Shelly Clark and Marjorie Saiser

Over the course of the term, we will read a good amount of the material in this text about Nebraska writers, most all of whom have visited Peru State College.

And you will have opportunities to see many of these writers, for they give regular readings.

And some of these authors have recently visited Peru State College, including Jonis Agee, Ted Kooser, and Charles Fort; Rich Wyatt and Greg Kosmicki also read at Peru State, as did Art Homer. And as the syllabus notes, Matt Mason, a well-known and admired Slam Poet, read at Peru State. And most recently, Nebraska poet Twyla Hansen and Iowa writer Joe Wilkins read at the college.

If you visit the sites for Homer, Mason, Hansen, and Wilkins, you will find video links of their reading. The Creative Writing Series will organize a reading this term for Ellen Klages. I will keep you posted.

The text is special because the pages bring together some of the best poets Nebraska as to offer--and the book won awards after its publication for Cover Illustration and for the editors, Clark and Saiser.

Shelly Clark and Marjorie Saiser are well known throughout the state, thus the willingness of other writers to share their thoughts with them.

And The Nebraska Center for the Book illustrates vividly, Nebraska offers many and many excellent writers.

As you read the conversation between Shelly and Marge, notice how their exchanges about writing, about the writing life, reinforce things you read in your text, from finding a place to write to developing good writing habits.

As Marge notes, "I fall off regularly, but I figure gaps are OK, as long as not writing doesn't become a habit" (4). Recall what the class notes have to say about developing good habits and breaking others.

But each of the two has different habits and areas of connection. For one thing, both admire three excellent poets we will have an opportunity to discuss, three wonderful teachers: Bill Kloefkorn, Don Welch, and the past Poet Laureate of the United States, Ted Kooser.

As Marge emphasizes and as Shelly agrees, writing is a process. Give serious attention to, especially for this week's exercises, what Marge argues about Freewriting:

"In freewriting, I like the phenomenon of "cruise control," as if you feel the accelerator move on its own under your foot, when the writing takes off and you write as fast as you can, following where it leads. Freewriting is about discovery. You don't know what you're going to write, but the poem uncovers itself as it goes along. The freewrite becomes a sled going downhill."

Remember what Marge says about "discovery," for writing breeds more writing. What she says applies for the writing exercise this week--you will begin to discover, by looking carefully, a lot more about yourself and the world around you.

Take, for example, Marge's talking about birds in her poetry:

"Birds figure in my poems, as they figured in my growing up. The hawks and the kingbirds and larks. There is no sound quite like a lark on the prairie in the springtime. I am stopped stock still by the sound of a cardinal. When I hear a cardinal, I equate it with my father. The kingbird, as well, I connect with him, because a kingbird is a silent, watchful, graceful bird" (4).

Now read the poem "Calling Cardinals" on Page 13. Note the specific details and the vivid language. As you begin to write, give thought to ways in which you can translate your personal experience into a poem, essay, or story. Think in terms of the senses connected with a particular image from your memory, the sounds, touch, and smells--these specifics create emphatic images.

Note, too, how often in the interview Marge and Shelly talk about how other writers influence them. You will share a similar experience this term by reading and discussing this class's work.

And remember, "Revising is very satisfying work" (6).

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Last Modified: 08/22/2010