The Guild Gives Hope, and Hopes You'll Give

In March of 2020, when words like “masks” and “social distancing” became a part of the daily parlance, the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild made a choice: for as long as we could, we wouldn’t charge anyone for anything until we were all back on our feet. 

Over the past 19 months, we’ve stayed true to that promise. 

Like so many organizations, we pivoted to the virtual format, hosting craft talks with Kimberly Blaeser, Nickolas Butler, Tessa Fontaine, Christina Clancy, David Shih, José Alvergue, Peter Geye, Barrett Swanson, Amanda Skenandore, Larry Watson, Margi Preus, Angie Trudell-Vasquez, Matthew Gavin Frank, Carson Vaughan, Phong Nguyen, Pat Zietlow Miller, among others.  On October 14 at 7PM, we’re hosting our next virtual event: Kathryn Nuernberger’s “Spellcraft and Other Thoughts on The Magic Of Writing”.  Taken together, these events have benefited thousands of writers the world over.  And we’d never have made the pivot to the virtual platform so successfully were it not for the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, our greatest partner throughout the pandemic.

Additionally, we also partnered with the fantastic Pablo Center at the Confluence, who helped us move our popular Sound & Stories series to the virtual stage.  Together, we hosted “Joy to the Word, “All Creatures Great and Small,”  and “Something Old, Something New” for hundreds of viewers.  (And if you missed them, just click the links above!). How wonderful to work with dozens of storytellers, in addition to musicians The Nunnery, Humbird, Peter Phippen, Victoria Shoemaker, Simone Patrie, and more. 

Looking forward, we’ve got a mix of virtual and in-person events to share with you: from Barstow & Grand’s issue 5 release on November 17 at Lazy Monk Brewery, to our annual “Joy to the Word” event on December 16 at Pablo. 

But beyond all these events, the Guild has also served another vital purpose throughout the covid era.  Namely, by serving as the official home for the “Hope Is The Thing” project, which started right here in the Chippewa Valley on March 21, 2020. Over the course of several months, local writers began sending us their “hope” in 500 words or fewer.  We gathered them up, published them daily, and tried to share a little light among the darkness.  The state took notice, and just weeks ago, the Wisconsin Historical Society Press published Hope Is The Thing: Wisconsinites on Perseverance in a Pandemic, featuring 100 writers from across the state.  This Thursday at 7PM, contributors Dan Lyksett, Lopa Basu, Allyson Loomis, Matt Larson, Rebecca Mennecke, Eric Rasmussen, Luong Hunyh, and Katherine Schneider will be sharing their work at The Local Store’s Volume One Gallery.        

Finally, The Priory Writers’ Retreat is back!  On January 1, 2022, we will open applications for our June 23-26 retreat in beautiful Eau Claire.  This is one of our prized programs, and we’re thrilled to return better than ever! This year, participants will have the opportunity to work closely with four writers-in-residence—Nickolas Butler, (fiction) Nicole Kronzer (young adult), Angela Trudell-Vasquez (poetry) and Barrett Swanson (nonfiction)—while also making time for free writing and craft talks and networking and more.  How grateful we are to our newest sponsor, the Wisconsin Writers Association.

Of course, none of this is possible without you.  Yes, you.  As a Guild, we count on everyone to do their part to ensure our mutual success.  To that end, we’re urging you to please consider becoming a $5/month sustaining member, which provides you (and others!) free access to most of our events.  Or, if you prefer to make a one-time tax-deductible gift, you can do that here.     

We’ve done our best over the past 19 months, but now we’re calling upon you to help.  Please ensure our success over the next year.  Please take a moment to make your tax-deductible gift today.

Be inspired, inspire others,

B.J. Hollars

“Entering the Portal”: An Interview with Speculative Fiction Writer Charles Payseur

Aidan Sanfelippo

Imagine space cats running a ghost ship, the tragedy of a star losing their partner, or a man facing both the freezing future earth and losing his fathers.

Such compelling premises are all from the mind of Eau Claire resident and four-time Hugo Awards finalist Charles Payseur. In July of 2021, Charles published a new book of speculative fiction stories titled The Burning Day and Other Strange Stories. I was lucky enough to chat with Charles about his love of speculative fiction, the importance of diversity in stories, and his advice for writers interested in this genre.

