as a second language culture to give the poetry a contern- Channel," he adds. Perhaps, as to international students at 1U's Cen- porary connection. For example, Wojahn suggests, the world's need ter for English Language Training, without revealing the poet's name, for poetry and its curative powers agreed that their radio segments the Burkes begin one segment with a will become greater, especially as we should involve the humanities but be humorous reference to the popular reach the dawn of a new century. "quick and to the point and some- movie Bull Durham and, more specif- Poets like Wojahn, Stanton, and Fell thing of value." To that end, they ically, they recount a memorable can be regarded not only as the uni- developed the less-than-three- scene in which the movie's main versity's teachers but as society's minute Poets' Corner segments. character, Annie Savoy, reads poetry observers. With hope, they will to a shackled rookie baseball pitcher. lead the way. The fact that Walt Whitman is not identified until later in the segment t gives listeners time to recall both the movie and the poeby Ultimately, the Burkes hope to communicate to lis- teners that "poetry speaks to moments in your life and that [these moments] can be meaningfully expressed." Both are convinced that because poetry is written to be heard, it trans- lates more effectively into short, direct radio segments than do the works of playwrights or novelists, whose "snippets" are often not as memorable or recognizable to the average listener. Ann and Richard are aware that their narratives should challenge listeners, yet not embarass or frustrate those who can- not remember poets' names or are unaware of their works. Constantly attempting to draw people in, Richard suggests that perhaps the show will indirectly encourage peo- ple to attend poetry readings or do Richard Burke, Professor of Telecotnmunkations, further research. Ann agrees, stating, Indiana University Bloomington, and Ann Burke, "I would like people to listen and Teacher of English as a Second Language al The say, 'I would like to read more of Center for English Language Raining, Indiana this poetry." University Bloomington - 19 eon/en a mica:wet-12K ean e -aro

:1. ,a,f IfTItaZei.o. . l I A:C/11 Champions of Prose and Poetry Pr the "Bloomington Experience" by Bob Baird

Talk with students and alumni director of the program, Maura and coffeehouses to share verses about creative writing at Indi- Stanton, David Wojahn, Yusef and stories, insights, feedback, sup- ana University and a composite pic- Komunyakaa, and Scott Russell port, and all the stuff of friendship. ture emerges: gifted poets and Sanders. Frequently, these faculty To writers striving to find them- fiction writers drawn to IU's peren- members are seen as strongly com- selves professionally and their own nially prominent English depart- plementing one another. voice, this is, indeed, an appealing ment and its well-positioned Alison Joseph, assistant profes- combination. Master of Fine Arts in creative writ- sor of English at Southern Illinois The calibre of IU's program is ing program known for its uniquely University and a 1992 M.F.A. grad- reflected in the application process. supportive, stimulating, interactive uate, says she found the diversity of Chris Green, a third-year Ph.D. stu- environment. From prize-winning faculty members as writers particu- dent, recalls being required to sub- novelists such as Jay Neugeboren, larly attractive. She characterizes mit twenty pages of poetryten to who began turning out captivating Stanton as quiet, shy, and skilled in twelve pages is common in most prose at IU in the early 1960stwo the technical aspects of writing; other programs, he saysin addi- decades before the M.F.A. program Wojahn as clever, witty, and con- tion to statements about teaching was begun in 1980to rising stars cerned with a writers' overall effect; and about entering the program such as Emily McMilion, a Lilly Fel- and Komunyakaa as generous and when he applied two years ago. lowship student from St. Louis who hands-on oriented, someone who This, plus the literature require- braved a reading of her poetry last edits students' papers word by ment, makes IU's program, in September, past and present IU stu- word. Likewise. Jim Harms, assis- Green's opinion, "one of the most dents rave about "the Bloomington tant professor of English at West rigorous and thorough of M.F.A. experience" and the creative oppor- Virginia University; who received programs." tunities offered. his M.F.A. from IU in 1988, remem- Because creative writing is bers the creative writing faculty as such a "difficult and personal "diverse and strongly committed." task"in the words of third-year After applying to ten graduate student Paul Pfeiffer, whose short programs, including those at the story "Meter Man" won first prize University of Iowa, Columbia Uni- last year from New Yorkbased versity and the University of Ari- Poets and Writers, Inc.it requires zona, his selection of IU "came confidence building, exploration, down to the faculty and the oppor- and experimentation. In such a tunity to teach," he says. process, mentorship is critical. Stu- While alumni and students dents in all disciplines seek out most frequently cite faculty creden- motivating teachers, but for bud- tials, they also mention a vanety of ding creative writers, the student- other factors in IU's favor: generous teacher relationship is critical to funding, which enables most grad- their growth and discovery. Almost uate students to teach, particularly without exception, IU alumni and creative writing courses; a three- students, in describing their gradu- year creative writing program, ate school experiences, sing the instead of the customary two-year praises of specific faculty members program. which provides more who in most cases were a deciding time for cultivating one's writing; factor in their selection of IU and the fact that the program is kept a who often remain lifelong confi- manageable size; exposure to great dants and friends. The diversity of authors through a literature individual faculty members is fre- requirement, the Indiana Universi- quently cited as the trump card in ty Writers' Conference, the Indiana this "name-brand recognition" in Review (a literary journal published co which the voice, personality, and by M.F.A. in creative writing stu- mentoring qualities play greater dents at Ili), and cultural experi- roles than any brochure or syllabus. ences; Bloomington's activist, In describing their graduate-school creative tradition; and, a tightly knit, gregarious "writers' commu- experiences, current students and Graduate students (top row, left to right) Karen Heath, nity" that often meets in students' alumni often embark upon a litany Jennifer Grotz, (bottom row, left to right) Chris Green, ana of current faculty members they and faculty members' homes, as Paul Pfeiffer are Master of Fine Arts students in the Creative admire and respect: Roger Mitchell, well as in Bloomington restaurants Writing Program at Indiana University Bloomington. Heath and Pfeiffer are fiction writers, and Grotz and Green are poets. Playwright Haven by Mildred Perkins

