Monthly Archives: August 2011

Review: The Norton Book of Composition Studies

Posted on by
8

I had a few minutes this morning, given changes in meeting times etc, so I thought I’d go ahead and post a review of the thick composition studies book I finished perusing yesterday. Enjoy!
The Norton Book of Composition Studies
The Norton Book of Composition Studies by Susan Miller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I purchased this book (made a nice trade for it actually!) because I may teach composition now, but it wasn’t the focus of my undergraduate or graduate studies.

I didn’t read every single article in this collection from beginning to end, but I did skim and take notes on each one. I found a nice variety of history related to composition studies as well as practical discussions on everything from digital writing to identify formation through the process of writing.

This book will remain in my office as a resource and I recommend it for anyone who is teaching (or thinking of teaching) composition, especially those of us who focused on creative writing and may not have had extensive studies in composition pedagogy.

View all my reviews

Make Friday Write – 2

Posted on by
16

We made it to another Friday, but . . .

I did not feel the earthquake. I did hear about it pretty darn quickly though! (BTW, I’m not sure where this picutre originated but the best credit I can give is to this website. The version of it that was first sent to me said next to it: We will rebuild). My husband sent me a text message while I was teaching a class in Kannapolis.

Since I saw you last I attempted to write a few poems, not all of them are attempts I will be keeping, but I keep plugging away. Here is one attempt. I won’t give you any background on it now, but perhaps later if you guys are curious and/or have questions.

–and the poem is outta here as promised :)

Here are some of the in class writing prompts I gave my classes this week: What do you like to read? Do you like to argue? Why or Why not. We talked a little about: setting reasonable goals, the passive voice, critical reading, basics of the argument based essay, and how to fill out job applications. I shared some videos including Educational Paradigms (which sounds boring but is fascinating to watch, and will get you thinking) and also the Can You Live off Minimum Wage episode of Morgan Spurlock’s “30 Days” TV show. The link only takes you to the first part of the episode but the rest are easy to find on YouTube.

And why do I tell you all of this? Because I am love to study, to think, to ponder and I’m hoping to work on that with my students and anyone else I encounter. I feel strongly that we have to be critical thinkers and readers if we want to be critical/creative citizens of our communities. We HAVE to start joining the conversations around us.

Ok – Should I get off my soapbox now?

Oh – before I forget! I saw two reviews of my work this week. One is up at Jessica Patient’s blog Writer’s Little Helper and is about “Fat Girl.” The other is on Goodreads by Curtis Pierce on behalf of “The Wait of Atom.” And one last link that was shared with me for anyone who has ever taught: the poem Did I Miss Anything? by Tom Wayman

I’d love to discuss any of the above with you and I welcome your writing posted (or linked below). I will remove my poem and any writing posted in comments next Friday.

Looking forward to hearing about your writing, your week etc and hope everyone has a terrific weekend! Here is hoping that Irene decides she does not want to visit the coast . . .

Make Friday Write

Posted on by
12

I know I blogged a bit earlier this week, but I also promised I would be here every Friday to meet your writing discussion needs!

World's Goodest TeecherIn between working on lesson plans and such for next week (had a complication thrown in where I need to use a different textbook for one of my classes, so now I have two sections of one class with one book and one section with another book . . . ) I manged to submit some poems. Did you? Friday is a good day to get yourself organized for sending your work out even if maybe you do some more over the weekend.

My writing and reading time (because they very much go together for me) have been limited this week, but I did type up the poem below from my notebook. I wrote the original draft in my notebook last Saturday.

-

Thanks for reviewing the poem!-

I’ve asked my students this week two main questions for their writing prompts: what do you think this course is about? and, What stresses you out? You can borrow either of those if you need a free write. Since you aren’t in my class, use the idea of what this course is about to think: what is creative writing? Who am I as a creative writer? We also talked about being specific. What can you do to a sentence such as, “He said it.” To make it more interesting?

There were also two videos I used, although many of you may have watched these before. I want to share them anyway. The first is Elizabeth Gilbert’s 20 minute TedTalk about Creativity and Genius. The second was another 5 minute TedTalk that deal with Your Final Facebook Status Update.

Holding one office hour today and then I have two 50 minute classes to teach at the end of the day before a much needed visit for a mani-pedi. See, someday I’ll be a total girl. I highly recommend that a part of your reading/writing/creative life involve some form of pampering.

Feel free to post your thoughts, works in progress etc in comments. I will take down any pieces your post next Friday as well as my poem above which is open for discussion as well.

Have a great weekend! And, since I finished watching the fantastic 2004 Battlestar Gallactica series – Good Hunting :)

And here I said . . .

Posted on by
22

No blogging, but I had a ton of great stuff in my email this morning and a little bit of time before office hours so I just had to come over here to share.