Aidan Sanfelippo: A Publishers' Weekly review recognized your new book as "a sure thing for fans of progressive science fiction and fantasy." Can you share a bit about what progressive science fiction and fantasy means to you? 

Charles Payseur: “Progressive” is such a strange word. In some ways it’s incredibly descriptive and accurate when used to categorize things because people will sort of just know what it means. However, that’s because it’s also a buzzword that describes “that kind of writing” which people who like to describe themselves as conservative feel embodies everything that’s wrong with the world. Fortunately, that means it’s a word that is in the process of being claimed/reclaimed into something positive rather than negative. Unfortunately, it also seems to cut off this kind of “progressive” science fiction and fantasy from its long and storied history. It gives an illusion that this kind of work, this kind of writing, is new. And it’s not. Science fiction and fantasy has always been home to progressive thought and structure, to diverse characters and creators, and to futures that did more than glorify the past.

So my own thoughts on progressive science fiction and fantasy are…complicated. But ultimately I feel that it’s the start to an important conversation. And I feel that if the word connects us to, rather than divides us from, the progressive work that has been done since the beginning of science fiction and fantasy from the marginalized and trailblazing authors engaged in the genres, then it’s incredibly valuable, and I’m honored to be included in that tradition.

AS: What is it about these genres that you enjoy most? 

CP: I’ve described speculative fiction (what science fiction and fantasy fall into) as a genre defined by its mandate to break rules. What makes a story speculative is what separates it from the “real” world in some profound way. And I feel there’s a great power there, especially for those who often found or find the “real” world around them suffocating. Who felt or feel powerless in the face of things they couldn’t or can’t fight back against or control. So one reason that I love speculative fiction is that it can offer an escape from that. There’s a reason why portals are so popular in fantasy stories, that allow characters to slip into another world. Or grant people superpowers that allow them to fight what otherwise feels impossible to engage with. That can be freeing, as a reader, to imagine and to experience vicariously through the stories.

But it’s more than that. More than just escape. As a writer, speculative fiction demonstrates that sometimes the rules that we break, that so profoundly differ from the “real” world that stories become science fiction or fantasy, are themselves constructs. The rules are just what people have accepted as necessary or true without fully exploring that, without questioning that. And speculative fiction can push people to see that the supposed truth, the “reality” around them, is as much fiction as martians or magic. That, for me, is the true power and beauty of speculative fiction.

AS: What advice do you have for writers in these genres?

CP: Probably to never get so lost on the speculative premise of your work that you forget that the heart of every story is in the characters, the setting, the action, the moving parts. A lot of times (and I know I did this a lot myself) the allure of the Big Idea can sort of lead people away from making sure they’re telling a story, first and most. And however inventive or interesting the premise is, that’s not enough to make effective or engaging fiction. After that, just be brave! Break rules! Imagine different worlds!

AS: In an interview on "Spectrum West with Al Ross", you have said that one of your first windows into speculative fiction was R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps. Which Goosebumps book has influenced you the most in your writing?

CP: Haha I mean I learned to love reading through Goosebumps. They were the first time that I really connected with books and they sparked an interest in the weird and speculative that lasts to this day. And I think they really do have some great lessons on craft tucked away in them, though obviously they’re geared toward children. Thinking back, it’s difficult to really pull them apart in my mind as individual books rather than a series, though. There are some I remember liking more, like One Day at Horrorland and Ghost Beach but I think when it comes to influence it’s more the collective weight of them that resonates. The way that Stine played with children not being believed by adults, being gaslit about very real dangers. Or the way that he hit on the friendships kids have, friendly but always with a bit of a competitive edge. And of course his fearlessness to let things get incredibly weird and not apologize for it. I’ve since gone back and reread pretty much the entire original series over the past few years and that’s still something that stands out to me, even during some of the more unfortunate moments in the series. It’s not afraid to swing for the fences when it comes to an off-the-wall idea, and I greatly admire that.

AS: What is your advice on learning or getting inspiration from books that writers enjoy?

CP: Don’t be embarrassed! I think that shame is something that’s hard to fight sometimes when faced with “being a writer” (whatever that really means). We learn through what gets taught to us what is essentially “acceptable” to like. And we learn from what those around us like, and what gets recommended to us, and what is popular and what gets movies or television shows based off of it. All of these act as pressures pushing writers to conform to a more limited idea of what good writing is and what it can be. Especially as people go through school and the social and educational pressures there, it’s easy to abandon things that you really enjoy out of shame or embarrassment. And that’s a loss, because for me embracing those niche joys can fuel my creativity in unique and wonderful ways. So don’t be embarrassed, but do also be prepared to look on what you like in a critical way, and seek to understand why you like it, and how you can explore and use that as a writer.