Students and alumni say there Benjamin Sahl left what he calls "the center of theater in the United States," are defim:e advantages to a mid- New York City, to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting at Indiana size programlU's currently has University so that he could be in a more "idyllic" setting to continue develop- thirtv-two graduate students in cre- of ing his playwriting skills. Having learned all he can about the mechanics ative writ mgcompared to larger writing in a setting that allows him to concentrate solely on writing, Sahl programs, such as the University of and acad- expects to return to New York City, which has "the most commercial Iowa's Writing Workshop in which emic opportunities," he says. one hundred students are currently At Columbia University in New York, where he received his bachelor's enrolled. Both Harms and Erin degree, Sahl "did a lot of acting, directing, and writing as an older undergradu- McGraw, an assistant professor of ate." Living in a metropolis, however, proved to be an obstacle to the develop- English at the University of Cincin- ment of the creative writing he loved. Sahl discovered he was spending too nati, stress the fact that IU's pro- much time and energy working to make ends meet and decided to find a place gram is smaller than that of other that would allow him to learn and grow in the craft. After a study of playwrit- major universities. McGraw trea- ing programs in the United States, he chose Indiana University. suresd the opportunity to work on "I ended up at Indiana for a number of reasons," Sahl says. Among them the Indiana Review, to read others "very useful was the playwriting professor. Professor Dennis Reardon has been students' wOrks, 'and as a budding in a tutorial role." It was at his prompting that Sahl expanded a one act play he published writer, "to get back up on had already written to a full-length play entitled The Weight of Breath that was that horse and ride." Reading twen- produced in December. Sahl says he has found the playwriting program at ty manuscripts a day was just the Indiana University to be "very strong." The opportunity for a graduate student exposure the 1992 M.E.A. graduate to stage a full production is unusual in graduate programs. "It's a very valu- says she needed to become a short- able process, culminating in seeing the finished work on stage," Sahl says. story author for Atlantic Monthly After completing his M.F.A. at Indiana University, Sahl plans to return to and an upcoming author for an New York City to work. Although he is excited about the production of The anthology to be released in 1996 by Weight of Breath, he says, "Even if you are 'a success', you seldom earn a living" Chronicle Books. writing plays. Instead, "most of the people who really establish themselves as IU enjoys a long mentorship playwrights earn a living either in academia or in Hollywood." Sahl, who cur- tradition. Neugeboren, author of rently teaches at Columbia during the summer, plans to continue teaching cre- ten books, inchiding two prize-win- ative writing while shepherding his other plays to the stage. ning novels, aid a highly acclaimed Creative writing is a constant challenge, and although it is in the actual screenplay, "The Hollow Boy," pref- production of a play that the playwright can see "what works and what aces any remarks about his "won- doesn't," Sahl says, first the play must be written. At Indiana University derful time" at IU with mention of Bloomington "the inspiration finds me," Sahl says. "It's more a matter of get- his mentor, the late William E. Wil- ting out of the way, of getting the concerns and anxieties and assumptions of son, whom he remembers in three your external life out of the way so that the work can comethrough." On this words: writer, teacher, friend. creative level, he has found Bloomington to be better than he had hoped. Although Bloomington offered "so Beyond being simply a quiet place to live and work, Sahl feels Bloomington much more air and space" than his has protected him from the rougher aspects of life outside the theater. This pro- native Brooklyn, providing some of tection has been soothing and pleasing to his creative instinct and has allowed the tranquility he sought when he him to hone his skill and fully pursue his ultimate goal as a playwright. matriculated in 1959, it was his rela- tionship with Wilson that proved Benjamin Sahl, a sin third-year Master most enduring. Neugeboren recalls of Fine Arts student that Wilson noticed "something in the Theatre and new in my work," and with his Drama Department encouragement, the ember caught at Indiana Univer- fire. Today the writer-in-residence sity Bloomington at the University of Massachusetts, Neugeboren is grateful he went 1. west to do master's work in an Eng- lish department perceived at the time as "the best between the coasts" and rateful for Wilson's influence. McMillan, who entered the Creative Writing Program last

