winter 2014
16
Faculty & Alumna Reconnect:
Illustration by David Robinson (Art MFA candidate)
MAggie NelsoN Allie RowboTToM In this, our third in a series of faculty-alumni conversations, two writers, Maggie Nelson and Allie Rowbottom (Critical Studies mfa 10), engage in a spirited e-mail dialogue about CalArts, teaching, and the writing life. Nelson has taught in the mfa Creative Writing Program in the School of Critical Studies for the past eight years. Her published work includes The Art of Cruelty (2011), Bluets (2009) and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (2007), as well as several books of poetry, numerous essays, and pieces of art criticism. Nelson’s recent awards include a 2007 Arts Writers Grant from the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation, a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction, a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, and a 2013 Innovative Literature grant from Creative Capital for a forthcoming book of creative nonfiction. Rowbottom is a University of Houston teaching fellow, pursuing a Ph.D. in creative writing and literature while also instructing undergraduates in the art and craft of composition. She is an assistant editor for the literary journal Gulf Coast and a world champion equestrienne. Excerpts of their written exchanges follow:
Allie RowboTToM: Maggie, congratulations on the birth of your son! How did the experience and the semester off shift writing for you–if it did–and how has time away from teaching affected your return to the classroom? MAggie NelsoN: It was wonderful to have a break–wonderful to attend to the new baby, and to have the time to get going on a new book. Honestly, I felt excited to return to the classroom. AR: Writing and teaching are pretty interconnected for me and certainly the program at CalArts sees them as important parallel pursuits in the writing life. How does the relationship between your writing and teaching function for you? How has that relationship evolved over time?