08026CreativeWritingEnewsSpring08

Harry Hunsicker makes us proud once more. He recently optioned the rights of his Lee Henry Oswald detective series to Warner Bros. Television. Way to go, Harry! Guest lecturer Vicki Pettersson’s next book, The Touch of Twilight, continues her Vegas superhero series and comes out May 27! Numbers and sales are very important, so please either pre-order her book or buy it during the first few days of its release. And while she is not a student, our fearless leader, a woman whose energy never flags, whose fount of creativity and innovation never lag – Amy Heitzman – has been named the director of CAPE: Continuing Adult and Professional Education (that includes us in Creative Writing!). It’s an enormous, well-deserved step and it comes just as she is finishing her master’s degree in education. Kudos, Amy! We’re so honored to have you.

New York is huge (in all the obvious ways), but the Writer’s Seminar in New York, the culmination of all that we teach you, is an enormous task that requires charm, organization, patience, wit and stamina. As further proof of our commitment to offering you this unique opportunity, SMU has created the position of New York Coordinator. We created it with one woman in mind: Kay Winzenried. Kay has been a freelance writer for a decade, she attended the Writer’s Seminar with a narrative nonfiction project and for those of you fortunate enough to take them, she teaches the Travel Writing classes. (Keep an eye out for her new Foodie class this summer!) Kay knows New York from both sides, she is infinitely gifted with communication and people skills and we are ecstatic that she will be the liaison between SMU and our many New York contacts. The 2009 program fast approaches!

Instructor Cindy Dees, whose published books number well in the double-digits now, has been doubly nominated! Two of her recent novels have been nominated for a RITA! The awards ceremony is in July and we wish Cindy all luck -- since she already has talent and tenacity -- with each of them!

Just a note to say I’m still working, and still hoping for [the Writer’s Seminar in New York in] 2009. How close that seems these days when it seemed so far in the future only a few months ago! I’m most encouraged that my ‘pieces’ (all those more or less random scenes I’ve written) are finding a place for themselves.

The Writers’ Salons are brilliant, and judging from the attendance, much appreciated by everyone in the program. I hope to get to more of them. — Elizabeth Enstam, Creative Writing Program participant

Predawn every day, I sneak down my stairs and creep through the front door. Quietly I pull it open and step into my fledging garden. Before the sun is up I check to see if my plants need water, see who is blooming, who has just poked up a sleepyhead, who is being eaten by caterpillars and who didn't make it through the sun from the previous day.

This is a new condition for me. I've never been able to keep a houseplant alive, much less those entrusted to the great teeter-totter that is Dallas weather, and the gumbo that passes for soil. (In my yard, at least.)

My mother, when I told her this was what I was going to do for "entertainment" this summer, laughed (not unkindly) and told me my yard was cement. (After hoeing for two days straight, I about agreed with her!)

My friends were encouraging, and every time I see or speak with one of them, they ask me how my garden grows.

Those who have come over to spend a twilight hour on my patio have admired, and then we've moved on to other topics.

My other gardening friend and I will spend hours discussing organic pest control, the wonder of seeing a baby radish leaf, and compare our moonflowers (planted within a week of each other).

I thought gardening was a science. I thought there were specific rules that had to be followed, that you had to be precise and measured. Orderly. A friend of mine who lives in the desert plants things in rows with hand-lettered markers so as something pokes out of the ground she knows exactly what it is and what to do next. Another friend plants massively and does soil testing and has sprinklers calibrated to a thermometer.

Then I read Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses. If you want to put a lens on life in order to drink more deeply of every part of it, I highly recommend this book. She writes about gardening in intimate and luscious detail.

All of us have to till the soil, no matter what kind of garden. All plants need water and light and nutrients. But the how and why and daily practice of it? It's an alchemical balance between gardener, garden and nature.

At SMU we teach you how to plan and plot (the tilling); we give you tools to build the nutrients, water and light (outlines, note cards, character sketches, profiles, reference material); but ultimately you are the only one who knows how to grow your book, to grow your writing practice. It may take a few seasons of practice – things that die, are killed by neglect, are uprooted from too much attention – and you may have to dodge the harsh realities that life can throw – no time, no energy, no mental space.

But a novel, or any writing project, rarely has only one season. And the seeds never wither, they never die. Mutate, certainly. Or you can plant a rose and it comes up an orchid, but there is no loss. The time is practice, so that when you find the right combination of story/character and writing style/schedule, you are ready to be fruitful.

But we don't garden just to have a flower ... we garden to watch a flower grow. You don't write a book to have it appear, you write a book because the experience of the story is something you want to live, to do, to be. Fiction or narrative nonfiction, you write it to thrill, love, enjoy another reality.

In the end, I tossed handfuls of seeds because I'm an artist and I don't care where they grow; I just want them to grow. I don't know what they'll be, other than blue or purple or white. Some will be scented flowers, some not. Some tall, some short. And some won't make it past the next few days and I won't know why. Some will still be there in August and I won't know how. But those that will wilt in the morning will be watered, and those that yellow will be left to dry and those will comprise "my garden" because we'll be in practice with each other.

Then I will thank them for being in my yard another day, creep back up the stairs, and return to the evergreen practice of my heart: writing the Story.

– Suzanne Frank, Director
Continuing and Professional Education Creative Writing Program, SMU

For four days, in the extraordinary setting of an Upper East Side mansion, students have the opportunity to live the literary life. Students receive honest and full critiques of their manuscripts from publishing professionals, enjoy meals and lectures with those in the business and learn firsthand the intricacies of the publishing world. For more information, including prerequisites, and to view pictures from the 2007 seminar, click here.

Novel. Nonfiction. New York agents. Join us at an information session on September 25 and learn about the SMU Creative Writing program and its culmination, the SMU Writer’s Seminar in New York. At the 2007 seminar, one SMU writer was offered representation on the spot. Two others entertained three offers shortly thereafter. Could you be next? AT SMU, writers write.

Whether you’re just getting started or getting ready for the SMU Writer’s Seminar in New York, our writing courses at SMU offer small class sizes and individual attention.

Creative Writing Introduction
Explore your inner poet, screenwriter, travel author or short story writer in this course that teaches the basics of the craft of creating with words. No prerequisites.
6 Wednesdays, 6/4–7/9, 6:30–9 p.m.

Travel Writing: Bring Your Adventure to Life!
Bring your tale from the road and learn to apply vivacity, texture and depth, thus discovering the great adventure within. Whether for publication or personal pleasure, by the end of this course you’ll have a powerful pitch and framework from which to write your odyssey.
2 Saturdays, 6/21–6/28, 9 a.m.–3 p.m.

Blogs, Blurbs and Columns – Expressing Yourself as a Foodie
Sample the world of food writer and restaurant critic, and acquire a taste for what it takes to get your opinions and stories published. Apply these elements to your own story idea, prepping it for submission.
July 12, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.