AS: You also mentioned in the interview that you review speculative compact stories on your blog Quick Sip Reviews. Do you think that reviewing other works of literature has helped you write your own stories?

CP: Sometimes? I think that in a lot of ways it’s a great way to learn about craft, and to think about structure, character, tone, voice, all of that. There’s a reason, after all, why creative writing classes all tend to have a reading component, and a criticism component. Reviewing is great for thinking about stories and can be a tool to help strengthen critical muscles for a writer to better engage with their own work. What reviewing helps the most with, though, is reviewing. Which shouldn’t be a huge surprise. Examining paintings in a show or museum can help a person appreciate and articulate things about paintings that they hadn’t been able to before. But that won’t necessarily help you paint better. It can get wheels turning that can lead to that, but the work of writing is always best honed through writing. And though I do think reviewing has pushed me to want to be a better writer and to maybe have an idea of what that looks like, it’s only through writing again and again and again that I think I’ve actually been able to get closer to that idea.

AS: It has been a busy year for you! Along with publishing The Burning Day and Other Strange Stories, you also edited a new book, We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2020, alongside guest editor C.L. Clark according to Amazon. Can you describe the importance of diversity in books and short stories?

CP: I needed stories I was never exposed to until I was out of college. Needed them to see parts of myself that I was in denial about, that I didn’t have the language to even think about. And these stories were never given to me, and more than that they were often marginalized and hidden from me so that I didn’t even know they existed. Too many people are in that kind of boat. Aren’t aware that these stories are not new. That they have been told. And told again. And again. And each time they are pushed away and they are hidden and they are censored and they are burned. In the name of protecting people. From? Themselves? The truth of their hearts and identities?

 Diversity in writing opens up the world. It’s a portal through which people can step and find that things they thought were impossible are within their grasp. That ways they’ve felt so alone are connections to communities waiting to welcome them. But only if they find those portals. Only if those stories make it to their hands. So I am incredibly invested in trying to get those kinds of stories into as many hands as I can. To celebrate them and to highlight them and to be loud about them. Because there are people out there who need them, like I needed them. Like I need them still.

Charles Payseur’s book The Burning Day and Other Strange Stories is available on Amazon in either paperback or on Kindle. You can also support Charles on his Patreon and read his reviews on his blog Quick Sip Reviews.

“Your Story Can ALWAYS Get Better”: An Interview with Pat Zietlow Miller on Her Upcoming Virtual Craft Talk

Aja St. Germaine

Pat Zietlow Miller has been writing since the seventh grade and has sold a total of 23 books (12 currently published, 11 more to be published in the coming years). She understands the challenges that great writers in any genre face: writer's block, sensitivity to criticism, and imposter syndrome. She also knows that all writers can overcome these challenges and more.

I was thrilled to chat with Pat on her upcoming virtual craft talk, "Rising From The Wreckage: Revision Tips for Whatever You Write," which takes place September 21 at 7PM central time.  The talk will focus on her passion behind the art, the skill of critique and editing, and as she lovingly puts it, "ripping [your writing] apart for the greater good."

Aja St. Germaine: I'll start with an easy one! Your website mentions that reading influences your writing. What are you reading right now, and how is that influencing your own writing process?

Pat Zietlow Miller: I try to read a wide variety of books -- from board books to adult fiction and nonfiction. I learn so much from good writing whether it's in the genre I write or not. There's always something I can appreciate and apply.

Two recent picture books I've read are NEGATIVE CAT by Sophie Blackall and THE PURPLE PUFFY COAT by Maribeth Boelts and Daniel Duncan. While they are very different stories -- NEGATIVE CAT is about a boy who loves his cat so much he'll do anything to keep him, and THE PURPLE PUFFY COAT is about two friends who learn to listen to what makes each other happy -- they both have a lot of heart. You feel something after reading each story, and that's something most successful picture books have in common.

Plus, NEGATIVE CAT contains some lovely, inspiring turns of phrase, and THE PURPLE PUFFY COAT is funny, which is something I'm always trying to add to my work.

