In case you missed it. . . My June newsletter

Hi friends! It’s been a gangbuster month of… cleaning and throwing things out! 

Yes, we’ve decided after 7 years of living full time on Whidbey Island to purge our possessions and move on. To where? Well, we’re hoping to move back to California, probably around the Central Coast. We’ll keep you posted. 

Purging your possessions is an interesting experience if you can allow yourself to really experience it and not feel completely stressed out by the amount of stuff you have. I finally looked at all my professor papers — my handouts and lecture notes, and syllabi and yes, some papers that students never came by and picked up (!) — and I …. threw it all away.

I will have left my job at UC Riverside 10 years ago this December, and I finally feel as though my author-identity has taken hold. My thinking was this: I figured that if I could write and publish a novel, well, ok, that would be something; if I could write and publish a second novel and then have a novella coming out, well then I guess I could then call myself a serious writer. I’ve done that, and my 3rd book of poems — a chapbook — came out last year. And a novelette too, in 2021.

So, yes, I feel that I can say pretty definitely that I’m committed to this writing life. 🙂

But while I no longer work at the university, teaching remains my great love. So, I am keeping my two distinguished teaching award plaques, and copies of my handouts for Metafiction, the first creative writing class that I ever taught. In Metafiction I worked with and developed relationships with dynamic, playful and brilliant writers, many of whom I am still in close touch with! If you were in that class, you may remember smelling tuna in the bathroom (yes, we did this), sitting in a phone booth, taking photos with a disposable camera, performing Son of an Engineer to passersby on campus, and/or writing a fake encyclopedia. 

Witnessing other writers come into their own is and remains an enormous joy for me. So I was particularly grateful and jazzed to have two remarkable teaching experiences at Hugo House this past month. The first was teaching THE LATE SHOW with Deborah Nedelman and the second was teaching a one session only class called Help! I have a Fear of Fiction! In both instances, I had the good luck to work with an incredible group of courageous writers in the zoom room. Their passion and kindness were incredible!

I hope I am fortunate enough to do this work with writers for many years to come. 

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to catch up on writing reviews of poetry collections I believe in, walking every other day, and yes… writing a poem a day. It doesn’t have to be a good poem, but it helps me stay focussed on writing amidst all the big physical changes going on over here. 

What I have recently rediscovered is how much I am inspired by other writers who write. I’m a very solitary writer by nature, but I love hearing what other people are doing. Perhaps you’re the same way.

If so, I encourage you to attend a reading, go to a conference, and, in general, seek out writers whom you don’t know and whose work may even be very different than yours. One of the blessings in the curse of Covid, was experiencing so many writers in so many different places in zoom world. Zoom makes so much possible! This past Thursday and Friday, I “attended” virtual meetings of the Yetzirah Inaugural Jewish Poetry Conference at UNC Asheville, and heard — mostly — poets whom I did not know at all. I spent the entire time listening to them AND then writing poems in response to what they talked about or read. It was crazy! I haven’t written that much in ages. Then I opened up a new document and started writing about how I felt about living in and now leaving Whidbey Island! Was it good? No idea. But it was good to start writing about this subject. All this got generated from the conference I happened to drop in at. 

The point is: I encourage you to listen in to the many readings available virtually. It’s the one reason to stay on Facebook — the ability to learn about such events. That’s how I learned about Yetzirah. 

Speaking of Facebook, a friend and sometime student posted something about two toy ducks…. It was incredible, and I said “write a story about them!”

So, here’s an assignment: go through your facebook posts or emails, and pick out a sentence that feels exciting. Write a poem or story using that sentence as the beginning. See where you end up! 

Wishing you a wonderful start to your summer. Covid booster shots are available, and I advise you to boost, and continue wearing a mask in a crowded area. 

Warm wishes and Write On!

Stephanie H.