Time to Talk About the Conferences

First:

Oh, wow. These conferences really showed me just how badly I want to be a writer, and to study writing at the graduate level. I met absolutely amazing people, wonderful writers, took inspiring classes, learned so much from workshop. And I did two conferences. Let me just tell you, one is enough, and two is a party. People at those conferences know writers are short on time and money, and they give you your bang for your buck (although, some more than others). So, onto the reviews of the conferences.

Indiana University Writers Conference:

This was the first conference I went to, and while I was excited about visiting the place--everything I'd read seemed amazing--I actually didn't expect it to be as intense as it was. This was one of those conferences where whoever registers gets in, so I expected it to be in the style of easy-as-pie, relaxing, and something where I could just feel good about myself. I imagined that, since I'd gotten a merit scholarship to attend, that I'd be one of the best writers there, and that that would make it easy for me. Being in Bloomington, Indiana-- the atmosphere was certainly relaxed and friendly, and the town felt like a mix of little Oberlin and a-little-bigger Stanford, CA--was an amazing and chill and fun experience. But the conference itself was invigorating and challenging.

So, it's true: I do think I was one of the best writers at the conference. That said, a ridiculous amount of people were on the very same level, and I felt challenged in skill and open to new ideas. People who weren't as "good" weren't necessarily bad writers, but instead, were less-experienced writers. They were just starting up, and one could tell that they'd be real great in no time. What I loved the most was the sheer diversity of everyone and their writing. Every piece I laid eyes on felt different, fresh, and originally belonging to the mind of its writer. I think it's very hard to achieve something like this with any group, but that's a strength of Indiana that I've always been excited about: its diversity. The school pushes for diversity more than any other MFA program I've run into, and that makes a huge difference when it comes to creative writing, or creative anything. More than half of the scholarships were diversity-based, and the program is far more affordable than many around: $50 for the application (which is deducted later from classes), $250 for classes ($500 with the workshop, too, which I opted for), and housing is $45-$70 night, depending on where you stay. The tuition of most places I looked at were $1,000--at least. So Indiana creates even more diversity by keeping costs low.

The classes, which ran from 9-2 with a lunch-panel inbetween, were wonderful. However, I skipped a few, just to retain my sanity (since there wasn't a break) and to have time to have work done. But this is a real good thing about a conference, if there's too much to do.


[I'm going to continue writing this soon, but posting this so you won't have to wait.]

current writing and reads, etc.

So, I know it's been a ridiculously long time since my last post. That's probably because I got real burnt out from the two writing conferences I went to (Indiana U and U of Mass-Amherst), and up until last week I couldn't think a bit about writing about writing. However, I got some good headway on some stories, specifically Strange English and The Naked Diner, and wrote a new story, Icarus, which needs a tiny bit of revision, and started another story that's probably kind-of sort-of a lesbian version of Breakfast at Tiffany's, and certainly more modern, and shorter. It's probably less interesting of a plot, but, that's not my focus considering that it's a short-short and Tiffany's is a novella. I really need to work on plot, though, so I'm thinking of purchasing a couple spy novels, hopefully something about a heist, a good mystery, and I got some Truman Capote from Amazon for only about $5 a book: Breakfast at Tiffany's, of course, and In Cold Blood. I probably won't be able to get to these new books for a while, though, because of my Honors Project.

I haven't been submitting anywhere recently but that's because I'm real busy from working on The Truce--I'm on about page 50--and I need 100 pages done by the end of the summer. (Technically, by December, but hell, I want to work on editing the first draft and on the critical essay in the fall semester). So, I'm doing about 5 pages a day this July, so I can unwind a tiny bit in August, and do some reading for the project before I delve into really working on the essay in September-November. I want to have something totally concrete by December, so I can put some finishing touches to everything. Of course, The Truce won't be a final draft, but it will be a good one. And that will be pretty cool. I should contact Prof. Faber sometime in late July, to let him know how everything's going. With all this planning, all of this seems to be going very well--especially since reading Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast really gave me a good kind of voice to come from. Benedetti's a very quintessential Uruguayan voice, so it only makes sense that I pick an essential American one. I'm so excited about this, and I need to stop being silly and just work!

