Fredonia English

For this week’s Feature Friday, I had the opportunity to talk with Professors Heather McEntarfer and Cornelius FitzPatrick. On Thursday, April 29, 2021, they were in the spotlight in the English Department’s Creative Writing Faculty Reading Series, for the final reading of three this semester featuring professors reading their work virtually.  It allowed students and faculty to encounter literature outside the classroom in an informal setting, to learn about their professors’ and colleagues’ writing styles, to find out what they are working on, and to ask them questions.  

Professor FitzPatrick went to Columbia University for his undergraduate degree and then attended Colorado State University to earn his MFA. On campus, Professor FitzPatrick typically teaches Introduction to Creative Writing and an Intermediate Fiction Writing Workshop. For the first time this fall, he will be teaching Screenwriting. Outside of Fredonia, he has received a Fiction Fellowship from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and an Emerging Writers Fellowship from A Public Space. His work has appeared in A Public Space; he is currently working on a collection of stories and a novel.

Professor McEntarfer earned her bachelor’s degree in Integrated Language Arts at Hiram College. After graduating, she earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh and herPhD in English Education at the University of Buffalo. Professor McEntarfer is now the English Education Coordinator for Fredonia English. She teaches a combination of English Education and writing courses including Adolescent Literature, Texts and Contexts, Methods and Seminar for English Education, and Intermediate Creative Nonfiction. Outside of Fredonia, she has had her work appear in Permafrost, The New Yinzer, and Trillium literary journals as well as in PittMed, Pitt Magazine, and Jill Magazine. 

Professor McEntarfer decided to read to the students and faculty a creative nonfiction personal essay in progress that is set during the time of the pandemic. She had mentioned during the reading that she mostly has been focusing on academic writing for the past couple of years, and is starting to get back into essay writing. I asked Professor McEntarfer how she got interested in writing nonfiction and if she focuses exclusively on this type of writing. She replied, “I have loved writing since I was a little kid. When I was in 3rd grade, I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I always was writing fictional stories as a kid. When I was in college in Ohio I was a writing minor and I had a professor who was into creative nonfiction. Creative nonfiction is still the lesser known genre in some ways, like poetry and fiction are the main stage; that was even more true then. She introduced it to me when I had been writing poetry, and I kind of felt like ‘oh, I can say everything I want to say here,’ and I can’t do that in my poetry. I just loved it once I got into it. I pretty much only write nonfiction now.”

When I asked Professor FitzPatrick if he writes only fictional stories, he replied, “I do write only fiction. Sometimes I read another author, a fiction writer, writing about books, and I think, ‘gosh, I’d like to do that sometime,’ but I just write fiction. I’m engaged to a brilliant poet. Reading her work is exhilarating and also shows me that my mind doesn’t quite work like that. I encourage people to work in multiple genres, of course. I imagine it’s hard to find the time. Maybe I watched too much television as a kid; those narrative grooves are just in there.” I then asked how he got interested in writing fictional stories. He responded, “I write fiction because I’ve always read fiction. My parents are reading constantly, so I suppose I should blame them, but reading fiction, spending time with an author’s mind like that--it was joyful. It made the world, inner and outer, bigger. I still feel that way. I guess an answer that may be a little more practical, though, is that I started writing fiction seriously in college. More specifically, I didn’t dedicate myself to it until senior year. Before that, my school had all these core requirements, plus I’d been taking Chinese classes because I thought I wanted to be a journalist. A few years at the school paper showed me that I wasn’t really interested in journalism, and then I finished my Chinese classes over the summer after junior year, and senior year all I took were writing classes. It would still be a year or two, maybe more, until I had anything resembling decent writing habits, but that was the start of it--taking all those writing classes senior year. I don’t know if that will be useful to students.” 

As theirs was the last creative writing faculty reading of the semester, I asked both Professor McEntarfer and Professor FitzPatrick what they were hoping the students and faculty got out of their faculty reading. Professor McEntarfer stated, “I know that I have enjoyed and gone to the other readings, and it is nice to get to know my colleagues as writers. It has also been nice to get a sense of the faculty members’ style of writing. I knew who wrote fiction and who wrote poetry in the past; however, I never got a sense of their writing style so it has been nice to listen to that. I think it is a more informal place for the students to get to know and hear a range of approaches to writing.” Professor FitzPatrick replied, “This year has been hard on all of us. My conversations about fiction and poetry with my students have really pulled me through. I hope the reading can be more of that. Teaching creative writing can sometimes feel a bit one-way, at least in terms of sharing work--I get to read so much student work in a semester--I guess it’s only fair that they get to hear something of mine.”

This has been the first year that the creative writing faculty readings have happened in the English Department. So far, they have been a success. But  should they continue? Should the department make them an every semester event? Professor FitzPatrick answered, “I do hope the faculty readings continue. I don’t know that anyone needs to hear me read every semester, but hopefully someone will read every semester. It’s all part of the writing community we’re trying to build, trying to maintain.” Professor McEntarfer added, “I think it is a great way for students to see their professors are writers and for us to get to know each other outside the classroom setting--I think it is an awesome opportunity.”

For this week’s Feature Friday I caught up with 2017 alumnus Zach Beaudoin. Zach earned his Bachelor’s degree in English and International Studies, and then moved on to earn his Master’s in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University. Since then, Zach has focused on highlighting the often overlooked diversity of rural America while raising awareness of the impacts of urbanization and disinvestment in these communities. He currently serves as a Student Engagement Coordinator for Columbia University. Zach recently was a part of the Writers @ Work Alumni Writers-in-Residence Series “Young Alumni Changemakers” virtual event  from April 7th to10th. The series featured three young alumni changemakers who, just about five years out of Fredonia, are already transforming their respective fields. While catching up with Zach, I had him not only discuss his contributions to this event, but also his amazing journey at Fredonia and post-Fredonia.

To start, I had Zach touch on his background. He was born in Buffalo, NY, but moved to Angola, NY, when he was 13. He explained that this urban to rural move  “was a big culture shift for me because I lived in a rather close-knit community where everyone knew each other. I could walk to school with my friends. I was fairly resistant to the farmer life, but I still enjoyed the animals and growing vegetables.” 

He decided to come to Fredonia after returning from his Army Training and joined the campus community in Spring 2013. Zach stated, “I joined the university as a first-generation college student who had a supportive family, but I felt largely split between being full-time in the military, working a blue collar job, and embracing my interest in academics.”   

I then asked Zach to talk a little about his experience as a student at Fredonia. He started out by explaining how he decided to major in English. Zach replied, “I had started out thinking about biology as a major, but then I looked into maybe photojournalism. I had reached out to the photography department who told me it wasn’t allowed, so I decided to pursue English. I have always loved reading and writing, but it wasn’t until I joined Fredonia that I felt like I was embraced by a community that gave me the latitude to grow and explore my writing.”

Zach gave a lot of credit to the Fredonia faculty in helping him along his journey. I asked him if there were any professors that had been influential to him and had helped him shape his career. He mentioned Mike Jabot, Christina Jarvis, Natalie Gerber, David Kaplin, Cindy Yochym, Dean Messina, and more and stated “I never believed them when they said it takes a community, but each person, with a lot of credit to those listed above, has been incredibly influential and supportive during my time at Fredonia.” 

Zach also mentioned that he had been intimidated at first while navigating an English degree and gave credit to the faculty for helping him through this. “I never learned how to properly use commas, semi-colons, or other punctuation, so I would feel very anxious about navigating the degree. As I said, though, it was only with dedication, and the time that faculty like Dr. Jarvis, Dr. Gerber, or Dr. Kaplin spent with me, that got me through. I would spend hours in office hours and in a way, they were like the training wheels that helped me figure out who and what I wanted to become.” Throughout his journey, Zach did have thoughts about changing his major and minors several times. But he realized that “if I could write well, then a lot of the other things would fall into place. I think what is special about the Fredonia English program is that the faculty in it all have their own unique stories and backgrounds, and they’re there because they care about students. I never entered a meeting where I felt they were there because they were obligated to be there.” 