09I 21 18 INDIANA UNIVERSITY BEST COPY AVAILABLE fall, chose IU primarily because of Both Elizabeth Dodd, an asso- "the town itself" with its eclectic, ciate professor of English at Kansas cultural attractions. She likes the State University, and Rich Madigan, "small town, cooperative spirit," an assistant professor of English at that helps keep graduate school East Stroudsburg State University from becoming an overly competi- in Pennsylvania, praise the fact that tive experience. She also likes the 11.1's program is offered within a fact that graduate students are strong literature context where stu- invited to teach creative writing dents are required to read Chaucer, courses and is impressed with the Shakespeare, and Steinbeck. Too calibre of the faculty, including often aspiring writers overlook the Wojahn, who has encouraged her to value of becoming serious readers, use less metaphoric language in her says Dodd, who received a Ph.D. in poetry and "get to the heart of American literature from IU in things with an economy of words." 1989. Madigan, a Lilly Fellowship She acknowledges, however, that recipient who received his M.F.A. in her fellowship was probably the 1990, says he found it particularly clincher in selecting IU. appealing that IU's Creative Writ- Another first-year student, ing Program was "tucked into a Tamesa Williams of Virginia, says larger literature program," giving "a big part [of her decision to come his M.F.A. in creative writing to IQ was the town," which she degree nearly the literary breadth describes as "really laid-back, like of a regular M.A. in English. Madi- summer camp." She says she chose gan admits he was so enamored IU over the University of Massa- with his IU experience that he Emily McMillion, a Lilly fellow and a first-year Master of chusetts because of her perception "sometimes wishes he could go Fine Arts student at Indiana University Bloomington, reads that IU is less stressful and more back and live in Bloomington." her poetry. The reading, held at the Monroe County Public student centered. Having taught In contrast, Eileen Fitzgerald, a Library in Bloomington, Indiana, is part of a yearly series middle school in Virginia, she is of DePauw University assistant pro- sponsored by the IUB Creative Writing Program. the opinion that graduate students fessor originally from Kansas City, can learn as much from each other and Shirley Stephenson, a current faculty "remarkably supportive" as they can from lecturers. That third-year student from Chicago, and says he was strongly influ- opinion is shared by Kevin Stein, a say they were not especially attract- enced by Komunyakaa and professor of English at Bradley ed to Bloomington. Despite this Wojahn. Scrimgeour, who has had University in Peoria, Illinois, who Stephenson, who currently edits twenty poems published in literary received a Ph.D.from IU in 1984. Indiana Review, has been delighted magazines, has fond memories of Stein says he probably learned to find a "definite sense of commu- weekly meetings with fellow poets more outside the classroom nity" among graduate students. at the Runcible Spoon restaurant. "hanging around with my writer Fitzgerald, who received an M.F.A. "Very quickly you get on a first- friends," often gathering at Nick's in 1991, says she "grew to love" name basis as a graduate student," English Hut bar and restaurant to Bloomington and is particularly he says. That sense of community is "pass around stories and poems grateful for the opportunity to important to a developing writer. .... Everybody was looking out for teach creative writing. She is look- "When you're a writer, you're not everybody else. I've not found any- ing forward to having a collection so much in pursuit of a course of thing like it since." Characterizing of her short stories, All You Can Eat, study as a way of life," points out his poetic style as lyrical narrative, published in the fall of 1996 by St. Clint McCown, an associate profes- "telling a story by telling several at Martin's Press. Fitzgerald shares sor of English at Beloit College in once," Stein looks forward to publi- the one-year DePauw appointment Beloit, Wisconsin. McCown, who cation this year of a volume of his with her husband J. D. Scrimgeour, received his M.EA. in 1985, was so poetry, Bruised Paradise, by the who received an M.F.A. and Ph.D. impressed with IU's program that University of Illinois Press, and a from IU in 1994. Scrimgeour, who he recommended the program to book of poetry criticism, Private was the assistant director of the current students Peter Thomas and Poets, Worldly Acts, by Ohio Univer- Indiana University Writers' Confer- Tenaya Darlington. sity Press. ence for four years, calls IU's

