amaranth News and Stories from the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature at Hiram College
the writing house
renovation VISITING PROFESSOR DANIEL RIORDAN WESTERN RESERVE BOOK FESTIVAL
Fall 2014 www.hiram.edu/lindsaycrane www.facebook.com/lindsaycranecenter
am a ranth noun
1. a Vachel Lindsay poem published in The Congo and Other Poems in 1914 2. an imaginary flower that never fades 3. a highly nutritious golden seed 4. any of various annuals of the genus Amaranthus having dense green or reddish clusters of tiny flowers
Volume 3, Issue 2, Fall 2014
amaranth is a bi-annual publication of The Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature
staff
Editor-in-Chief Graphic Design
Kirsten Parkinson Sarah Bianchi
contributing writers Kirsten Parkinson Francis Sugita Maya Watkins ’17
contributing photographers Edith Antl Karen Donley-Hayes Kirsten Parkinson
mailing address Hiram College P.O. Box 67 Hiram, OH 44234
The Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature would like to thank the Hiram College Office of Institutional Advancement and the Office of Special Events for their ongoing support. Š The Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature, Hiram College
Lindsay-Crane
CENTER
for W r i t i n g & Literature
On the cover: the Brainerd Stranahan bench in the gardens behind Bonney Castle
amaranth News and Stories from the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature
fall 2014 3 4
STUDENT PROFILES
Meet the Lindsay-Crane interns for the fall semester
A NEW LOOK
The Stephen and Jacquelyn Love Writing House gets an attractive update
8
WESTERN RESERVE BOOK FESTIVAL
More than 40 writers come to the Hiram campus
10
DANIEL RIORDAN
Intern Maya Watkins talks with our fall visiting faculty member
12
DETECTING WITH ROGER ROSENBLATT
A look back at Roger Rosenblatt’s spring visit
BACK COVER
What’s happening this year at the Lindsay-Crane Center
From Director Kirsten Parkinson In addition to expanding opportunities in writing and literature for members of the Hiram College community, an element of the Lindsay-Crane Center’s mission is outreach to the world beyond Hiram Hill. Call us word evangelists, if you must, but we believe passionately in the power of books and writing to change lives. This year the Lindsay-Crane Center is especially reaching out to high-school students in the immediate area and around the country with two pilot programs: We are partnering with the Cleveland-based Anisfield-Wolf Awards to lead book discussions in two local schools. Four members of Hiram’s Eclectic Scholars Honors Program will be working with teachers at Crestwood and Streetsboro High Schools to teach two of this year’s Anisfield-Wolf winners: the poetry collection The Big Smoke by Adrian Matejka and the novel A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. The Hiram College students will read the books and then work with Hiram faculty members to develop presentations and discussion questions before visiting the schools later this fall to work with senior honors and AP students. Our writing contests are expanding to include a nonfiction writing competition for high-school students. Nonfiction is a fast-growing genre, yet few colleges offer contests in this area for high-school students. Furthermore, Hiram College is particularly distinctive in this area with many of its English faculty members actively publishing in the genre. Some details of the contest are still being finalized, but it will be open to high-school students regardless of geographical location. Keep an eye on the Lindsay-Crane Facebook page (www.facebook.com/lindsaycranecenter) and website (www.hiram.edu/lindsaycrane) this fall for further announcements about this contest. These projects provide new opportunities for our current Hiram students, who are actively involved in planning and implementing both the Anisfield-Wolf discussion project and the writing contest, and help us spread the love of literature to the next generation of readers and writers. We’ll admit—we also hope they’ll come to Hiram College to nurture that love. We use every opportunity to tell them about the distinctive opportunities available here, from our small classes, to the unusual 12-3 schedule, to the supportive faculty and staff, to internship opportunities at a national poetry journal, and so on. We hope you’ll share the word about the great work that the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature and Hiram College are doing. And if you’d like to get involved, drop me a note at parkinsonkl@hiram.edu.
2 amaranth | fall 2014
Meet The Lindsay-Crane Fall Interns Maya Watkins ’17 Major: Creative Writing major (thinking about a History double major) Favorite Hiram class (so far): Europe 500-1450 with Janet Pope Memorable Hiram experience: I’ve only been here a year, but so far my favorite experience
has been working on the student literary magazine and getting our publication together last year. It was pretty hectic for a while, but I met some great people and I had a lot of fun. However, I think my upcoming study-abroad trip to the Galapagos Islands may become number one!
