Past Instructors
When did you first feel like a writer?
I'd like to say that it was when I was 5 or 6 years old, and I accompanied my mother, who was a poet, to a radio station in Seattle, where she gave a poetry reading. But I was far too engaged in the fact she was a writer to even begin to think of myself as a future one, though I certainly did feel some sense of mental connection with her even at that young age. I'm pretty sure it was much, much later, when I was a freshman at Columbia University, and I would spend hours deep underground in the stacks of Butler Library reading sample after sample from the big contemporary American poetry section. It was so peaceful down there, and the slim books seemed to be fully lit with significance in the half-dark. I just wanted to try to belong to all that in some small way.
When did you first feel like a writer?
Calling myself a writer is something I still struggle with, to be honest. As a small child, I'd tell people, "I want to be a writer." I always thought of "writer" as more of a profession someone else had to allow me to do for a living, rather than something I could just be. Now, I think of writer as more of an action. I am someone who writes. I am a writer because I write.
When did you first feel like a writer?
On the set of my first produced film, the producer, director, and I were struggling over something I'd put in the script that for some long-forgotten reason couldn't be shot the way I'd written it. After each of us came up with one or two not very good fixes, the producer finally threw up his hands, turned to me, and said, "You're the writer, you figure it out." I walked away thinking, "I guess I am now officially a writer."
When did you first feel like a writer?
In 8th grade my parody of my bow-tie wearing, Binaca-addicted, self-proclaimed "Mr. Administrivia" Washington State History teacher put my chain-smoking English instructor on probation – for passing it around to the other teachers. Four years later this English teacher told my sister's class, "Any student writing a story about teachers at this school, or that appears to be about teachers at this school, will be immediately suspended."
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
I do my best to share information in a way that is accessible, practical, and fun. You do your best to tell me when I'm not making any sense. By the end of 8 weeks, everyone who's pitched in will feel like they've gotten their money's worth.
When did you first feel like a writer?
For the longest time after I quit my job in order to write fiction full time, I still introduced myself by my former profession (I practiced law). But after I’d published a few stories in magazines I was finally able to say, “I’m a writer,” although I almost always included a verbal footnote (“but I used to practice law”). It was only when my first book was published that I was able to drop the footnote and really feel like a writer.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I began writing poetry and stories as a young child—I never wanted to be anything other than a writer. So I think that I have personally identified as a writer my whole life. But when did I feel like this was something I could actually do with my life? That moment came when I received a phone call from Jeanne Leiby, who was the editor of the Southern Review, telling me that she wanted to publish an essay of mine. It wasn’t my first acceptance, but that is the only time an editor has called me, instead of e-mailed, to accept a piece. Hearing a real human voice talking to me about something I had written was incredibly affirming for me. Jeanne Leiby has since passed away, but I will always remember the time she took to do this very special thing for her contributors.
When did you first feel like a writer?
Approaching the completion of my first novel. I couldn't bear to wait any longer to see how the book would turn out. I burned a week of (very precious) vacation time from the day job to speed the novel to its end. Every night that week I stayed up -- however late it took -- to finish a chapter. Every morning that week -- often only a few hours after I'd turned in -- I woke to the clatter of the dot-matrix printer, as my wife wouldn't wait to read what I'd just finished.
And then there was the day an editor called to make an offer on that book ...
When did you first feel like a writer?
It took me a long time to really feel like a writer. Even though I had written poetry in high school and college, and sporadically in my twenties and thirties, it had never occurred to me to think of writing poetry as anything more than a hobby. Having grown up in a family in which math and science were embraced as the most legitimate forms of knowledge, it simply never occurred to me to think of writing poetry – or reading poetry, for that matter – as a legitimate vocation.
When did you first feel like a writer?
The first time was at age 7, when I published my first poem in School Bank News. It was called "My Magic Carpet," and the final line revealed that my magic carpet was my geography book. Years later, I read Emily Dickinson's "There is no frigate like a book / To take us Lands away" and was thrilled to discover that the Mystery of Amherst and I had a metaphor n common, though her development of it was, shall we say, more substantive than mine!
When did you first feel like a writer?
I don't know if I have ever felt like a writer, but I have felt like an aspiring writer for about as long as I can remember. There was a story I wrote in the first grade in which the dynamic protagonist was an egg that refused to hatch. The big mystery was: Why won't this egg hatch? What is wrong with this egg? I eventually decided that the solution to this big mystery was [the hard scientific reason] that the egg was simply not fertilized. For some reason, I thought this was brilliant, and feeling that feeling of having solved that problem - a writing problem - was a feeling I knew then, as a six-year-old, I wanted to experience over and over and over again. So, here I am. Still trying to solve some of the same problems I was trying to solve in the first grade: the problems of endings.
When did you first feel like a writer?
When I graduated from college, I worked various jobs to pay the rent, but I didn't have a sense of vocation. I started writing all kinds of letters, cards, and poems for friends and family. When I knew my audience, the act of writing was intensely liberating and rewarding. This was also a time of dramatic intellectual and personal growth, so I experimented constantly. Ever since that time, even when I don't know where the writing will end up, I know why I'm writing and what it means for me.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I began my writing career at seven, pecking out stories on my mom's Royal typewriter. All my plots were the same: Some disaster (plane crash, rampant disease, ravaging insects) took the lives of parents and other authority figures. Consequently, the kids had to collect wild berries and skin rabbits to make clothing. Without exception, by the end of each tale, the sturdy little survivors had created a utopia and lived blissfully ever after. Unfortunately, it never occurred to my parents to call a child therapist.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I'm not sure I've ever felt like a writer—as opposed to, say, feeling "like" I'm writing. I prefer "writing" the verb to "writer" the noun. I feel most like a writer when I'm rewriting, because the labor of shaping raw (very raw) material feels more like art. No writer is a writer unless he or she is writing.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
Good teachers encourage. But they also say when a poem relies on cliché, hokey sentiment, platitudes, melodrama, or writing that lacks formal virtue. They don't mean that the student is a cliché, hokey, melodramatic, or lacking in formal virtue. They mean that the student's poem is not (yet) an event of language. Your writing, when you complete it, no longer belongs to you.