The cool thing about reading work by other writers, is that you see what's possible. You get to be inspired. You get to say: "Wow! That's wonderful! I wonder if I could write something half as good." And, often, you can.

AS: Your book BE KIND has been on the New York Times' picture book bestseller list! In what ways has that impacted your writing experience? Was there an impact that you were not anticipating? What emotions did you find yourself feeling?

PZM: Having BE KIND on the New York Times bestseller list for 10 weeks was a thrill and a dream come true. It brought me recognition, opportunities, and royalties I hadn't experienced before. It was a goal that I wrote down when I started writing books for kids, and seeing it actually happen was amazing.

 The unexpected part was the stress I felt after making the list. Whether or not a book becomes a NYT bestseller is totally out of an author's control. So, while I felt pressure to do it again, it wasn't something I could just make happen. Like many people, I like to feel in control of my life, and the success of my future books was not something I could control. I also experienced a bit of imposter syndrome -- that I wasn't really good enough or cool enough to be a New York Times bestselling author. It took me a bit of time to get out of my head about it and focus on going back to what I could control -- writing stories that I love and trusting that other people would love them too. 

AS: Writing within the realm of children's literature is powerful and impactful genre-work. What draws you into children's literature, and what inspires you to connect with young readers and their minds?

PZM: Being a kid means experiencing so many things for the first time. And, those first experiences can result in a lot of big emotions. I love writing for kids because you can channel those first-time experiences and big emotions into a story that might be funny or reassuring or informative. And, that story you write might make it easier for its readers to handle their emotions and know they're not the only ones feeling them.

 In many ways, I write books for the kid I was and for the kids I know. And, by doing that, my books usually end up being for everyone. Because emotions are universal. I always want to write a book that anyone -- from age 4 to 104 -- could read and feel a connection to because, at some point they've had that experience or felt that feeling. And, reminding people of those universal human emotions helps us see that we're more alike than we think.

I also love introducing kids to the wonder of books. I hope that if they love books when they're young, they'll grow to become curious teen and adult readers.

 AS: Lastly, during your craft talk, you are focusing on revision tips throughout the writing process. For myself personally, I find myself often dreading revision and critique, even my own. What do you find yourself doing in preparation for your own revision-work?

PZM: One thing I've learned as a writer is that your story can ALWAYS get better. Always. And, sometimes, the more you think your story is done and perfect, the more you need to go back and think about it some more. 

So, I approach revision with a reminder to myself of what my goal is. To write the truest, best story I possibly can that excels in every way. Structure, voice, heart, pacing, plot, tension and language. And, as I'll talk about in my presentation, getting to that point sometimes means taking something you love and ripping it apart for the greater good. 

Revision is challenging yourself to do better. To reach writing heights you might not have considered before. I've always been competitive and tenacious, so revision is just unleashing those qualities on something that I wrote.

Click here to register today for Pat’s September 21 craft talk co-sponsored with the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.

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Writers Take The Stage At The River Prairie Celebration of Art

Aidan Sanfelippo

Eau Claire County’s artistic businesses are crucial to the local creative economy, and events like the River Prairie Celebration of Art are here to prove it.

On September 12, from 10am-4pm, the Eau Claire Area Economic Development Corporation, the City of Altoona, and the Pablo Center are hosting the River Prairie Celebration of Art at River Prairie Park in Altoona, WI.

The celebration will include local art vendors and food trucks, art activities for children, and performances by the Torch Sisters, the Golden Band, and a live reading from members of our very own Chippewa Valley Writers Guild.

“The Guild is thrilled to be a part of this exciting event dedicated to showcasing local arts,” said Guild director B.J. Hollars.  “Arts entertain, to be sure, but they also drive our creative economy in a big way.  We’re excited to celebrate that.”

The reading will take place at the main stage at River Prairie Park from 11am-1pm.  Hosted by Julian Emerson, it will include original readings from Deb Peterson, Charlotte Gutzmer, Jessi Peterson, Jackie McManus, Debbie Campbell, Amy Renshaw, Dan Lyksett, Connie Russell, Patti See, and Bruce Taylor.  Works will range in subject, but they’ll be connected by the geographic region in which they were written—right here in Eau Claire.