Favorite books: This is a cruel question! I don’t think I’m physically capable of picking just one, but here are some of my
favorite titles/authors, in no particular order: Robin McKinley, Harry Potter series, Edgar Allan Poe, Diana Wynne Jones, Library of Apollodorus, Life of Pi, Homer, Lemony Snicket, His Dark Materials series, Erik Larson, Cassandra Clare, The Book Thief, Maximum Ride series, Peter Pan, Lewis Carroll, Cornelia Funke, Neil Gaiman, John Green, To Kill A Mockingbird, Rick Riordan, Shakespeare, The Hobbit, Bartimaeus trilogy. I love works of monumental imagination that spark my own imagination in return. For me, that exchange is what reading is all about.
What I want to gain from the Lindsay-Crane internship: I hope to gain experience working on a publication and other challenging projects. I think this is a great opportunity to meet interesting people and to share my love of reading and writing.
Kristie Schroll ’16 Major and minor: I am an English major and Gender Studies minor. Favorite Hiram class (so far): Advanced American Literature: Regionalism with Jeff Swenson and Misfits, Freaks, and Derelicts with Michael Blackie.
Memorable Hiram experience: So far, my favorite experience at
Hiram has been starting a club—the Gender Equality Student Alliance (GESA). Last year we organized a campus-wide art exhibit and auction titled “The Way She Moves,” and it was just great to see the whole campus involved in celebrating the diversity of women through art.
Favorite books: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.
What I want to gain from the Lindsay-Crane internship: I hope to better my editing skills and gain experience in writing in ways that I’m not used to. If you’re a Hiram student looking for more information about internship opportunities with the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature, contact Kirsten Parkinson at parkinsonkl@hiram.edu. www.hiram.edu/lindsaycrane 3
4 amaranth fall 2014
The Stephen and Jacquelyn Love
WRITING
HOUSE
gets a new look By Kirsten Parkinson
www.hiram.edu/lindsaycrane 5
This summer the Stephen and Jacquelyn Love Writing House received a stunning facelift, thanks to a generous donation from the Loves. The worn wood siding was torn off and replaced with durable and environmentally friendly fiber cement siding that nevertheless retains the historical feel of the 1890s Queen Anne style house. Updated storm windows and doors to be installed this fall will match the new look but also provide better insulation. The previously muted colors have been exchanged for brighter greens, sharp white trim, and a purple door. The renovations have been popular with students returning to campus. Creative Writing major Paul Dickerson ’16 says his favorite improvement is the disappearance of the “annoying screen door” on the front of the building. According to Creative Writing major Sara Shearer ’17, the Love Writing House now “looks more clean-cut and inviting to all the new (and old) students looking for help with their writing.”
6 amaranth | fall 2014
Photos Opposite page, top to bottom: The Writing House before construction. Siding removal. Repair of the attic wall. The porch waiting for final touches of paint. Previous page: The new door of the Writing House, painted a vibrant purple. Below: The almost finished Writing House.
www.hiram.edu/lindsaycrane 7
WESTERN RESERVE BOOK FESTIVAL
CELEBRATES OHIO’S LITERARY WEALTH By Kirsten Parkinson 8 amaranth | fall 2014
On a cloudy day in June, book lovers gathered in Hiram College’s Kennedy Center to celebrate the written word. The Western Reserve Book Festival brought together more than 40 authors and journals in the genres of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young adult and children’s literature, comics, and playwriting for readings and book signings. Co-sponsored by the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature and the Friends of the Hiram College Library to commemorate the Friends of the Library’s thirtieth anniversary, the festival celebrated the wealth of literature generated by authors around Northeast Ohio. The participating authors included Hiram faculty and staff members Jeanne Dutton, Joyce Dyer, Jennifer Morrow, and Mary Quade as well as alumni James Bradley Clarke ’91, Jen Hirt ’97, and Scott Lax ’76.
“There was simply no better way for this literature junkie to spend a June afternoon!” says Devlin Geroski ’14, a recent
graduate in Creative Writing and Philosophy. “My favorite part of the festival was the sheer representation of genres and styles. The festival appealed to a diverse audience of readers, celebrating why and how people are connected to writing in the first place.”