One of Zach’s biggest projects while at Fredonia was the campus garden. Students tried to get this garden started for 12 years before Zach took his shot. I asked him how he was able to make it happen. He explained, “I started in Sustainability Writing and Social Change, where Dr. Jarvis inspired us to work on a project, but I quickly learned it would be a lot harder than I thought. I ended up joining committees and clubs related to sustainability and worked my way through learning about past efforts and building relationships along the way. When I left the class, I continued the garden proposal and it seemed to me at the time that the project signaled a greater hesitancy to support sustainability on the campus. I researched the levers of power and had meetings with the VPs and ultimately wrote the 40-page proposal thanks to Writing for the Professions and the willingness of the campus community to support the project.”

During Zach’s senior year, he had the opportunity to study abroad and live in France. While there, Zach studied at Sciences Po,blogged for Reach the World, and told me about an incredible experience that was part of what led him to where he is now: “I tried to travel and experience all sorts of things to expose the students to different parts of the world and one of the experiences I blogged about was visiting a refugee center in Greece during the Syrian refugee crisis. It was that experience that led me to try and teach English in Europe, but then come home and reach refugees in Buffalo when I realized how difficult it was. I taught approximately 60 children and it was that experience that led me to where I am now. I didn't want to be a passive bystander when I had the skills to contribute to making a better environment for both my students who were struggling in our community and who had to travel across the world to arrive in Buffalo.” 

After graduating from Fredonia, Zach chose to go to Columbia for his Master’s degree because of their versatile program. During his time at Columbia, Zach joined Student Affairs due to his interest in working with people of different backgrounds and found that it allowed him to build up the skills needed for his future. He explained, “It showed me that sometimes a straight line isn’t the best way to your destination. I couldn’t imagine applying for the jobs I am now in without the experience of being a Graduate Assistant and then Student Engagement Coordinator with the office.” Zach mentioned that after he graduated, he had a hard time finding jobs to apply to as we were in the middle of the pandemic. He stated, “As I graduated into the pandemic, my hope was to get hired in DC and work for an international NGO or government agency. It was apparent that hiring wasn’t happening, so I decided to lean into my interests and skills to feel like I was still contributing to the world around me. I started Zbeaudoinphotography.com, which turned into Beauxmedias.com, which then inspired me to start www.humansofyonder.com. The project was inspired by the work I was doing with my parents on the farm and the need to be connected to society while in a pandemic. I would drive the country roads, and I was seeing decaying homes, food pantries, and just so many different things that I didn’t feel were being talked about.” Excitingly enough, he did mention that he is currently waiting to hear back from a few jobs that will allow him to “work with different demographics and use his skills and passion to greatly impact the life and experience of those he works with.”

I asked Zach how he got interested in the field he is working in, and if he always knew that this is what he wanted to do: “I didn’t. I have really had to lean into the idea that everything happens for a reason. I’ve charged forward toward my goals and I entered the doors that opened when the others were closed. I think we’re often sold a false idea of what a career and job after college will look like. If you’re a teacher, sure, you might find a job. I don’t know anyone who landed their dream job out of college, but their post-college experiences have taken them to places, physically and career wise, that have broadened their horizons.” 

During his return to campus, Zach spoke to Fredonia’s current students, prospective students, and also faculty on his journey at Fredonia and post-Fredonia journey thus far. When I asked him how he felt the Writers @ Work event went, he said that he was honored to be invited back. “For a place that gave me so much, I hope that my experiences and stories help show students that they’re not alone, and this journey that we’re on is imperfect and hard. We don’t have to know everything at once, but through opening our minds and hearts we’re able to really make a difference and find where we’re supposed to be.” 

As a semi recent graduate who can relate to a lot of things our students are going through, I asked if he had any advice for the English majors going through the program. He ended by saying “We are often sold that success is the flashy job with the high paying salary and that stuff is nice, but you need to recognize that none of it is immediate. A large part of hiring and getting jobs is diversifying your credentials and learning to find success in intrinsic ways as well. You’re doing fine, and if you feel a little overwhelmed and lost, that’s okay. If you can write well, you are already ahead of the rest. In so many positions and circles I’ve been in, people have complained and companies have spent a ton of money teaching people how to write properly for what they need. Cherish your time and don’t be afraid to fail, ask questions, and enjoy the time you have!”

I had the opportunity this week to follow up with SUNY Fredonia’s professors Joe Hall and Shannon Jonas on their Creative Writing Faculty Reading virtual event that took place on March 25, 2021. They both shared some of their poems with the students and faculty who attended.

Dr. Hall grew up in the Maryland/D.C. area and completed his undergraduate degree at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He went on to earn his Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry from George Mason University. He moved to the Buffalo area about 10 years ago to get a Ph.D. in literature from the University at Buffalo. This idea came about after he published a few books in poetry; he decided that he wanted to be poetic in an academic sense. After he earned a Ph.D. in literature, he moved to Ithaca for a year, decided to move back out to the Buffalo area, and is now a professor at Fredonia. Dr. Hall teaches mostly poetry courses including Intermediate Poetry Writing, Advanced Poetry Writing, Form and Theory of Writing, and Environmental Literature. Outside of Fredonia, he has published peer-reviewed articles and has had four books of poetry reviewed in national publications.

Dr. Jonas grew up in the Appalachian region of Virginia and earned his undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech in English and Philosophy. He went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the University of Arkansas. From there, he earned his Ph.D. in English Literature and Creative Writing Poetry from Western Michigan University. Throughout his journey, he has lived and taught in a variety of states including Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Illinois and now New York. Dr. Jonas has taught a variety of English literature courses including English composition and creative writing from intermediate to advanced. Outside of Fredonia, he is the author of two poetry collections and has had many poems published.  

I started out by asking them both how they got interested in poetry and if it is their only focus in writing. Dr. Hall mentioned that it is his main focus, and he actually got interested in poetry from music. Between being a part of a small band and listening to his dad’s music, the lyrics would just stick in his head and, on the page, they became poems. Then in college a professor during his undergrad really continued his interest. He stated, “Most people start by copying things, but I decided I wanted to write my own lyrics. When I got to St. Mary’s I was fortunate to come across an excellent professor who was a poet force of nature, really smart, compassionate and just an overall excellent teacher. She brought people to campus that were well known poets. I started to gravitate towards poetry then because I saw that poetry transforms all the rough material of life.”

Regarding a main focus in Dr. Jonas’s work, he replied, “I think it changes over time, from one writing project/manuscript to another. I think shifting focus, or style as you put it, has something to do with where I am physically/geographically and mentally at the time of conception.”

I asked them if they felt this event benefited the students and if they feel that more events where professors are sharing their work outside the classroom in a more informal way should happen in future years to come. Dr. Jonas responded, “I really hope that the reading Dr. Hall and I gave did benefit students. Some of my students who were in attendance reached out to me afterwards with very encouraging and positive responses. I like that the students were able to see me ‘practicing what I preach,’ if you will, and perhaps gain a stronger sense of what it means to be a writer to fully invest in the process and craft. That lesson is difficult to explain or demonstrate in a lecture or classroom discussion.”

Dr. Hall agreed with Dr. Jonas and stated, “I was really happy with it. It was great to talk to students, and they had excellent questions even about performing. We discussed how the COVID-19 lockdown has changed our language. I hope more events like this happen in the future. I think they were successful as it was an actual conversation and gave people a chance to just talk about poetry and to just talk to one another. I think it is important because that’s how we have to operate a lot of the time outside the classroom.”

Dr. Jonas added, “I very much hope that faculty readings at Fredonia, whether creative or academic or research-oriented, continue into future semesters. As faculty, we're all working on our own disciplines and various projects in whatever genre or specific field of study, and it’s nice to be afforded an avenue and opportunity to be able to share what we’re toiling through on our own outside of the classroom, outside of faculty responsibility.”

As there were some awesome questions asked from the students and faculty, I asked both of them what their favorite was. Dr. Jonas responded “one question was posed concerning how our current COVID-19 pandemic might somehow be influential to a further movement in the arts that might somehow mirror the emergence of Modernism as an artistic phase born out of the global pandemic often referred to as the Spanish Flu of 1917. I think Modernism coalescing had more to do with the devastation of World War I and its after effects, but I get the question and where it's coming from. I don't think we've had enough distance and time, yet, to come to terms with how the past year and a half or so have transformed our lives and how we now interact with other human beings, how that interaction has been undeniably changed. I think the curators and practitioners of Modernism had fewer distractions and more time to think about the world around them than many of us are allotted now, in spite of all the numbers and data at our fingertips. Speaking for myself, I need more time to consider what has happened to me and to understand the ways in which my surroundings have altered my thoughts and emotional reactions. I'm sure, in some latent way, the events of the past year and a half, not to mention the previous four years in our country specifically, socially and politically, will manifest in my work, but I doubt it will be blatant and almost certainly not intentional.”