The River Prairie Celebration of Art is but one of many events to take place during the Economy of Art Week—a weeklong effort to highlight the economic importance of artistic businesses in Eau Claire County.   Other events include the Chamber Orchestra Concert on Sept. 11th at 7:30pm at the Pablo Center, and the musical group OAR on Sept. 12th at 7:30pm, also at Pablo. The week will conclude on the 18th with Forge Fest at Artisan Forge Studios, which will feature its own art festival from 10am - 4pm, as well as a live concert at 5pm featuring Peter Wolf Crier along with many other artists.

This week-long celebration of the arts is sponsored by Art of the Valley, Bakke Norman Law Offices, Eau Claire Area EDC, the Pablo Center, Prevail Bank, Visit Eau Claire, and Xcel Energy.

Lyric Essays and Explosions: A Conversation with Matthew Gavin Frank

by Charlotte Gutzmer

We’ve all seen the classic action movie explosion sequence: beginning with the wide-angle shot where the building detonates, blossoming into a cloud of reds, oranges, and yellows, smoke pouring into the sky. At which point the hero always, always, turns away. But such a move extends beyond the Hollywood explosions.  In poet Alberto Rios’s piece “Some Extensions on the Sovereignty of Science”, he writes that “when something explodes, / Turn exactly opposite from it and see what there is to see.” Matthew Gavin Frank takes this advice to heart in his own writing, “turning away” from the subject matter in search of the more intriguing, bizarre, and extraordinary sources of inspiration—and you can, too!

Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of the nonfiction books, The Mad Feast: An Ecstatic Tour Through America’s Food, Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer, Pot Farm, Barolo, and Flight of the Diamond Smugglers; the poetry books, The Morrow Plots, Warranty in Zulu, and Sagittarius Agitprop, and 2 chapbooks. His heavily acclaimed work has been recognized by the New York Times, NPR, the New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and more. On July 27th, join him in his CVWG craft talk: “Turning Away from the Explosion, Or, the Power of Free Association in the Lyric Essay”. 

I had the pleasure of chatting with Matthew Gavin Frank about his captivating books, about the new writing form of the lyric essay, and about his upcoming craft talk. Read on to learn all about creating balance in your writing and how the most fascinating stories can be found by turning away from the main subject.

Charlotte Gutzmer: In the description of your upcoming craft talk, you pose the question: “By ‘turning away’ from the subject matter with which we most urgently want to engage, are we able to capture our subject’s emotive power even more poignantly?” What are some of the advantages of approaching stories from these unexpected ways, and what can turning away from the main idea reveal?

Matthew Gavin Frank: Many of my favorite essays are struggling toward something, not presuming certainty.  In the essay, often, a presumption of certainty can seem boring. And aggressive.  And false.  Certainty often obscures a kind of truth, rather than illuminates it.  The act of “turning away from the explosion,” not only signifies that a writer is grappling—desperately and urgently—to make sense of often intense personal experience, but also signifies that the writer is interested in journeying toward that elusive sense by attempting to situate their own personal experience or obsession within a larger socio-cultural, natural, and/or historical context, in order to discover or revise or uncover meaning in personal experience.  It’s like forcing ourselves to glimpse the stars only via our peripheral vision, by which, of course, they appear the brightest to us.    

CG: Your nonfiction writing revolves around fascinating and extraordinary topics such as diamond-smuggling carrier pigeons and giant squids; where do you find the inspiration to write on these topics, and what kinds of stories are you generally drawn towards?

MGF: Hmm, I’m not entirely sure.  I think I’m pretty scattershot with regard to my obsessions, and I’m easily obsessed.  I have a decent capacity for surprise, oftentimes to a fault.  The giant squid book (Preparing the Ghost) began in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History when I saw the first-ever photograph of the giant squid (taken by Reverend Moses Harvey in St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1874; the image that rescued the beast from the realm of mythology and finally proved its existence; the one in which the carcass is draped over Harvey’s bathtub curtain rod in order to showcase its full size).  I desperately wanted to uncover the backstory behind the taking of the photograph, and of course, I became curious about the squid itself, and the ways in which we’ve variously engaged it over the years.  I wanted to know what the giant squid, and our reactions to it, could tell us about ourselves.  I became compelled by Harvey’s compulsions, and the sacrifices he had to make in order to chase them toward some nebulous end. And so, I lit out for Newfoundland to investigate further, to see what I could find out. 