22 cross-fetilizationprocess and the opportunity to perfecthis grasp of English whiletranslating Polish. A 1987 M.F.A. graduate, he hasalso s, enjoyed editinga literary journal, Artful Dodge, which he startedin 1979 while at IU and took withhim to Wooster. Lastyear a volume of .4" his poetry, The 71, Household Gods,was published by Cleveland StateUni- versity. In likemanner, Omar Cas- taneda, a native Guatemalan who received his M.F.A.in 1983, has ;i '..ov.445,14.,... L- AfFsr..z. enjoyed considerablesuccess as a fiction writer for mr. the adult,young . , adult, and children's Dobby Gibson,a second-year M F markets, par- A student atIndiana University ticularly onHispanic issues, Bloomington, readinga story. racism, and social jim Brock,a visiting assistant issues. A 1993 professor of English about the 1971 winner of theNylon Awardin at Idaho State Sunshine mineacci- dent in his Minority Fiction,the associate University, castshis IU experience native Idahothecen- pro- in romantic tral focus of his fessor of Englishat Western Wash- terms and creditshis work at IUhe reworked them ington University motivation andconfidence to the and combined enjoys writing in them with book irreal modesand using "unreli- exposure he receivedin ILI's pro- reviews, letters, gram in the early and excerpts able" narrators. 1980s when the from diariesto pro- M.F.A. in the duce The Sunshine Many peopleconsider the abil- Creative WritingPro- Mine Disaster, ity to craft gram was in itsformative published last fallby the University stanzas and storiesa true years. of Idaho Press. gift. But after Among the firstgraduates to The work issome- waxing philosophical receive an M.F.A. thing of a political for three hourslast fall with (1984), Brock statement about his there were says past and present roommate, Jennifer aspects of beinga pio- forces in Idaho. Grotz, also in the program,Chris Green neer in new terrinv. "We felt While mostalumni and stu- conclud- erful pow- dents dote ed that IU'sCreative Writing ... (that] we were forming on the "big-namevisi- Pro- something, creating tors and world gram is itself "a realgift" to those something new class culture"they the program. in .... It was the first time find in When onestops to in my life Bloomington, in thewords think that it often that I wasa part of a community of Jeff Gundy,a professor of takes someonea of at Bluffton English year to get to know writers, not alwayshaving to College in Ohio and understand 1978, PhD., (M.A., someone else's writing, explain what Iwas doing." Brock, 1983), othersthrive on the who went the multicultural prospect of threeyears of close on to receivea Ph.D. in experience. Dan Bourne, an supervision and American literaturein 1992,says associate professorof guidance isa truly his IU English at the generous offer, hereasons. As stu- experience "solidifieda College of Woosterin dent writers number of things"in his life Wooster, Ohio,finds it hard observe theself-aware- as a rate his graduate to sepa- ness journies of others, writer, particularlythe ins and school experi- they become of publishing. outs ences at IU Bloomington compelled, hesays, to pause and He is gratefulto from his Mitchell, who ventures into consider: what isthis life of challenged himto foreign-language writing consider the study. Having going to mean forme and how "larger questions"of been an exchange these three are his poetry.Taking four small student andFulbright Scholar years going toserve as a poems foundation for it? in Poland, hehas enjoyedthe