As for Dr. Hall, he also identified the same question as being one of his favorites and he also acknowledged that he didn’t have an answer and is still thinking about that question a week later. “I didn’t have an answer because we are still living in the moment, but it made me think about language and global events and language in politics and language in trauma and it made me think it has to have changed, there has to be a relationship between what is going on in my life and my writing. If this event didn’t happen, I probably wouldn’t have gotten asked that question so that was a great question.”

The next Creative Writing Faculty Reading will happen on April 29, 2021, featuring Professors Neil FitzPatrick and Heather McEntarfer at 7pm.

On Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to attend Aaron Hanlon’s virtual Mary Louise White Lecture. Before the event, I reached out to Dr. Hanlon to find out more about him. Within those first few emails we were on a first-name basis, so I decided to start with a personal question. I asked him to tell me a little about himself and how he got interested in writing. Aaron grew up in Pittsburgh and went off to college at Bucknell University on a track and field scholarship. Interestingly enough, he had no idea what he wanted to study, or even why he was in college. His focus was on track and field. He decided on a political science and economics major. As he took more college courses, he became more interested in them and began writing in the student newspaper along with a lot of poetry in his English courses. By the end of college, he stated, “I’d become thoroughly interested in studying literature, to the point that I pulled all of my law school applications at the last minute and pleaded with the director of the master’s program at Bucknell to consider my application even though I lacked the English major or minor prerequisites. For some reason they admitted me!”

Aaron is now an associate professor at Colby College and the Director of the program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS). His teaching focuses on British literary history and the Enlightenment. He earned his doctorate in English at the University of Oxford in 2012 with a focus on political theory in British and early-U.S. novels during the Enlightenment. He earned his previous degrees from Bucknell and Dartmouth College. He recently published his first book in 2019 entitled A World of Disorderly Notions: Quixote and the Logic of Exceptionalism. I asked him where his inspiration came from and he replied, “The idea for my first book came to me while I was reading the eighteenth-century novel, Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, alongside the South African writer J.M. Coetzee’s novel Foe. Foe is based on Robinson Crusoe, but with more than a few major twists. Thinking about the relationship between these two novels—specifically the idea that some characters (like Robinson Crusoe) tend to get rewritten and reconfigured over and over again by other writers—really fascinated me. I was curious about what it was about such characters that made them so attractive for authors to rewrite and remake. And thinking about that question brought me to one of the ultimate reproduced characters, Don Quixote. So I wrote a book that set out to answer the question ‘Why did so many British and early-U.S. authors write books and characters based on Don Quixote?’” I asked him if he was working on writing any other books. He replied, “I’m currently writing a very different sort of book—Understanding Science Denial—which is an effort to explain what science denial is, why people do it, and why we respond to it in the ways we do.”

I then asked Aaron what are some of the challenges he faces as a writer and how he overcomes them. He replied, “I think as a writer I've been very fortunate; I benefit from many structural advantages. But one thing that’s always plagued me—and it’s probably not unique to me—is fear of the finished product not being good enough. I was once part of a small audience for a talk by the great novelist Salman Rushdie. When it came time for the Q&A he actually called on me. I was 20 years old at the time, and I wanted to write a novel someday (I still do!), so I asked him what attributes or skills make for a professional novelist. I’ll never forget his answer, which was blunt, brilliant, and edifying. He said, ‘A professional novelist finishes the books they’re writing.’ It hit me that I’d started and shelved two or three novels I’d been working on then, out of fear they would go nowhere. Since that moment I’d started and shelved a couple more. I’ve still never finished a novel, even as I’m capable of finishing other types of writing projects with some efficiency.”

Coming to our campus to talk with young writers who are both learning and close to starting their careers, I asked if he had any advice for students working towards their bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Aaron stated, “One, be a reader. Read as much as you can, across genres and disciplines, and get a feel for different voices. Two, share your drafts with your friends, classmates, colleagues. Make sure you have a really blunt, honest, trustworthy friend or two who can be your toughest critics but still love you. The biggest writing mistake I make these days is sending something off without having shared it and gotten feedback from friends and colleagues first. Even if they’re not an expert or an accomplished writer themselves, a writer can gain a lot of insight from an audience, any audience. Third, rejection is personal in the sense that when you—person—have something rejected, it feels lousy to you specifically, and that feeling can dull but probably never goes away. But also rejection is not personal, in the sense that it happens all the time for reasons that have little or nothing to do with the quality of your work or your potential. So it’s important to keep that in perspective and keep writing and submitting work, whatever kind of writing you do, because the cliche is (in this case) actually true: every successful writer has a shadow resume of countless rejections. We don’t see that because we only see and celebrate the acceptances.”

As Aaron was preparing for his Mary Louise White Lecture on Wednesday night, I asked him what he was hoping to get out of it. He replied “I’ve already had a wonderful experience joining Prof. Simon’s course and talking with his students, and tomorrow I’ll meet Prof. Vanwesenbeeck’s class. What I like best is interaction, an engaged audience, and an audience with diverse interests and perspectives to bring to discussion. So I hope I’ll be able to inspire that kind of engagement, and to start conversations that will continue after the event.” He did exactly what he hoped to get out of this event. After his awesome lecture, Aaron and the audience engaged in great conversations during his question and answer session.

The next Fredonia English event will be the Mary Louise White Visiting Writers Series, which will feature poet Meg Day for a craft talk on April 7 and poetry reading on April 8.

This week I got the opportunity to stop by the English Department’s phone-a-thon. This phone-a-thon was meant for accepted students who either have or have not yet committed for next fall. This event gives prospective students the opportunity to talk with current students and ask any questions or concerns they might have. There were four in-person volunteers who were calling from on-campus and three volunteers who were on call remotely, taking phone calls and zoom calls by appointment which were not just limited to this Friday afternoon and evening.

I talked with Senior Sigma Tau Delta President Paige Rzepka prior to the event. Paige is currently working towards earning her B.A. and M.A. in English Adolescence Education in what the department affectionately calls the 3+1+1 program. She also is working towards her B.A. in Psychology. This is her 3rd time volunteering for the event. I asked Paige what they are trying to emphasize as they call these incoming students. Paige replied, “we really try to emphasize the opportunities students can have, and the resources and connections that they will be able to make during their time at Fredonia. Fredonia provides so many opportunities for their students. You can do research, independent studies, and internships. There is more than just studying English. Outside of just talking about the English department, we want to try and discuss what the campus has to offer as a community. These students are brand new, so we want to mention to them that there are plenty of clubs inside and outside the department that they can join.”

Considering the pandemic has changed the way high school students are going to end their journey at their high schools, I asked Paige what she thought would be different this year during the phone-a-thon then it has been in past years. She answered, “I am sure there will be a lot of hesitation and a lot of nervousness and questions. I’m trying to prepare myself and the others to remember to remind these students that even though it is such a time of uncertainty, Fredonia is a great support system.”

Lastly, I had asked her what she thought prospective students need to know about our institution. She stated “we need to help them get rid of that stigma that things aren’t fun anymore, things aren’t happening and it’s all boring. It’s different, but it’s just a different modality. It may not be the preferred modality, but we are able to make it work. I don’t think that the incoming students realize that. Also that yes, we have mostly all online and hybrid classes as of right now, but the talk is that is not going to be the case in the fall.” 

I also had the chance to talk briefly with Amanda Scheib, a double major in English and Political Science, on what she planned on emphasizing right before she made her first call. She responded, “I want to tell students what college really is, and how the everyday life of a college student is. A lot of people only talk about the academic side, but it is much more than that. I hope to give some peace of mind to the students, or even guidance that will stick with them that isn’t coming from their parents or older adults.” Amanda also spoke on what prospective students need to know about Fredonia: “students need to know that their whole life doesn’t need to be figured out within one year, or even four. I changed my major and then added one.”

