Hello all. It’s been a minute…or more. Lots of changes, lots of happenings, and new discoveries.
For starters, I’m in my last couple of weeks of graduate school. By the end of this month, I hope to have earned my Master’s in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. So far it’s been a challenge and a joy; a wonderful program with an accomplished faculty that give so generously of themselves. And how I love my cohort. It’s filled with talented, beautiful souls.
Many in my cohort are going on for their MFA’s, but I will not. My intention is to take a break — both financially and mentally — and hopefully return in a year or two. I also want to focus back on writing fiction. My degree will be in Creative Nonfiction. It was a choice I made out of necessity at the time; everything came down at once and I had zero mental bandwidth to prepare a fiction proposal for my Master’s project while in my first semester of graduate school.
Creative nonfiction always intrigued me. Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit is one of the best books I’ve ever
read and not because it is a horse book. The writing is phenomenal and I was captivated by the lives of the people and by the horse who took the nation by storm. Hillenbrand did a great service by telling their stories — so much of which were never known before — and essentially bringing them out of the shadows of history. It inspired me to someday do the same.
My creative nonfiction class bolstered my interest in the genre. I was blown away by the writing of authors we studied and frankly, in awe of my professor – J. Michael Lennon. An original founder of Wilkes’ creative writing program and Professor Emeritus of English, Mike (which he encouraged us to call him) is a literary giant, even though he isn’t a household name. Norman Mailer’s official biographer, he has published many books, articles, and literary essays. He is also the kindest and humblest of souls.
My mentor is a brilliant poet, essayist, and retired English professor, Dr. Christine Gelineau. I didn’t know her until Mike and our program director, Dr. David Hicks, urged me to consider her. Christine is also a fellow horsewoman. Her life as a Morgan horse breeder, trainer, and rider melded well with my thesis, which is a memoir about raising daughters to live their lives to the fullest around and through the best teachers I ever had — horses.
I never thought I’d write a memoir. Heck, I never read one until graduate school and then I read plenty. I was introduced to a new genre and to writers whose ability to slice open a vein and bleed onto the page so beautifully left me in awe…Mary Karr, Annie Dillard, Leslie Jameson. I learned so much. Another, Courtney Maum’s engaging and seamlessly written The Year of the Horses, will be a comp title.
As much as I love creative nonfiction, my first love is still fiction. My heart and head are more than ever full of stories that will hopefully uplift and bring light to kids navigating middle school and the first years of high school. Upper Middle Grade (or Lower Young Adult) is a niche that has been neglected by publishing. Fortunately for readers and authors alike, that is changing.
Bringing hope in the darkness of this world. Sharing its beauty while speaking honestly about its brokenness. This is my why. This is my prayer. My journey has taken another turn and with a new compass in hand.