20 23 INDIANA UNIVERSITY Behind theFacade: TheLillyLibrary's CreativeSide by Heather Shupp Ask a student studying creative writing on the Indiana archives of several smaller University Bloomington magazines that emphasizepoetry. campus what they do toper- The Lilly's collections fect their craft, and they from novelists, whichinclude the man- will probably mentionattending uscripts of Upton Sinclair, workshops and readings, Edith Wharton, and Richard seeking advice from professors Hughes, among others, fellow students. Chances and are also extensive. Although the are they will not mention doing library is "not particularly research in the Lilly Library, strong in manuscripts ofplays," the rare book, manuscript,and according to Cagle, it does special collections libraryof the Indiana University have rich holdings in filmscripts. system. The Lilly's stately Libraries Twenty years fromnow the author collections that facade seems to speakonly of dents and scholars stu- things past, of relics comb for clues to creativewriting could preserved. Yet within theLilly's collec- look very different. As tions there are lively more and more authorsuse word exchanges between writersand editors, processors to write and e-mail letters from writersto their colleagues, and the to correspond with theiredi- notes and tors and colleagues, archivistsand librarians wonder manuscripts of several of thegreat writers of the twentieth about century the future of manuscriptand personal "A lot of it is going papers collections. While an author's to have to do with individualhabits," successive drafts can providea sort of Cagle says. "Some silent commentary people make printouts ofdrafts and on the creative process, LillyLibrary save them, others write and Director William Cagle revise on disk without suggests that "the collections record of early versions." keeping a that relate to the give we have As Cagle points out, and take betweenan author and an edi- been the case in the though, "that's tor are often more revealing past, too. Some peoplewere savers and of the creativeprocess than are kept every scrap of drafts of a work in paper; other people, once theysent off the progress." Cagle explains thatcollections final typescript to the from authors whowere editors themselves "contain that should be of much publisher, discarded interest to people studying their earlier versions. ing," allowing them creative writ- "to see how the author/editorcan influ- We're just going to ence and shape the style of k. hats another writer. It is have to wait and iv.. ..11.41 aspect of the literary holdings an interesting see im3 here in this library that what survives." been mined very much has not by our students andfaculty" Cagle cites the papers of ft, sat « twentieth-century poet, essayist,critic, and to% editor Ezra Poundas an example. Within the Pound A.4 4«4 1r.k.a wows tion, there are collec- many letters from T. S. Eliot,William Carlos Williams, and other writers I, that reveal Pound's effortsto encourage and promote theyoung writers of his day. No. 11 Irk 4 akowis Similar collections in theLilly include the A.J101. *MP la....11k/.v44, don Lish, a longtime papers of Gor- fiction editor for Esquiremagazine, Rust Hills, also a fiction editorfor Esquire, and Malcolm a British writer who Bradbury ran the creative writingprogram at the **bilk 1kit tn./. rek1.44 University of East Anglia 114.... io in England formany years. "With these authors, we havean exchange between somebody is an editor interested who in creative writing anda younger tke 6,41146.4 writer or colleague with whom they discuss thefine points of writing," Cagle says. "In 11.....ktsek..64 the papers of GordonLish, for 111.31111.11. 6.4 ,.....A1.164.1L vexample, you cansee how Lish edited manuscripts %Awes of the ba.. u«..6 writers he dealt withRaymondCarver is a notable rt...Ors in this particular example 4V.44 case. You can see what Carverwrote, how 314.4 «*ft '64ot %kg: Lish edited it, and the 1k. correspondence between thetwo about the editorial changes.You see the creative Aoitoo.s4 1411, ourti process, and you 114/..6 at«ra 4.14, star.. see their discussion and evaluationof the creative process." Malcolm Bradbury'spapers, which arrived in August, 1.144, v are among the Lilly's latest 4.1A, Jy,...str.:14.., acquisitions. The Lilly also ly acquired all the recent- Vo.is sr% tst.i, manuscrips of the novels ofPatrick O'Bri- I« V« SonareA an, a writer of sea stories An original manuscript we« set in the Napoleonicera. "They're from the Lilly Library's interesting because forsome of his later books t«s we have his twentieth-century literary VI1u hIlt 1,44 V.11.14.$ 1.411, working notesresearchnotes:.,o you can see the amount of work he had to do manuscripts collection. The Wae., .1A414 stammokl,),Aa.. to understand the navaltactics of the time, the language of the poem, entitled "Poem on maritime worb 1 all of those 1.1 kba that go along with things His Birthday" (c .1951), ic ¶.11, creating a good historicalnovel," Cagle by Welsh-horn Britisht 1k tier twowniko 46.1.441.) says. 11... 1so *walk 4 Dylan Thomas. aft 6. Among literary «i4..stay; 5:11%.11 4101,11. genres, the Lilly Library's holdingsare *AA emilia strongest in poetry It has the papers of poets Sylvia Plath and S1.4 A..., %Is14.41+.eas tka Pound, as well as the files Se. 1as 01.4.11, ra.akioss. of Poetry magazine and.-the - t , A 2 4 aEST COPY MIAMI __LacialTIct UniversityFaculty Members Beaty, Frederick L. The IronicWorld of Evelyn Waugh: Felber, Lynette. Gender andGenre in Novels without A Study of Eight Novels.DeKalb, Illinois: North- End, Gainesville, Florida:University Press of ern Illinois University Press, 1994,250 pp., $15.00, Florida, 1995, 208 paper. pp., $39.95, cloth.