During the phone-a-thon, these students acted as a friendly hand reaching out to the incoming students to let them know that they are cared about and they aren’t just a number on a list. Most of the prospective students that responded were able to set up appointments to talk with the current students, or even other departments on campus, during a time that is convenient for them to answer the questions that they might have. Many students who have not yet committed expressed high interest. Some of the students had questions on what opportunities were available to them during their time at Fredonia and also post graduation. They also expressed interest in hearing about what extracurricular activities the campus has to offer. 

This week, I had the opportunity to catch up with Yue Wang, who earned her bachelor's degree in English literature here at Fredonia in 2018. Yue praised the English Department and discussed her journey at Fredonia, including how it influenced what she is doing now as a Master’s student at the University of British Columbia.

The moment Yue stepped onto SUNY Fredonia’s campus, she loved the environment. “I didn't like campuses that were located in the city. Fredonia’s campus is great for students to focus on their studies. When I got there, I found out that the people are warm, kind, and the professors are super-helpful. I spent so many office hours talking with them, and asking them for book recommendations. They really care about their students and I thought that was extraordinary.” 

Yue started out as an English Education major. She took Dr. Iclal Vanwesenbeeck’s Epic and Romance course, which not only introduced her to literary studies, but also led her to the decision to switch her major to English literature. “I liked reading and the idea of making other people read books that I liked. However, I never thought I would study literature in college. Not until after Dr. Vanwesenbeeck taught me that it can be fun, it can be engaging, and just great to study literature this way in college. I am very grateful. She taught me how to study literature in a very critical way.” 

I asked if there were any other professors or courses that influenced her and helped her get where she is now. She named some of the professors and courses that helped her develop her interests in English literature. First, Professor Emily VanDette’s Women Writers course, which introduced her to gender studies. Gender has been a focus for her research ever since. She also mentioned Dr. David Kaplin’s Detective Fiction and Argumentative Writing courses and Dr. Jeanette McVicker’s Senior Seminar course. “Jan McVicker’s Senior Seminar on 1968 introduced me to war, trauma, and dystopia. This course really paved the way for the research I am currently doing.”

Yue graduated from Fredonia in 2018 and was accepted into the Master’s program in English Studies at the University of British Columbia. Yue keeps busy being a teaching assistant, research assistant, and a graduate advisor/assistant. From 2019 to 2020 she spent her time in Yokohama, Japan, doing a language research program called Inter-University Center of Japan Studies. This program brings scholars from all over the world to study and do research on Japanese language. She is now back at UBC for the last year of her Master’s program, writing her thesis on reproduction and dystopia in contemporary women's writers’ fiction.

Yue recently applied to Ph.D. programs and received offers from several. She’s taking some time to decide where she would most like to go. I asked what she plans to do after she completes her Ph.D.Yue stated, “I hope to find a postdoc or, if I am lucky, find an assistant professor position. I hope to teach literature, pop culture, and women’s writing at a university in North America or in Japan.”

I asked if there was any advice she could give to students going into English literature. She replied, “Don’t be afraid to ask questions because I was really afraid to ask questions. I thought that I should have tried harder and learned more on my own. It turns out that if you ask for help, they will be very happy to help.”

I had the opportunity this week to talk with SUNY Fredonia’s Professor Rebecca Cuthbert and Professor Michael Sheehan, and also attend the creative writing faculty’s first of three Fredonia Faculty Reading Events for the semester. Professors Cuthbert and Sheehan both teach creative writing and have high hopes of growing the creative writing community on our campus. They co-hosted the first night of a three-part series on Thursday night. This event involves professors reading their work on Zoom so that students encounter it outside the classroom, in an informal setting. This allows students to learn about their writing styles, what they are working on, and to ask them questions. 

Professor Cuthbert received her MFA from the University of West Virginia in Fiction. She started out as a professor at Fredonia in the Fall of 2011. A few years later she left to work at the local newspaper and then came back in 2017. She has always taught Introduction to Creative Writing and has mixed in other courses over the years. Outside of teaching courses at Fredonia, she keeps busy as a freelance writer and editor, is the Management Editor for Leapfrog Press, and also the Content Editor and Writer for an online newsletter called Live Writers.

Professor Sheehan received his MFA from the University of Arizona and like Professor Cuthbert’s it is in Fiction. He is passionate about writing and teaching fiction and nonfiction. He has taught an array of creative writing courses during his time as a professor at SUNY Fredonia and also teaches Literary Publishing, the course that puts together The Trident literary magazine. Professor Sheehan was also a technical writer and editor supporting educational design and people who build online classes and think about curriculum and instruction development. He hopes for Fredonia’s writing programs to reflect this range of types of writing in the future. 

Professor Sheehan joined SUNY Fredonia in 2019. Professor Cuthbert had nothing but good things to say to highlight his short time on campus so far. She gives Professor Sheehan credit for helping come up with the idea for this event, stating “Michael has brought a lot of cool changes to the department, especially our creative writing community.  He has arranged different events like Visiting Writers Series, advised Writers’ Ring, and has brought new courses in. Creative writing professors are excited that he is here and he brings excitement to campus.”

We discussed the purpose for the reading series and what they hoped the campus would get out of it. This is a new type of event that intentionally highlights the work of Fredonia’s own creative writing instructors. Professor Cuthbert‘s states, “We are hoping that this strengthens our relationships with our students because it will bring authenticity to what we do and let them see them behind the scenes. It will help the students think of us as writers rather than just professors.”

The event had a great turnout for it being the first of three events the creative writing professors are going to have this semester. During the event, Professor Sheehan and Professor Cuthbert read pieces that they had created. Professor Sheehan started out by reading to the audience an essay that he had published a while back. Professor Cuthbert then read one of her short stories that she was currently working on, that still needed revisions so that students could hear something that was still in progress. After they both shared their works, they allowed time for questions. The students and faculty engaged in great conversations.

I asked where they see this event going in the future, and if it is something that they hope to keep around for years to come. Professor Sheehan said, “for future years, we are going to see if these three are successful. We hope to in the future have more events like this that are increasingly informal. Instead of a Zoom event, we hope to create a lounge atmosphere in the future and increase the sense of community and sense of connection. I would love to also create opportunities for students to read their own work where they bring their poetry or fiction for writing community-building opportunities.”

The next event in this three-part series will be on March 25th at 7 p.m., during which Professors Joe Hall and Shannon Jonas and their poetry will share the spotlight.

This week's Feature Friday checks in with recent alumnus Kyle Licht. Kyle graduated in May 2020 and efficiently spent his time here at SUNY Fredonia triple majoring in Communications, Video Production, and Interdisciplinary Studies in a self-designed major he called Auteur Film Production. His ambitious self also quadruple minored in film studies, leadership studies, and music, as well as a self designed minor in Latin American Music.

I asked Kyle how he decided to design his own major. He replied, “I originally thought I wanted to be a writer, but then realized that I was more of a visual storyteller. So I shifted into writing for film. I found out that I had to take art and drawing classes for the Film and Video Arts major. I was not good at drawing so I decided to create my own major.”

Kyle wanted to take total creative control and mix a variety of different disciplines to create the major. I asked him what areas he included and where he came up with the idea for it. He replied, “I really love English—it is a passion of mine. Writing is so important in every field regardless of what you go into, so I decided to include that as a part of it. I of course included theater and film studies classes, along with business, entrepreneurship, accounting, and sales classes.” He added, “You can work in a lot of different fields with a film studies degree, so I wanted to branch out as much as possible and add as many minors and majors as possible.”

He says that he decided to name his self-designed major Auteur Film Production because “Auteur is French for author, so I decided to call it this because I want to become a filmmaker who writes, edits, designs, and owns the film and can inclusively call it their own project.” His goal in life is to be a filmmaker, create stories for people to watch, change lives, and have a positive impact on people by outlining difficult or controversial topics.

I asked if he has had any luck with starting his career since he recently graduated in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kyle explained that “it was tough because my senior year was truncated by COVID-19, which made things hard because it put me in a position of asking myself what to do with my life now when I can't even leave the house. Luckily, one of my friends from Fredonia contacted me asking if I wanted a job at Batavia Downs and I said absolutely.” His job includes supervising the broadcasts of the horse races there.