When did you first feel like a writer?
At age seven, I aspired to be a writer. I typed out a multi-page, single-spaced story, found out how to mail it to an editor, and received a very kind letter back from that editor.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
I feel that writers need to be readers first. Any class I teach will involve close examination of examples from literature.
If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why?
I'd like to meet Dorothea from George Eliot's Middlemarch, not early in the book when she's young, but nearer the end, when she has come to know that there is "something better which she might have done," yet she does not repent her life.
When did you first feel like a writer?
This simple question requires a complex answer. By day, I work as a clinical psychologist. In that role, I have written (and published) five books and some 75 articles, all directed toward a professional audience. You could say I thrived as writer; but my writing, though non-fiction, was wholly expositional and hardly creative.
Late in 2011, I discovered WriterHouse and the two Jays – Kauffman and Varner. They introduced me to the creative side of writing – sensory description, scene building, character development, dialogue, sentence rhythm, and above all, seeking to convey truth and passion. I heard and understood – conceptually – all they taught, but only very recently have begun to absorb and use their wisdom. I guess you could say I feel I am a newborn writer – wobbly on my feet and awkward in my gait, still working to get my balance, but exited to be alive and eager to grow.
Is there a particular book or essay (or screenplay) that made you want to write?
I was read to frequently as a small child, poetry by my grandmother and all kinds of stories and newspaper items by my parents, so I can't remember not wanting to write.What's the number one thing that distracts you when you're trying to write?
The internet! (though it helps too at times). and household responsibilities — all the things I devise for myself to keep myself from writing.
What do you like most about helping authors promote their books?
Authors are so close to their work that often they can't step back and look at the big picture: what they're trying to accomplish with their book and how it fits into their writing career. I like to help them figure that out, define what makes their books special and devise creative ways to connect with their readers.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I started writing poems and keeping a nature journal at about age 9. In fifth grade a teacher encouraged me with a reading list of poets I might like, including Keats and Wordsworth. My parents gave me Louis Untermeyer’s Golden Treasury of Poetry, a completely dog eared and falling-apart jewel I still own; it is an amazing anthology every child deserves, with poems and illustrations to attract young people, classic poems to grow on, and wonderful work by high-school students to encourage student writers. By the time I was in seventh grade and compiling a “collection” of my own poetry for a class assignment, I had attained the mix of enthusiasm and ego to really feel like a writer. Discovering about that time that ee cummings shares my birthday sealed it.
Robert Wray will be offering Playwriting during the Winter 2010 session. His class begins Saturday, January 23.
Is there a particular book or essay (or screenplay) that made you want to write?
Actually, watching The Waltons as a kid inspired me to—albeit vaguely at the time—be a writer as I wanted to be John Boy! Also, reading The Princess Bride at an early age helped, and then Pride and Prejudice and Catcher in the Ryesoon followed. The rest is history.What's the number one thing that distracts you when you're trying to write?The phone! And when my coffee machine beeps that it's off. Ugh.
If you could write from any location, where would it be?
Wherever inspiration strikes: A mountainside, my room, a cafe. The main thing is: Someplace quiet.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I have been writing since I was a teenager, however, it was almost 20 years later before I felt worthy of naming myself "writer." What brought me to that moment of self-declaration was reading the book The Write To Write by Julia Cameron. In the book, there is an activity which asked me to write 10 affirmative statements completing the prompt: "Writers are _____." I was then to write these statements
5 times each day. I created self-affirmations from these statements by replacing the words "Writers are" with "Camisha is." After several days of writing these statements five times each day, I began to believe the truth of them.
Gene Osborn's Songwriting Class will begin Monday, April 4.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I started to identify as a writer in high school. Initially I was far more concerned with being seen by my classmates as I sat alone in the courtyard writing feverishly. I soon realized that this was not just social theater, but rather an amazing and liberating outlet for my emotions and perspectives. As I developed musically it felt natural to put poems to melodies. Nothing feels better than writing, recording and having someone I've never met sing along to song I've written. This, more than anything, makes me feel like a writer.
What’s your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
When did you first feel like a writer?
As a young child, I loved reading aloud and hearing others read to me (often in silly accents). In third grade I remember retelling stories that I’d read in a journal I kept. When the characters started doing unpredictable things that didn’t match the original narrative, I thought that maybe writing was magical. I’ve been dabbling off and on ever since.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I've been a writer my whole life. But I think that feeling like a "professional" writer maybe a bit different. I've worked for many years in different capacities as a writer, but I don't think I really felt like a writer until I started freelancing and writing books. As a freelancer, you have the responsibility for all aspects of your business--taxes, computer break downs, office supplies. And as you mature into the profession, you see how being a writer also means being all that other stuff and managing it well so that you can actually write and make a living.
When did you first feel like a writer?
Fourth grade. We were assigned stories and a few of us offered to read our work in class. Throughout the school year, my classmates always asked that I read mine, which both surprised and delighted me.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
My primary focus is to support a writer's process. We may have common practices, but I see my role as getting writers to craft new material and helping them flesh out what is most authentic and resonant. I look for what's obvious and what may be hidden in the writing. We tend to live in our heads so I offer ways to deepen self awareness and its connection to language.