David Giffels, author of The Hard Way on Purpose and All the Way Home, presented the festival’s keynote. He discussed
how his own career path has been intricately connected to his identity as a resident of Akron and Northeast Ohio, “a place,” as he writes in The Hard Way on Purpose, “that always almost wins.” Giffels spoke of discovering books as a child through adventure series for boys and a dusty old bookstore in downtown Akron. From his extensive childhood reading, he recognized that he wanted to become a writer.
“These writers all offered the same advice: keep reading even if you aren’t writing,” says Creative Writing major Jess
Baker ’15. “The best way to learn how to write a good story is to read a good story.” Photos Opposite
page:
The
book
festival
program and schedule of readings. Below left: Author and keynote speaker David Giffels. Below right: Author Les Roberts. Above: The main author room.
www.hiram.edu/lindsaycrane 9
Featured Event on Campus A Reading by Daniel Riordan | Oct. 23, 2014 Writing House, 4:15 p.m.
VISITING FACULTY MEMBER DANIEL RIORDAN
EMBRACES THE
STRANGE By Maya Watkins ’17
10 amaranth | fall 2014
The Stephen and Jacquelyn Love Writing House stands at the edge of campus with an expectant air, always waiting for imaginative minds to find their way inside. Every day students settle into creaky wooden chairs, the blackboard behind them already full of scribbles, the eclectic set of books in glass cabinets standing at attention. The eagerly creative atmosphere is a change from the orderly rows of Cleveland State University, where Hiram’s visiting creative writing faculty member has worked since 2012.
Daniel Riordan recognized the creative potential of the Writing House the moment he saw it. “When I arrived on
campus for a visit and discovered that workshops would be held in an old house at what amounts to a dining room table, I was over the moon with excitement,” he says. “As much as I love teaching at CSU, the classrooms can be a bit sterile.” He hopes his classes here will inspire students with “a continued passion to write,” and the classroom environment will play an important role, as it has for many students before.
Riordan is fairly eclectic himself. Although many people change their minds about their majors, Riordan made a
remarkable switch on his journey from law school student to writing professor. “I had this realization that, oh, gosh, that’s not what I want at all. So I got an MFA because I knew writing is what I truly love, but I never thought I’d teach,” he says. “The thought of being in front of a classroom instilled only thoughts of terror in me. But I forced myself to teach when I was a grad student and then agreed to teach my own class when the opportunity arose just after I graduated, even though as I was agreeing there was a voice in my head screaming, ‘No! Don’t! We don’t know how to do this and it will be terrifying!’ And it was at first, but now teaching is one of my favorite things in the world to do. So I guess the lesson is, do stuff you’re scared of.”
At Cleveland State, Riordan helps students and faculty with all aspects of the MFA program and arranges guest
readings and visits. He also teaches fiction workshops, and his short stories have been published in several journals and literary magazines, including SmokeLong Quarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Indiana Review.
Riordan is teaching for the fall semester at Hiram College while Associate Professor of English Mary Quade is on
a year-long sabbatical. He is teaching an advanced fiction workshop and a seminar called “Writing Strange: Fabulism, Surrealism, and the Weird Tale” in the 12-week term; he will teach Basics of Creative Writing during the 3-week session. He is also arranging for author Alissa Nutting, whose work he teaches, to visit campus in October. When asked about why he writes and teaches strange stories, Riordan replies that they get readers’ attention and help them to connect when dealing with complex topics. “For me, I think my best way of pulling a reader in is through humor and strange circumstance and then dropping the heavy-duty stuff on them after I already have them in my clutches,” he says. “Also, I’m just a weirdo. Always have been, always will be.”
Photo: Visiting fall faculty member Daniel Riordan.
www.hiram.edu/lindsaycrane 11
A Look Back on Author Roger Rosenblatt’s Visit
DETECTING WITH ROGER ROSENBLATT 12 amaranth | fall 2014
By Francis Sugita
I
often daydream in class or when I take a walk, reminiscing about my younger days— running among friends, animatedly climbing the monkey dome, as we pretended to be Pokèmon or another creature created in our (still) imaginative minds. I always wonder where my imagination ran off to or if I will ever have the same extension of ideas as when I was young. As I sat with my peers listening to Roger Rosenblatt, the author of The Boy Detective, during his visit in February, I was mesmerized by the fact that he talked about his childhood so articulately, and furthermore, about his diligence as a “detective” at such a young age.
naïve understanding of writing. I had never grasped the idea that there’s a time and place where writing about the agonizing struggles could be too painful or else emotionally relieving.