Just this week, Kyle also just landed the opportunity to also start his career working as a crew member for the television show Restaurant Impossible. This show is all over the Buffalo area. It started in South Buffalo, then went to East Buffalo, and now is filming in Orchard Park. The opportunity arose when his best friend from Fredonia reached out to see if he could possibly fill in for the day. They then asked him to join the team for the rest of the filming of the show. He says that he works 12 hours a day on the job, but really enjoys it and has a lot of fun while being a part of the team. He states that his job is a step in the right direction and is getting him into the industry.

Kyle is also the CEO and Cofounder of Makunema Productions. I asked him how he came up with the idea for this company. He responded, “After wanting to start a club on campus, and getting turned down by the Student Association, my best friend and I decided to take matters into our own hands. So we started an LLC and created this business. We wanted it to incorporate videography and photography in a variety of ways.” I then asked what the goals of his company were. He stated, “This is my dream. The vision is to make documentaries for local inventors, local businesses and local non profits. Later on I plan to shift into making featured films and make my dream even bigger.” His business is run out of his home, but he has an office in the Fredonia Incubator which he won during the student business competition a few years back.

I asked Kyle if there were any specific people from Fredonia who really left a lasting impact on him. He says that being involved in so many majors and minors all of the faculty of SUNY Fredonia were amazing and a lot of people stuck out to him. However, he said “the two that stick out as the most memorable and impacting on my future would be Lou Pozantides, who I took Public Speaking with. His kindness was excellent and he brought joy to me every time I went to his class. He gave me hope that there are still good people out there. Secondly, Phil Hastings. He was very strict, very hard and really pushed you to make things perfect. Although frustrating at times, it really taught me to be thorough with my work, and pay close attention to detail.”

I wish Kyle the best on starting his career and thank him for sharing what has been going on since he graduated in May!

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to talk with one of Fredonia’s outstanding alumni, Brandon Williamson. Brandon graduated from Fredonia in 2007 with a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Theatre. He started in his profession as a high school theater teacher. A few years later, he changed directions and decided to come back to Fredonia to become an Admissions Counselor to not only fulfill his joy of working with students, but also to give back to his Fredonia community. During the past nine years he’s been an Admissions Counselor, Brandon also founded Pure Ink Poetry in 2012, the only monthly Poetry Slam in Buffalo open to the public, and wrote and self published two books of poetry. Brandon describes his name being built on not only theater, but also the world of spoken poetry and writing.

Excitingly, this week Brandon was named the President of the Ujima Theater in Buffalo, NY. Ujima Theater is the only African American professional theater company in the city of Buffalo. Brandon stated, “their performances help people change perspectives on things and open eyes on topics like social justice, and identity. You're not going to go there and see something with a chorus line. You are going to see things that have a message and meaning, something you are supposed to carry with you.”

Brandon has been a member of Ujima since 2001, and recently became interested in working even more closely with the theater company again. He had originally thought that he would be working with his typical small role from the past and helping out in any way he could until he found out that his mentor, Lorna C. Hill, had passed away suddenly in June.

I asked Brandon what his main motivation behind joining this organization was and what this opportunity to be its new President means to him. He replied, “I had originally joined the group because of my mentor, Lorna C. Hill. She was the leader and artistic director of the company. The cornerstone of theater. She created the Ujima Theater and was the voice and personality of it. It is now my turn to carry the torch, carry on her legacy, and be what she wanted us to be in theater by working together as a collective and carrying on the responsibility of teaching and training and and telling the stories that need to be told. Even in the tough times of COVID-19, to keep Ujima’s meaning and message alive.”

On top of this huge new accomplishment, we discussed his passion for poetry and his release in August of his book, A ‘How to’ Guide. He describes this as an “instructional guide or cook book one might say that incorporates metaphors of poetry.” While writing this book he also pairs it with a complimentary album reflecting his poetry. He composed his own music for this album and then incorporated the same poems from the music into the album (with only a few glitches!). He says that “the idea to write this book was put into practice when COVID-19 first happened. I pulled my poems’ ideas from that concept, which were concepts I had before, but now had the time to use them. I wanted to be creatively productive with my time.”

Back in 2015, he also wrote and self published his first poetry book, Critical Lenses, a series of poems emphasizing the view through the eyes of a poet. I asked him what inspired him to write these books, and who he was hoping to impact through them, and he explained that “I used to have the mindset that my poetry is meant to be heard and not read because when you see a performance poet who is passionate about the performance, then you can feel what they are trying to relay. It's like the difference between seeing a script and writing a play which is why I didn’t write any books for the first 7-8 years that I performed poetry. Then, I had a conversation with someone on the history of poetry and how poetry is the voice of the people, and I wanted to leave a piece of myself in history for someone to get a feel for my story. I then decided to leave something in print which is why I decided to write a critical lens where I took elements of my story and set it down so I could reach out and affect whoever comes across it.”

Brandon is a versatile individual who puts every ounce of energy he has into his different works, and displays strong passion for what he does. His intention in terms of poetry is to give people an opportunity to have a voice and share their stories. His accomplishments thus far have been remarkable, and are worth recognition. I wish him the best on his new journey as the President of Ujima Theater and thank him for sharing his story with me.

Emily VanDette is an associate professor for the English Department at the State University of New York at Fredonia, specializing in 19th century American literature. Recently, Dr. VanDette was able to speak at the Quarry Farm Sixth Symposium, “Mark Twain and Nature,” where she spoke on Twain’s avid opposition to the vivisection of animals, a topic which VanDette found preoccupied many writers in the 19th century. I asked what led her to pursue such a niche path of research, considering that her normal studies revolve around women writers and the progressive movements surrounding them. VanDette stated that her fascination with how women used their writing as a vehicle for political expression, especially during a time of major disenfranchisement, is what led her to the topic, as animal rights were, in fact, one of the many issues which occupied the writings of women at this time.

Ever since she became an avid member of the literati, VanDette said, her primary focus has been on those writers who were pushed to the sidelines, whose voices had been forgotten or disregarded. She wanted to learn their stories, to hear of their lives in their own context, and discover how they expanded upon our understanding of various points in history. So many stories were like that, she said: existing, yet unexplored. They are such a large part of history, contributing to so much of how the course of society has been shaped, and so to simply disregard them is to do a disservice to ourselves. It’s very much a result, she said, of the fallacy we hold about learning; too often, we consider topics to be finite in the scope of knowledge which can be gained from them, but in reality, no topic is ever fully explored. There are always more tidbits of information to be gathered, more secrets to be uncovered by researchers willing to put in the work. 

Dr. VanDette, as one such researcher, put in a considerable amount of effort into researching the topic of animal rights in literature, in order to help re-publish a long-forgotten work of extraordinary talent. “Trixy,” by the author Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, is yet another work of art disavowing the vivisection movement, which VanDette says Phelps saw as a crisis of humanity. Dr. VanDette, interestingly enough, said that getting a copy of the now out-of-print book wasn’t as hard as many might think it to be, given that being out of print, it’s become a rather cheap buy from collectors. The real challenge lay in the process of getting ahold of the documents archiving the surrounding topic of the anti-vivisection movement. To do so, VanDette had to do some very intensive research, traveling out of the state to retrieve the documents from their respective archives. Very often, the survival of these documents at all was a miracle; VanDette found one in the oldest SPCA building in the USA, where a fire had almost destroyed the entirety of its records.

Many rising researchers might shy away from such a task. All too often, young writers and researchers are taught to believe that their interests are too niche, and that they'll never receive any success pursuing them. However, as Emily has said, her own experience has taught her that in the literary world, there is rarely ever any moment when a researcher is alone in their journey. “Realizing that there is a whole world of scholars and authors connected around those subjects,” VanDette said, “is invigorating, and creates a sense of solidarity.” That solidarity often comes with an equal amount of connections; one of Dr. VanDette’s top tips for writers looking to be successful after college was to build a network of like-minded scholars, through whom aid in their endeavors may more easily be achieved. These scholars could be peers who were already successful, but more often than not, they would be former teachers, whose guidance often continued even after their students left college behind. 