The pigeon book (Flight of the Diamond Smugglers) began when I was visiting the Diamond Coast of South Africa, chatting deep into the night in a bar with a former diamond diver, over lots and lots of brandy.  He told me about the ways in which workers would sometimes use trained homing pigeons to smuggle diamonds out of the mines, and that if pigeons are overloaded with too much weight, they can lose their natural GPS, and begin landing at random.  This happened along coastal South Africa—diamond-bearing pigeons dropping from the sky onto the local beaches.  I couldn’t get that image out of my head.  A rain of birds, burdened with gems.  It was that image that eventually led me to investigate further. 

In answering this question, I’m starting to wonder how the act of traveling impacts my openness to potential subject matter, as if my nerve endings are more exposed and aroused when away from home. Traveling seems to intensify my penchant for self-reflection and self-pity, for loneliness, for the shoehorning of my own life into some larger socio-cultural context.  And all of these actions and desires— while traveling especially, and snapped out of my comfort zone— are likely misguided and obsessed with all the wrong beautiful things, and thereby terribly, heartbreakingly human.  And worth shuffling through on the page, via multiple drafts of course.  I don’t know.  This is a really long answer.

CG: As an acclaimed author of both nonfiction and poetry, how do you combine these distinct elements into what is known as the “lyric essay”?

 MGF: In the past, there was a real disconnect for me between the process of writing a poem, and the process of writing prose.  Not so much anymore.  As with the writing of poetry, much of the energy that fuels the writing of my essays is derived from the attempt to find the perfect ingredients necessary to bridge seemingly dissimilar bits of subject matter.  It’s wonderful: as writers, we have the power to manipulate connections between just about anything, no matter how seemingly dissimilar.  It just takes research, contemplation, imaginative alchemy, and the P.I.-style investigation to uncover that perfect “bridge” ingredient.  

CG: What are some of the greatest rewards and challenges of being a lyric essayist?

MGF: Sometimes, the essay needs to call out and re-examine our cultural narratives (and their desire to simplify the world for us) as illusory.  To call attention to the mess.  To restore a false simplicity to its innate complexity.  To agitate our readers’ expectations rather than to confirm them (as well as our own).  I suppose there’s both reward and challenge in forsaking easy, comforting answers, and instead embracing mystery.  Sometimes I have trouble separating these lines of thinking from the processes of writing and just plain general living.  

CG: How can a writer strike a balance between the “explosion” that is their subject matter and the associative subject matter that adds depth to their craft?

MGF: I’m not so sure that balance should be the goal here, but rather a carefully curated imbalance, maybe.  A symphonic, perhaps dissonant, kind of shuffling of the various bits of subject matter, which can sometimes be engaged via formal leaps (a braided essay, a segmented essay, an essay in the form of a syllabus, or in the form of an invented mathematical theorem, or in the form of series of love letters to multiple recipients across time and region and species, or in the form of a narrative map…).  

So, I’m not sure about balance.  I’m chronically imbalanced on the page, especially when drafting! I just try to keep moving forward.  I used to think that there was something wrong with this, and I kept grappling toward some semblance of balance (whatever that means), until I read this article by another writer (though I can’t recall who it is), about how such imbalance can be a good thing; how it can be electric and inspirational, and how that it’s precisely this sort of off-kilter and anxious state that oftentimes yields urgent and exciting work.  I really wish I could remember who wrote that article.  I’m sure if I was better balanced, my memory would be better as well!  And during the pandemic, I’ve learned to be gentler and more generous with myself and others, and not to fret too terribly over ephemeral and elusive and ever-malleable things like “balance.”  I’m not always successful at such ventures, but I’m trying.  

CG: While your craft talk will focus on “the power of association as an entry point into the lyric essay”, can these ideas still be incorporated into other writing forms and creative mediums?

MGF: Oh, of course.  Such ideas can be mapped over and onto just about any art form and medium, sure, but also onto any real aspect of navigating this life.  Going for a walk, watching birds, listening to the frogs, talking to the coupling dragonflies…  Being associative in this way is innate, isn’t it?  I mean: how to navigate all these stimuli?! Maybe it’s a matter of trusting in said associations and inflaming them, interrogating them, bringing them to the fore—being led around by the forces of whimsy and wonder. 

So what are you waiting for? Register today for Matthew Gavin Frank’s craft talk to learn all about how you, too, can turn away from the explosion and bring the inspiration of lyric essays into your craft.