Tracing the rornan-fleuyethemultivolume sequence Proclaimed the greatest novelistof his generation by novel through threeperiods of history, the author one of its foremost historians, EvelynWaugh (1903-66) examines three British serialworks that were tosome portrays the intricacies of human lifeon a broad and degree innovative and colorful canvas. His experimental: Anthony Trol- many famous novelsas wellas lope's Palliser novels, his lesser-known nonfiction Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage, writingscontinue to and Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time.Fel- attract readers and to challengecritics. The heart of ber argues that the their appeal, Beaty shows, is roman-fleuve has an inherent Waugh's rich and varied propensity for "an ecriture use of irony to explore the texture of feminine, a writing with society. Beaty is an narrative features thatare designated feminine." She emeritus professor of Englishat IUB. acknowledges that the Frenchtheorists with %, hom she is aligned define formal Bhola, H. S. A Source Book for features of writing in sexual Literacy Work: Perspec- terms. Certain to be controversial tive from the Grassroots. Paris: to some feminists, her UNESCO, 1994, argument places her in the heart 200 pp., $20.00, paper. of the essentialism- constructionism debate. Felberis an associate professor of English at IPFW. Covering a wide range of literacytopics, including lit- eracy planning, program implementation,and literacy Ferrell, Robert H. Harny evaluation, this book emphasizes S. Truman:A Life. Columbia, literacy work at the Missouri: University ofMissouri Press, 1994, 501 grassroots level. The theory andresearch come from pp., $29.95, cloth. rural and urban settings around the world and referto literacy work with a variety of different learners.Bhola In this majornew biography, the author challenges is a professor of education the at IUB. popular characterization ofTruman as a man who rarely sought the officeshe received, revealing instead Dégh, Linda. Narratives in a Society: A Performer Cen- man whowith modesty,commitment to service, and tered Study of Narration. Helsinki, Finland: basic honestymovedwith method andsystem Academia Scientiarum Fennica,1995, 41u toward the presidency. Thisresearch offers new $45.00, cloth per- spectives on many key episoc:esin Truman's career, including his first Senateterm and the circumstances The twenty essays in this book, divided into foursec- surrounding the TrumanDoctrine and the Marshall tions, represent the author's ideas, theories, and method- Plan. Ferrell is a professoremeritus of history at IUB. ological approaches to folknarrative. The first makes the case for narrator orientationas a field ethnography-based Indiana University Campuses humanistic approach; the second introduces the narra- IUBIndiana University Bloomington tor's personality and Weltanschauung (a comprehensive IUPUIIndiana University-PurdueUniversity Indianapolis philosophy of the world)as the keys to his or her motiva- IUSBIndiana Univeisity SouthBend tion and art; the third discusses 1UNIndiana University Northwest the intricacies and IUKIndiana University Kokomo dynamics of story transmissionand dissemination; and !USIndiana University Southeast the fourth presentscase studies that illustrate the ICIEIndiana University East IPFWIndiana University-Purdue author's method of analysisof narrative performance. University Fort Wayne Degh is a distinguished professor of folklore at lUB.