Recently, I had the honor of being able to interview Nishta Mehra, the author of the book Brown, White and Black. An intimate collection of essays on motherhood and intersectionality in the modern world, the book deals with the process of raising a child in a household which incorporates diversity in both race and sexuality. Her demeanor, ever polite and cheerful, brought a warmth to Fredonia which any local could tell you was sorely needed in these winter months, and her insight on the cultures of both modern America and the publishing business exhibited a wisdom which both charmed and inspired all at once. 

“The book was a way to think about private domestic life,” Nishta began, as I asked her what her goal was in publishing her collection. “Which was, on some level, uncomplicated, and beautiful, and intimate. Yet even inside your house, you know what your kids are going to have to face when they leave, and you know what’s going to come with that. Conversations about what it means to be a family; discussions about parenting, and what people assume about that and its connection to biology. Those are things I wanted to try and explore from a personal perspective, but also from the perspective of how it reflects on a larger level.”

I asked Nishta if all of her work, then, came from personal experiences, and whether she felt that her book gave voice to demographics which have historically lacked one. Her response, funnily enough, was more pragmatic in its beginning than I had expected, but quickly veered into meaningful insights on the impact of both her work and others of its kind. 

“I don’t know how to write fiction,” she said with surprising honesty. “I admire people who do, but I don’t know how to be one of them. I find it far too intimidating to start from a blank page and imagine things, so I have to start with my own set of experiences.”

She took a moment, presumably to think over how better to explain how she felt about the impact of her literature. “I am a writer,” she said, “but I am a reader first. So I know what it’s like to read something and to feel so grateful that it was written. There are so many historical narratives we might want to go back to and recontextualize, but we can’t, because many of those narratives have been lost or silenced. So I found that writing about my family’s experiences can be very useful in the future, both for people who see themselves in the story, but also for people who don’t, and now think about their own experiences differently.”

I found that particular point interesting. So many times in history, the narratives of marginalized people have been squashed by the forces of those in power, suppressed and kept from the public eye because they either threatened the status quo, or simply weren’t seen as exploitable. I wondered to what extent Nishta felt this had changed, and asked her how much time and place had played a role in enabling or constraining her ability to say what she wanted to. 

“That’s a good question. Definitely both. There’s a sense in which you know it’s an industry, and like everything in late stage capitalism, run by a motor of profit. And so in a sense, I’ve benefited greatly from so many people scrambling to try and diversify their publishing lists. I don’t feel that anyone was trying to tokenize me, or use me from a utilitarian perspective, but just in terms of metrics, you know it plays a role. Personally, I got very lucky. My editor found me through some work I published online, and contacted me to ask if I was planning to publish any more. And that’s the dream version of how it works, so my experience was not typical.”

Elaborating on the process of being published, and on the culture of publishing in general, Nishta said “I think what’s hard about it is navigating something you know almost nothing about. You get the sense that once you get to a certain level in publishing, things will operate differently- it all seems like a secret society, and you wonder what the secret handshake is-- but it’s not; they’re all just people. But there are a lot of aspects of ‘who you know,’ and who your agent knows. Not that that’s different from any other industry in that way. But when it’s something as intimate as your personal story, it’s hard to reckon with the fact that there are factors at play that you can’t control.”

That topic, of control, was reminiscent of a crucial theme in Nishta’s book. Very often, she had written, the process of parenting a child became a question of protection; how much should a child be protected as they grow up in the world, and to what extent should they be exposed to the very real issues which they will one day face? I asked in particular what her experience was with helping her child develop their own sense of identity in the modern world, and whether her methods differed greatly from those of her own parents. 

“I think the personal identity stuff has been very important for us to do two things; one, to make sure that she has a world she can move around in, and is safe. And what that’s created is a situation in which when we talk about how the rest of the world may respond to her, her response is ‘well, that’s a them problem.’ She doesn’t internalize it, which in a way is fascinating to watch.”

When I asked Nishta what she meant by this internalization of the world's struggles, her response was extensive. “I get the experiences of watching my kid move around in a way that wouldn’t have been conceivable ten years ago-- but I still have students who are afraid to come out to their parents. There’s a lot of damage which is still being done to children, but we are also finding pockets of freedom, where we can see what is possible when a kid doesn’t have to fight for their identity as much as they used to. For so many of us that are queer and of a certain age, we didn’t even know what that would look like.”

As we ended, I asked Nishta whether or not she felt that this diversification of voices, this progressive movement we’ve seen the literary industry taking over the last decade, would change. The response was optimistic, yet tinged with realism.

“I like to look at the young adult literature section as a microcosm, and watching what’s happened there, is interesting how that subset has grown so much faster than both children’s literature and adult literature. It’s some incredible new authors and narratives. And a lot doesn’t feel forced-- I feel there have been genuine openings for people who are trying to tell their own stories. You have a very active community of authors who are outspoken about what they do. I wonder whether it will continue. I doubt it, because the industry is such a dinosaur, and that’s something you really learn-- yet I think more people are finding more power to express their narratives, especially through the media. You’re seeing a lot of really high quality writing online.”

This past Thursday, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Birger Vanwesenbeeck, a professor at the State university of New York at Fredonia for the last thirteen years. A speaker of three languages, and a student of both literature and world history, Birger’s expertise lies in the relationship which history shares with literature, and the effects that this relationship has on future generations of writers. When I spoke to him, we discussed for a long while the nature of this relationship, and how it relates to the courses he teaches here at the university.

If one were to come up with a central, interconnecting theme to the courses Birger teaches, it would likely be the breaking away from the way in which students have been taught to learn about literature. Too often, Dr. Vanwesenbeeck said, students have been taught to look for certain things in literature-- theme, for example-- at the expense of the larger picture. This is too streamlined, in his opinion, and too reductive in its scope. So in his classes, he teaches his students that there are more ways than one to look at a text. This is perhaps most evident in English 213, Texts and Contexts. In this course, students are taught about the methodology of studying literature. They learn critical theory, exploring the ways in which history not only affected the authors of key literature and how they wrote it, but how those authors in turn affected their contemporaries and future authors. It is this connection between past writers and those of the present, which becomes all the more pertinent as students begin to apply what they learn in this course to the rest of their literary studies.

The interaction between history and literature plays perhaps an even more centralized role in the next course, Word and Image. Covering literature from the 1940s, the course seeks to enable readers to identify how imagery is tackled in literature, versus other forms of media. It begs the question ‘to what extent can literature convey imagery in a way that photography and cinema cannot?’ and thus explores the relationship literature has had with visual arts. Students explore the first cinema adaptations of famous stories and novellas, such as the many adaptations of ‘Letter to an Unknown Woman’ by Stefan Zweig (whose work is enshrined here at Reed Library). Through this, Vanwesenbeeck feels, students can get a better picture of literature's place in the larger world, and how that place has been affected by changing cultures and technology. They learn that literature is a nebulous thing, always shifting to accommodate the modern era, but that its most crucial uses in conveying imagery always remain uniquely its own.

Another course Dr. Vanwesenbeeck has taught in the past, Contemporary American Literature, is perhaps the most relevant to understanding the time period in which we live. Focusing entirely on literature written by authors within the last ten years, the course looked at the issues which have struck the American populace during the modern era. These issues, ranging from racial injustice to economic conflict, have explored by looking at a cast of brilliant writers of color, and the way they tackle the issues from their own, unique perspectives. Vanwesenbeeck believes that it is important to study these modern writers, in order to get the most genuine picture of how these age-old issues are influencing the world today. However, as he said, looking at one time period is not enough; literary history is a constant engagement between the past and present. The most successful authors are the ones who recognize what came before them, and are finding new and inventive ways of engaging the same issues tackled back then. Students in this course are encouraged to recall what they know of the past, and the skills they learned in courses like Texts and Contexts, in order to observe how the contemporary writers they study build off of the established work of their forebears.

Last week, I sat down with award-winning author Edward Ball, a writer and teacher of creative nonfiction, for a cup of coffee at our local Starbucks. Dressed neatly, with an air that conveys both experience and humility, Prof. Ball is a soft spoken man whose presence is more than enough to grab the attention of those around him. His works, including the famous memoir Slaves in the Family, have in no small part contributed to this presence, garnering him such prestigious accomplishments as teaching positions at Harvard and Yale and a spot on the Oprah Winfrey Show. I asked how he got started on the path that would lead to these accomplishments; very often, I thought, we forget that beneath all that baffling success, there is always a beginning, a single point of less-than-glamorous departure from academia to the professional field. 