  • My publisher let me know that Fat Girl is listed with the selected titles for this week over at SPD (Small Press Distribution). How cool is that?
  • Next up is still with Fat Girl because Grady Harp has reviwed it for Goodreads! This is the first official review. By the way, if you do reviews for anyone (print, online and/or video) let me know because there are still some review copies available.
  • I also found out that I have a poem in Bolts of Silk titled “Having Gone West.” I’ve had this poem for quite some time. It has floated from project to project and is currently in what I call my “Tiger” project.
  • Then how about this for a pleasant surprise? Dorothee Lang decided to repost  I’m on a Boat for blueprint review! If you didn’t read the essay before, stop by and take a read. Then, stay and read some more of the challenge issue. Love blueprint!

Below you will see a short review of the most recent poetry book I finished.

Those of you who have been stopping by to talk about what to do about poem share are SO appreciated. I think I want to do a Friday Writes kind of post where we share work and/or talk about sending our work out. It can serve as a reminder to get out there and write; to join the conversation whether that is with yourself or sending  your writing out into the world.

What do you guys think? Friday and keep doing it the way we have been?

Now – back to work :)



The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve had this on my list for quite a while because I love the notion of verse novels and/or cross genre writing. this is my first exposure to Ondaatje’s work and I’d have to say that even just the afterword about how he came to create the book was worth the price of admission. And, if that doesn’t sell you than the final lines of one poem/story should with “this breaking where red things wade.” Great read.

View all my reviews

Stopping By

Posted on by
10

Sorry, I haven’t been by in quite some time. The new school schedule has me a bit busy. I’m hoping once I settle into it a bit more I might be able to come by the blog to chat a bit more often. I have the blog on my calender to work on once a week at the very least. I, however, don’t see the Thursday Poem Share continuing at this time. I could continue to have some poem sharing and chatting, but I would not be able to guarantee that I could take down your poems the next week. Let me know what you think about keeping it going but with that limitation.

I knew that going full time would be a lot more work, but I don’t think I realized just quite home much. I haven’t even had much time for my own writing let alone the marketing life of blogging etc. I know – woe is me – but perhaps I should work on an essay that describes just how different adjuncting is from full-time teaching  . . .

Speaking of essays, I did want to share my last two non-fiction pieces that I am going to self publish. One is titled My Tastebud Shame and the other is The Red House.

I hope that being away from the blog a bit won’t stop you guys from saying hello. I’m on twitter, Facebook, Google plus and email pretty regularly. Drop me a line and let’s all keep in touch! Since I will try to check in once a week, let me know what you’d like to see me discuss. I’m here for you :) Just a little less of the time . . .

Don’t Have Time to Be Here

Posted on by
8

but . . . it has been too long and I miss you guys!

Lots of meetings and such this week with first official week of full-time work. Even had a chance to see my office (I’m sharing) but I don’t have a key yet. Everything feels in the middle . . .

Last week I finished typing up all the quotes from my notebook and now I’ll provide a link to it. They serve, for me, as reminders of things I’ve read that I enjoy. But, they can also give me inspiration when I’m having trouble writing.

I have another fantastic literary magazine to suggest for your reading and submitting: Broad River Review. I have a poem in it (it was a finalist for their first Ron Rash award contest) but I’m packed in there with such terrific people as Terri Kirby Erickson, Maureen Sherbondy, Jan Parker, Ellaraine Lockie, our own Helen Losse! I could go on :)

What day would you guys like to have Poem Share on in the future? Monday, Wednesday or Friday are your best bets?

What have you been up to?

What the Friday!

Posted on by
6

Yay, Friday! This is my last weekday before I have to report to campus. Monday we have meetings and such starting and then classes start the next Monday. I imagine I’ll be running around a bit like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off. Although, I don’t want that to be anymore literal because I kind of like my head :)

As an example of why I am happy to be transitioning into full time academic work (although, like any work it has its issues) I am going to self-publish another essay that I’m calling On a Boat. Oh that old office job. Oy! This also only leaves me with two pending essays to self-pub since I’m not sending them around anymore.

I did, however, send poems out this week! And, I wrote a few more. Feels good to be “back in the saddle.”

After my weekend in the mountains, this week was  lot of catch up for all areas of my life, but I feel like I’m in a pretty good place today that might even allow me to go out for lunch in the possible rain. Oh PLEASE rain – so sayeth my very brown front yard.

Working on sending out some of the prizes from pre-order week. Whew. Today is Facebook and then I’ll wait till Monday to do some tweeting about the pre-orders. I have a busy Monday but I’m also still planning to make a video of one of the other poems from “Fat Girl” as promised!

Love to hear what everyone has been up to this week and/or plans they have upcoming. Here she comes: the weekend!!

Have a great one :)