As for reading, I decided that I really need to get back to Virginia Woolf, because Paul Lisicky, who read my manuscript at the UMass conference (I promise to talk about the conferences in the next post), told me I should read her because she'd be good for my work. (He said this in response to Strange English). So I'm reading Mrs. Dalloway right now, and it's absolutely wonderful. I'm sure I'll be finished with the book in a couple of days. I'm also reading Camus' L'étranger in the original French, and while I have to look up words every once in a while, it's ver readable. I should keep doing this, so that whenever I pick up French again (I certainly hope to do it at graduate school--many MFA programs require taking language classes), I can really know what I'm doing.

Just a note: Scrivener, the computer program, has done wonders for me. It's just great.

Watson Fellowship

I'm considering applying for the Watson Fellowship. Scary stuff.

Some more news, of course. I didn't get into the creative writing workshop with Dan Chaon and Bernard Matambo. A lot of majors apply, and it's hard to get in if you aren't one just for that reason. I'm not hating myself for not getting in, or anything like that, but I do think it's a shame that I won't be able to study with them. It seems like they'd both be totally awesome, and that I'd learn a lot. But, ah well! That means I can take the Odyssey class P/NP, and concentrate fully on finishing up my philosophy and comp lit majors, as well as honors in comp lit. Tres exciting.

I finished reading The Golden Ass yesterday at Oberlin's commencement (the speech was terrible, so I read instead), and then I bought Hemingway's memoir Moveable Feast at the bookstore and now I'm on about page fifty of that. It's a short book, and I'm cheating--I should be reading in French right now. But the book took me in, and I'm thinking that stylistically, I'd like to make my Honors translation sound a bit like that. We'll see. Benedetti a la Hemingway. Hmm. I'll think about it.

Job, IU, etc.

In case it wasn't obvious from the last post, now I'm definitely going to the conference at Indiana University. I also ended up finding a job that's only 8-12 hours a week, and that allows for academic leaves (I'm basically going to end up being a secretary at Career Services). This'll allow for work on my Honors Project, and now I'll be able to attend both conferences. It was harder to get into the UMass one, but it must have been just as difficult to get a scholarship from IU, so at this point it's my responsibility to myself and my work to attend both. At this point in life, anyway, I'm very attracted to IU, so I probably should have been careful in saying that I might not have gone. But I was too stressed out about my job search, probably, to notice that. But I'll have my priorities better set starting right now!

This summer is totally, totally going to work out. Yay!

IUWC Scholarship

Dear Elisa,

Your manuscript has been selected as one of the best submissions to the 2009 Indiana University Writers' Conference. We are pleased to offer you a merit-based scholarship in the amount of $100. You will receive an official letter with an invoice in the mail soon.

Congratulations and we look forward to seeing you this summer!

Sincerely,

Bob Bledsoe Kelly Wilson

Director, IUWC Associate Director, IUWC

Awesome. They know they like me, and hopefully they'll feel that way when I apply for their MFA Program! I'm very happy, and overjoyed about my story, Strange English, which won the scholarship.

Dahl Prize, etcetera

Hey everyone!

So, good news, separate from creative writing, but certainly not from writing. I won the Dahl Prize, which is a prize for the best undergraduate essay submitted, and that's ridiculously exciting, yay! I'm winning $150 for that. If only I'd get this sort of reaction for my creative writing. (But, then again, this is far less competition.)

Among my own writings, I'm going to no matter what finish up the Los Ángeles story today, because I need to use it for the creative writing apps that I'm also finishing up today (which are due tomorrow by 5 p.m.). I'm really hoping to get into the fiction class, as Bernard Matambo and Dan Chaon are teaching it. I did a winter term with Dan Chaon, and it was absolutely, terrifically amazing. I wrote a bunch of stories and he went over them with me, and our tastes totally clicked. It probably helps that before I wrote the stories as I traveled for the month of January of 2008, I read an entire huge collection of Raymond Carver stories. Read, read, read. That's the only thing to keep us writers good and going.

So, I've decided that this summer, I'm going to read 3 books a month (at least): one in Spanish, one in French, and one in English. It's going to be a bit of a drag to not allow myself to read that much English, but it's just, totally necessary for my education in the other languages. Going abroad in Paris, and then taking a super-intense 400-level Spanish class this spring, just goes to show what reading in other languages can do for your writing. On top of the 3-books-a-month plan, I'm going to be reading a lot of theory, and working on my Honors project. Still keeping my fingers crossed for a job.

So, it's finals time at Oberlin. Crazy. That's the only word for it.

Love,
Me!