Rosenblatt had a similar experience in writing The Boy
Detective, he said. Another student asked whether writing about his childhood profession of being the neighborhood detective was always on his mind. Rosenblatt said he unexpectedly found himself walking down the same streets where he had practiced his adolescent detective work and that inspired his book—it was finally the perfect time to trace his steps back and write the memoir.
Later that evening, I walked into the Kennedy Center half
an hour early for Rosenblatt’s reading and was fortunate enough to see him sitting alone—I was able to ask him about MFA programs and talk to him about childhood, and I found myself immersed within his positivity
Before I gathered with Rosenblatt and my peers
and love of writing. I left the conversation with
for lunch, I naively expected lunch with the author
a sense of comfort in my own poetry and fiction
to be a useless activity—I am never going to be a
that deals with fragments of adolescence. I think
memoir or nonfiction writer like he is. How could
that’s what makes a good writer: Rosenblatt’s
this help my poetry? I thought. However, the room
ability to leave other writers with hope by
began to transition from the awkward silence of
working with them instead of giving off an aura
nervous young writers, their forks clinking against
of unattainability. I left wanting to polish my
plastic plates, to a sense of comfort nourished by
own skills.
Rosenblatt’s satirical humor and pseudo egoism:
Detective, Rosenblatt wrapped up his reading
“I haven’t read your book yet, but—” someone
After reading an excerpt from The Boy
began.
by giving encouragement to the young writers
“Well, then, get out!” Rosenblatt quickly
of Hiram College. He traced his steps back to
responded—jokingly, of course.
when he was writing for The New York Times
The room then came to life with a barrage of
and other publications, but he came back to the
questions asked by eager writers. One question
idea of pursuing your passion. “You could write
was particularly important to me: “How do you
business proposals or write articles for journals,
write about something that’s bothering you?”
but don’t limit yourself to that if creative writing
Rosenblatt answered by engaging with the
is what you want to do,” he said earlier during
student, asking if the incident was too painful to
lunch. I wholeheartedly believed him and
write about now or not, ultimately suggesting that the student
continue to trace my own steps back like a detective, hoping
try to write and share. Although I was timid, only nodding along
that one day I can share my experiences with others.
throughout the discussion, at that moment, where he expressed the importance of knowing yourself and whether your experiences are too painful to write about, was a helpful turning point in my
Top: Roger Rosenblatt, Bottom: The Boy Detective
www.hiram.edu/lindsaycrane 13
Upcoming Events Tuesday, October 7, 2014 Pritchard Room, College Library, 12 p.m.
A Convocation with Alissa Nutting Fiction Writer Thursday, October 23, 2014 Writing House, 4:15 p.m.
A Reading by Daniel Riordan Visiting Faculty Member
Save the Date Hiram College’s 8th Annual
Emerging Writers
Workshop
www.hiram.edu/summerathiram
Tuesday, February 24, 2015 Pritchard Room, College Library, 12 p.m.
A Convocation with Karen Salyer McElmurray Fiction and Nonfiction Author Tuesday, April 7, 2015 Pritchard Room, College Library, 7 p.m.
june
An Evening of Hiram Writers Selected Readings by Contest Winners
2015
June 2015 Hiram College Campus
Emerging Writers Workshop www.hiram.edu/summerathiram
About the Lindsay-Crane The Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature is named for two poets who had close ties to Northeast Ohio. Nicholas Vachel Lindsay attended Hiram College from 1897 to 1900, and Harold Hart Crane was born in nearby Garrettsville. The Lindsay-Crane Center offers special opportunities for Hiram College writers and readers in every discipline. The Center implements the College’s Writing Across the Curriculum program (one of the oldest in the nation), brings professional writers to campus for intimate interactions with students and the public, mounts on-campus and regional writing contests, and vigorously supports the importance of a liberal-arts education in the 21st century. In addition, it offers students, community members, and other friends of the College rich experiences outside the classroom that contribute to intellectual and artistic pleasure and growth and maintains a deep commitment to interdisciplinary ventures with other departments and Centers.
Lindsay-Crane
CENTER
To contact or support the Center: Kirsten Parkinson, Director of the Center, parkinsonkl@hiram.edu
330.569.5323
for W r i t i n g & Literature