2 5

22 INDIANA UNIVERSITY Gilbert, Sandra M., Susan Gubar, and Diana O'Hehir, eds. Mother Songs: Poems for, by, and about Spulber, Nicolas, and Asghar Sabbaghi. Economics of Mothers. New York: W. W . Norton, 1995, 380 pp., Water Resources:From Regulation to Privatiza- $22.50, cloth. tion. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Pub- lishers, 1994, 329 pp., $125.00, cloth. A collection of verse about maternity and the celebra- tion of motherhood, Mother Songs brings together a The purpose of this book is to develop a general eco- range of classic and contemporary poems from the nomic model that integrates the quantity and quality United States, Great Britain, and Canada. The editors issues of water resource management and to provide, have included traditional ballads about maternity and along with a detailed criticism of the policy instruments courtly elegies for or by motheis, as well as landmark now in use, alternative proposals concerning the effi- nineteenth-century tributes to mothers and early twen- cient allocation and distribution of water. In particular, tieth-century meditations on motherhood. Gubar is a the authors treat water as a multiproduct commodity professor of English at IUB. where the market plays a major role in determining water qualitydiscriminant pricing and its w.lue to the Jackson, Michael. At Home in the World. Durham, user. The book examines the process of moving from North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1995, administrative allocation and regulation to privatiza- 189 pp., $21.95, cloth. tion of the water industry as the key element in promot- ing effective competition and in providing economic Blending narrative ethnography, empirical research, incentives for greater efficiency. Spulber is an emeritus philosophy, and poetry, the author focuses on the exis- distinguished professor of economics at IUB. Sabbahi is tential meaning of being at home in the world. Here, a professor of management sciences and information home becomes a metaphor for the intimate relationship systems at IUSB. between the part of the world a person calls "self" and the part of the world called "other." The book chronicles Thorelli, Hans B. Integral Strategy. 2 vols. Greenwich, Jackson's experience among the Warlpiri of the Tanami Connecticut: JAI Press, 1995, 490 pp., $157.00, Desert. Jackson is the College Professor of Anthropology cloth. at IUB. These volumes contain the papers and debates of a Kniesner, Thomas J., and John D. Leeth. Simulating colloquium of scholars, executives, and consultants, Workplace Safety Policy. The Netherlands: Kluw- which the author arranged prior to retiring from the er Academic Publishers, 1995, 240 pp., $85.00, E. W. Kelley Professorship. The focus is on the need for cloth. integration of strategy across functions, products, geo- graphical areas, and customer markets. Among the Numerical simulations can be used to take an integrat- score of speakers included are Michael Porter, corpo- ed quantitative look at how the various institutions rate strategy guru at Harvard University, and Randall influencing workplace safety relate to the observed lev- Tobias, CEO of Eli Lilly. Thorelli is a distinguished pro- els of illnesses and injuries among U.S. workers. The fessor emeritus of business administration at IUB. book pieces together the mosaic of interactions among workers, employers, state government, and the federal government that is numerically realistic according to economists' current knowledge of quantitative link- ages. The book's goal is to map out how the IJ.S. eco- nomic system determines employment patterns, wages, and workplace safety levels. Kniesner is a professor of economics at IUB. Wasserstrorn, Jeffrey N., and Elizabeth J. Perry, eds. Yi, Gang. Money, Banking, Popular Protest andPolitical Culture in Modern and Financial Markets in China. 2nd ed. Boulder, China. Boulder, Colorado,Westview Press, 1994, Colorado: Westview 311 pp., $49.95, cloth. Press, 1994, 350 pp., $22.95,paper. This book offers the first From the Goddess ofDemocracy (a statue placed comprehensive study of the in money, banking, and financial Tiananmen Square) to theTang Dynasty rock band, markets in China since from the political theater the establishment of the of protest to thesiren call of central bank system in1984. revolution, this hook The author analyzes theimpact of the profound covers the poignance andcom- institu- plexity of what Chinaandso many other countries tional changes of the 1980sand early 1990s and high- are up against in re-forming lights the fundamentaltransformation of the role of their political cultureat the moneyfrom a passive end of the twentiethcentury. Wasserstrom is accounting tool in the centrally an associ- planned system to ate professor of historyat IUB. an active and intrinsicallyimportant factor in determining the growth and stability ofthe Weiner, Marc A. RichardWagner and the Anti-Semitic present economy. Yi isan associate professor ofeco- nomics at IUPUI. Imagination. Lincoln, Nebraska:University of Nebraska Press, 1995, 419pp., $40.00, cloth.