“It happened kind of by accident,” Ball began. “I was in cinema studies, on a track to become a film scholar, and at age 25, I said to myself, ‘I don’t want to be a film scholar.’ So I moved to New York—without any resources—and tried to get a job in advertising. And I failed to get work; I was singularly unsuited for corporate culture. Then at about—it must have been November of 1988—a friend of mine who worked as an editor in a glossy magazine, which had the name of Connoisseur, said ‘well, I’ve got $250; I could pay you that for a 500-word art review.’ So I started to do that. And within five or six little tiny pieces, I got kind of hooked on this business of seeing my name in print and writing criticism. I was good at writing criticism. So that’s how it started.”

From there, our conversation turned to the ten years Edward had spent as an art critic, writing for outlets such as the New York Times and the Village Voice. I wasn’t surprised to hear that Edward’s road to becoming a well-known writer had been a difficult one; it seemed to me that the story of most artists was one of personal hardship and circumstantial opportunity. Yet how he transitioned from film scholar to art critic to author of historical nonfiction still struck me as odd; those were, we both agreed, very different careers, and I had to ask whether there was any particular inciting incident which inspired him. 

“It seems implausible, doesn’t it?” Ball said. “I was 33, living in Brooklyn, and I received an invitation to a family reunion in Charleston, South Carolina. My father’s family there was having a ‘once every decade’ reunion, and I knew from childhood that our family was an old slaveholding clan. So I went to Charleston to see old family connections, and during that time, we talked a lot about our ancestors, the white folks in the big houses. Yet we learned nothing about the thousands of black people our family had enslaved. I was dazed and confused about all of this. So I went back to New York, and decided this was a subject I wanted to investigate—the inheritance of slave-owning among my own people. And it was not going to be easy to do.” 

The nature of our conversation took a sombre tone then, as we discussed the legacy of slavery in the United States. Very rarely, I said, do white people acknowledge or discuss how very real and very recent slavery was in our history, and the very real connections it had to many of our own bloodlines. So very often, we like to brush the crimes of our ancestors under the rug, to pretend it either never happened, or happened so far in the past that it is useless to dwell on. Yet the effects of slavery impact the lives of countless African-American families across the nation to this day, in prejudice and discrimination which inflicts very real wounds on our society. 

“It’s kind of a symptom of our national memory,” Prof. Ball said at one point, “and the problem we have with remembering slavery—and reckoning with it.” Yet the book he produced did not shy away from the horrors of the past; instead, it sought to shed light on them, and provide a voice not for the perpetrators, but those most harmed by them. Slaves in the Family is an account told by the descendants of those enslaved by Ball’s ancestors, a vector for their story and their truth to break through the fog of our collective and willful forgetfulness. 

“I spent four years investigating the family history,” Ball said, “and locating black families whose ancestors we had once enslaved. It was very emotional, very draining—there was a lot of anger, a lot of sorrow, a lot of catharsis.” 

We discussed, then, the importance of the writer today in their role as a storyteller; the oldest role in the field of English, stretching back before it was consolidated into a strict discipline. We discussed the nature of the storyteller as a figure through whom others can find a voice to tell their story, whose presence allows for the walls of oppression to be slid aside, if just for a moment, allowing justice to slip through. In the past, I argued, it was for the sake of the dead that we told our stories; we told them to give our ancestors a voice, to give them back the lives they had lost. A storyteller was a way for the memory of those ancestors to live on, and in essence, this role has not changed. It is, perhaps, greater now than ever, in an era where crimes against humanity are not only more frequent, but so easily covered up from the public eyes. The storyteller—the novelist and the writer—has a very real power to ensure that these things are not forgotten, and that we are always reminded, for the sake of justice, of those who have been lost or wronged. 

Poetic musings aside, we both agreed that this societal importance is something that young writers should always remember when pursuing a degree or job in the field of language arts. They shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that it’s a field simply for professors; there’s a vast wealth of diversity in what one can do with the power of language, and just as many opportunities to fill those roles. Be it as a copy editor, or an office temp, or art critic, or film scholar, the world will always have need for people with a passion for writing. I asked Edward if he had advice, then, for people who might be inspired by that fact, advice for how they could truly step into the professional world with assurance. 

“Everyone has their own path,” Edward said. “One way to do it is to find a job in a corner of the media—a newspaper or a website—doing the entry-level stuff which needs to be done; which is copy-editing and proof-reading. With your other hours, start to work on your own stuff…. I think that’s a good model that can be adapted to find a means of support. Customarily in New York, there are thousands of workers who are also artists. You make enough money to pay for your four-bedroom share, and you work on your art with your other hand. It’s not easy—it can take years—but that’s the most trustworthy model, I think.”

Ultimately, Edward Ball’s story is one which deconstructs the myth of a linear path towards professional excellence. Very rarely does an artist find themselves on a one-track route towards greatness. Instead, like Ball, they must often take risks—if calculated risks—and find themselves in careers which they had not originally intended or foreseen. It is through these risks that one gathers experience, and finds the stable jobs which are needed to financially support them while they work on their own magnum opi, working, as all writers do, to fulfill the age-old duty of the storyteller and truth-seeker.

Jessica Serrano was a previous intern here at SUNY Fredonia, and an author of many articles herself. Her skills in writing took her a great distance during her tenure at the university, and she was happy to take the time to explain some of the factors which she felt made it a worthwhile experience. 

“Before I interned with the English department,” Jessica says, “I was someone who only knew professors that she took classes with. By the end of my internship, I became familiar with almost the whole department.” They stated that the sense of community during their time interning was perhaps one of the greatest aspects of their employment, and that they found the connections they made to be incredibly useful in building themselves up as professionals. Success was, as she said, not just a matter of knowing a few select people, but rather as many as possible, in order to open as many opportunities to themselves as possible. The nature of an internship for such a group as Fredonia’s English department required a great deal of coordination, and Jessica’s role in facilitating that coordination meant that she was always speaking to new people in every kind of position. “I got to speak and connect with alumni, prospective students, current students, and professors,” she said. “I’m a very shy person, so not only did this internship help me with that, but it also showed me that I will always have support from everyone in the English department.”

Of course, it wasn’t always easy making sure that everyone was connected. Oftentimes, it requires a keen sense of timing, and an ability to compromise for the sake of bringing people together.  “We all worked really well with each other,” Jessica continued, “but finding times to meet sometimes was tough. I would say the biggest challenge was working around everyone’s busy schedule.” Despite this, Jessica said that it taught her the vital skills that are needed to schedule meetings and events in a fast-paced environment, like the academic scene of Fredonia’s many faculty members and students. Plus, she was never in a position where she felt she couldn’t get help in improving; “While interning, I had professors and interns looking at my work and giving me advice on how to better my work,” she said, showing just how devoted the faculty are to facilitating the growth of their students. 

Last Friday, October 4th, Fredonia had the privilege of hosting award-winning author Jamel Brinkley for the English department’s yearly Visiting Writer series. Sitting down with Jamel over a cup of coffee, we were given the opportunity to discuss his work, his achievements, and the reflections he had on the path he took getting to where he is now. Jamel is a well spoken yet confident man, whose insight on the process of writing proved to be reflective of the human experience itself.

Beginning our conversation, I recalled what it was Jamel had spoken of in his initial lecture on the 3rd of October. He had given a presentation on the process of choosing a perspective to write from when crafting a tale, and had aptly described it as one of the most important, if not the most important decisions one makes when beginning any undertaking into literature. I mentioned that his questions to the audience, many of them writers, about how they chose their POV in a story, had made me wonder what it was that compelled Jamel to choose one mode over another.

“I think I tend to start just by feel,” he said, “which was part of my point in the lecture yesterday- like, often we grab for a certain point of view, because a voice is appealing to us. We’re not thinking of all the consequences of that choice. I think that’s fine, but once you commit to that choice, then you have to make sure you’re managing it.”