Scholars have generally acknowledged Wagner'santi- Semitism but have arguedthat it is irrelevant tohis operas. The author challengesthat view by asserting that anti-Semitism is a crucial, pervasive featurein Wagner's operas. Weiner argues that the operasexem- plify and contribute to a vast collection ofimages that are patently anti-Semitic and that these imageswere readily recognized as such by nineteenth-centuryGer- man audiences. Weiner isan associate professor of Ger- manic studies at IUB.

27 24 INDIANA UNIVERSITY Photo credits: photos by Tyagan Miller, cover, pp. 2, 3, 7-14, 16-20., photo by Frederick Slaski, p. 5; photo by Diane Kondrat, p. 6; photo courtesy of the Lilly Library,p. 21.

Poem excerpts: excerpt on p. 2 from "Braid" by ROW!' Mitchell, published in Ciazwhorsc(December 19(45); excerpt on p. 12 front -Childhood" by Maura Stanton, from her collection Crn'ctSivinimeN;excerpt on p. 17 is from "Whose Oxygen IS Storms" by Jennifer Grotz (unpublitihed).I landwriting bv Mary Cox Barclay.

About the Contributors

I -leather Shupp is ,1 writer and editor in the Indiana University Office of Publications. She is the copyeditortor Research Creatizi Actiuitu.

Susan Moke is a doctoral candidate in the English departmentat Indiana University Bloomington She is editor ot the Majoritif Report,a publication of Indiana University's Office tor Women's Affairs, anda writer for the Center for Reading and Language Studies.

Nancy Cassell McEntire is du, managing editor in the Indiana University Office of Publications. She is alsoa part- time assistant professor at the IU Folklore Institute,

Bob Baird, a Bloomington freelance writer/editor and journalism instructor, went the journalismroute but invariably seeks the creative approach in his writing andtheatrical endeavors, l le has appeared in playsand taught fiction and feature writing at the John Waldron Arts Center, and he will teach magazine editingat ILI's School of Journalism and directa play at the Black Box Theater this spring.

Mary Cox Barclay is a freelance writer, designer, and calligrapherwho lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with her husband, Jonathan, and cats Cooper, Winifred, and Zenobia.I ler hobbies include photography, singingInd collecting and creating greeting cards.

Mildred Perkins works at the Institute of Social Researchand has published several fantasy stories.

2,8 MST COPY AVAILABLE-