This opinion struck me as particularly pertinent to the protagonists of his collection, many of whom dealt with the repercussions of decisions made before the stories had even begun. These protagonists were never truly good or truly bad; very often, they sat at a truly grey area of the moral spectrum, prone to any of the same mistakes as the audience would be. I asked Jamel whether or not he ever struggled with writing such characters, especially given that very often, writers focus on creating characters who are likable, rather than those who, like Jamel’s protagonists, reflect the human condition in all its uncomfortable complexity.

“I’m not super interested in heroes and villains,” he answered. “I think they’re both kind of boring, honestly. That said, I think it's surprising the amount of times, even now, that I’ll let my character off the hook for the first few drafts. You know, I'm protecting that character, I’m not allowing them to make mistakes, because I do care about my characters. So there’s this contradictory impulse, where you do want to care for them and love them, but you don’t want to over-parent them almost. You want to let them do their thing.”

He paused for a moment, before continuing. “I think ultimately I have to be true to my vision. I know that not everyone will like my work- I’ve had readers say that they thought the collection was too dark or too sad- and that’s ok, you know, because I once had a writing teacher say “as soon as you write your first sentence, you’ve lost half your audience.” And I think that’s true- in other words, you can’t try to appeal to every single kind of reader. On the first stage of things, I’m trying to write work that is interesting to me. Then, of course, I’m trying to communicate these stories. But I don’t worry about readers feeling a certain kind of way about characters.”

I asked Jamel whether there were other things that proved difficult for him in writing, or at least which had troubled him when he first began his career. His answer was rather poignant to the experiences of many English students:

“One of my struggles, personally- and I think this is just a function of being trained as a literature student all the time - is that you’re trained to analyze literature. So we’re constantly talking about things like symbols, or themes, or things like that. One thing I remember when I started taking writing classes, was that I was kind of attending less to the characters- that humanness that you’re talking about- and thinking more about ‘ooh, this’ll be a cool symbol,’ or ‘this’ll be a cool theme,’- reaching for metaphors in weird ways. I think I had to realize that those things take care of themselves. If you pay close attention to the stories and to the characters, then that sort of comes organically.”

All writers have their inspirations, and I wanted to get a little more personal with Jamel by asking what his were. His answers were relatively straightforward, yet held a comprehensiveness that betrayed how well read he is. The authors he listed off included contemporary writers like Edward P. Jones, Alice Monroe, to more classical writers, like Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and, of course, Toni Morrison. When it came to their voices, Jamel said, he never tried to copy any of their styles. Rather, he said, “A version of that I find a little more useful is to write stories that talk back to stories you like. It’s not quite like ‘I’m trying to write like you,’ but ‘you wrote something that demands a response’.”

That brought up an interesting question in regards to Jamel’s own voice, and the struggle of many writers to develop their own sense of tone and style. Jamel, now in the prestigious role of a Writing Fellow at the University of Stanford, explained how second year Fellows were required to reflect on each other’s works. It’s a process which he said helped reveal to him aspects of his own work he hadn’t thought of before, aspects which were reflective of how he saw himself as a person.

“I think, like, there are parts of our personalities which show up in our prose,” he said, “that we don’t even really think about, and which other people have to point out. And I don’t know if you can consciously imbue your art with those personality traits. I think that’s why it’s hard to teach voice- it’s something people just have.”

Finally, I asked Jamel what his tips were to writers who wanted to follow a path similar to his, especially in regards to pursuing an MFA in writing. His biggest piece of advice was that you should be prepared; you don’t want to pursue something like it if you’re going to be in debt, nor if you’re going to have to take out time to support yourself through some other means. Your focus should be on your own writing, as he did when he first entered into the program. For that reason, he suggests looking for offers that will allow your MFA to be fully funded.

Next Week, Wednesday the 16th of October, the English Department will be bringing students of Fredonia to the Babel Book series reading event at Buffalo, NY. Held annually, the Babel series is dedicated to bringing four of the world’s most esteemed authors to Buffalo, in order to share their work and lecture English lovers from across the country. Each imbued with their own distinct literary styles and experiences, Babel’s guests are thrillingly unique, unified only by their mastery of the craft.

Wednesday's event will center around Pulitzer Prize winning author N. Scott Momaday, whose work on the experiences of indigenous American culture have contributed greatly to the preservation of indigenous traditions. The book he will be sampling, House Made of Dawn, centers around a young native man, whose life is torn between the influences of old American West, and the industrial ambitions of the modern age.

Student tickets for the event are only $10, and can be purchased by going to https://www.justbuffalo.org/shop/babel-tickets-n-scott-momaday-10-16-2019/. Students who have purchased tickets may take a bus chartered by the Fredonia English Department, after filling out a brief form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Hs9ox5qCyTNDlvGVaXKIjOCKGCsxVsdRx81Q3e3XWaU/edit?ts=5d85249b.

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We’ve just created a new Instagram profile where we will share our #FeatureFridays, department events, and other announcements and news.  Our first series will focus on our student award winners, whom we’ll be celebrating on May 10!  Please follow us at @fredenglishdepartment.

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Congratulations to the students in Professor Eric Schlich’s ENGL 261 Literary Publishing class on the release of the new issue of Fredonia’s literary journal, The Trident, which they produced this semester.  And kudos to the poets, fiction writers, and visual artists whose work is featured in the print issue and online!

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Our ENGL 400 Senior Seminar students are capping their intensive exploration of Sophocles’s Antigone this semester through multiple translations, adaptations, and theoretical connections with a final class collaboration, “The Antigone Project,” that also comprises a community engagement component.  Seminar students chose to work with the 9th grade Honors class at Dunkirk High School, co-taught by Megan Larivey (ELA 9 & 10 Honors Seminar; English, Fredonia Class of 2002) and Jillian Domenico (Global Studies 9 & 10 Honors Seminar; Social Studies, Fredonia Class of 1999). Megan is the sister of Erin Mroczka (advising) and was referred to the students via Rebekah Conti (pre-college outreach).

 The sixteen Senior Seminar students have jointly created a website with multiple components intended to demonstrate the importance of using one’s voice for positive social change, reflecting their primary learning from studying these texts and thinking about the importance of the humanities.  Seven members of the class were able to meet with the Dunkirk High School 9th Grade Honors students on 1 May—which coincidentally happens to be an international day marking protest—and share their and their colleagues’ collaborative work:  Kordell Hammond, Sam Kalinsky, Hannah Luterek, Tom Marcote, Joanna Rufus, Kasey Sadowski, and Makenzie Smith.  The rest of the class recorded video statements to be part of the classroom visit in virtual mode, which are also on the website.  We invite the campus and local community to check out the work of these students and engage with them via the site.

 This spring’s ENGL 400 was taught by Dr. Jeanette McVicker, Professor of English.  She chose the Antigone theme for the semester in part to connect her students with the Theatre Department’s staging of an adaptation of the play by Jean Anouilh; the campus production was directed by Fredonia alum and current lecturer Daniel Lendzian (who is also a former student of McVicker’s and a 2006 Fredonia graduate with a B.A. in English).  The seminar students attended an early February rehearsal and engaged with cast members in a discussion of the play prior to seeing the play as part of the class.

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Congratulations to Professor Birger Vanwesenbeeck on his selection by the National Endowment for the Humanities for a summer stipend that will allow the completion of his scholarly study of loss and language in American literature.

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Congratulations to Senior Lecturer Melinda Wendell for being awarded the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.  This is a richly-deserved honor for an incredible career.  We thank Professor Wendell for all she has done and continues to do to model student-learning-centered pedagogy for all her students and prepare concentrators in English Education to transform their students’ lives!

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Congratulations to Professor Natalie Gerber on her appointment as the new director of Fredonia’s Honors Program!

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We are very happy to welcome new Assistant Professor Michael Sheehan to Fredonia English.  He is the author of Proposals for the Recovery of the Apparently Drowned (Colony Collapse Press).  His fiction and essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Agni, Mississippi Review, Conjunctions, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere.  He is a former fellow of the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and a graduate of the University of Arizona’s MFA program and St. John’s College’s Graduate Institute in Liberal Arts.  He has taught creative writing at Stephen F. Austin State University, the University of Arizona, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has edited literary journals including Regarding Arts & Letters, Diagram, and Sonora Review.

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