On Love, Social Justice, and Poetry: An Interview with Angela Trudell Vasquez

by Charlotte Gutzmer

In a world fraught with conflict and injustice, Angela Trudell Vasquez grips her pen tightly, writing poems of healing, identity, and love. These magically captivating poems do more than simply warm the heart; they bring people together, fostering a prosperous community like no other.

Angela Trudell Vasquez is a Mexican-American writer and holds an MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Finishing Line Press published her third collection of poetry, In Light, Always Light, in 2019, and recently accepted her fourth collection, My People Redux, for publication. Her poems have appeared in the Yellow Medicine Review, The Slow Down, the Raven Chronicles, The Rumpus, on the Poetry Foundation’s website, and elsewhere. She is the current poet laureate of Madison, Wisconsin and the first Latina to hold the position. She recently co-edited a poetry anthology entitled Through This Door—Wisconsin in Poems, with current Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Margaret Rozga, and released it through her small press, Art Night Books, in November 2020. With poet Millissa Kingbird, she co-edited the Spring 2019 issue of the journal the Yellow Medicine Review. On July 29th, join her in her CVWG craft talk: “Poetry for the People Workshop”.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Angela about her poetry, her experience as the first Latina poet laureate, and about her upcoming craft talk; read on to learn all about incorporating themes of social justice and love into your writing, about writing poems of witness and share, and more!

Charlotte Gutzmer: The About Place Journal describes your poetry as a medium for “highlighting love and social justice”. How can one incorporate these themes into poetry, and how does the process of writing and publishing these poems affect writers and readers?

Angela Trudell Vasquez: Wow, that's really nice of them. I write what I feel and have been an activist from a young age marching with my parents for farmworkers' rights with Cesar Chavez during the lettuce boycott as a child. We lived in Iowa City at the time, my Dad went to the University of Iowa on the GI Bill and we lived in family student housing with people from all over the world. The smell of curry floated into our open windows. My best friend was from Australia. My parents were founding members of the Chicano House and we spent lots of time there. I think I was born a feminist actually. Social Justice has long been a part of my life. We were a Mexican American family living in Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines, we had politics for breakfast as a family and discussed history and politics, not just partisan, we went deeper. I understood class, socio economics from an early age having a super big family with different levels of education and income. Personally, people need to write about what they are moved to write. What are your deep concerns? Your words? Poetry must come from a deep well of truths, your truths. Everyone has their own story to tell and people are endlessly fascinating to me. Poetry can close the gap between people, foster greater understanding, connection and healing. Poets can not be false. There are two things I will mention when I present in June, poetry of witness and documentary poetics. I come from a long line of literary ancestors who helped shape me into the poet I am today. The more we share our poems the more we learn from each other and the greater human experience for all. 

CG: In addition to your own writing, you also have experience editing with the literary journals Yellow Medicine Review and About Place Journal.  How have your experiences in publishing influenced your perspective of the world around you? 

ATV: I have also edited a few more collections including two zines from my time in Milwaukee, and one most recently with the former Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Margaret Rozga, in November 2020 entitled, Through This Door. I also have my own press with my husband, Art Night Books. I find publishing others to be a joy! It does take work. I have learned that when curating a collection it is important to let all the pieces come in before I start reviewing them, so that the pieces can be in conversation with one another. You put a call out to the universe and you get what is floating in the ether. You get exactly what you need. I have also discovered I love having a co-editor like Millissa Kingbird with the Yellow Medicine Review, and Peggy Rozga with Through This Door which along with the other titles came out of Art Night Books. I love talking art and poetry with co-editors and shaping something into being. I enjoy editing my own work and developing good editorial skills in my MFA program. I will say there are so many good writers out there doing their thing without lots of fanfare and it is nice to publish them alongside more well-known writers. I guess I have learned we do not do anything on our own but with the help of others, and I do want to encourage others to write and express themselves. 

CG: In 2020, you were named Madison’s Poet Laureate, and you are the first Latina to hold the role! Could you reflect on your experiences so far in this position? 

ATV: Yes! I am the first Latina in this role and I do not take that lightly. I have had a great time. Later today I will proof the final images for the Bus Lines Poetry Project. I consider myself a literary ambassador, a poet for the people, and I want to connect, only connect in this role and sometimes that means reading my own poems and other times it means expanding people's ideas of poetry by introducing them to someone else's work. The city of Madison has been very welcoming. I love working with Karin Wolf who is my main contact at the city. I love bringing other poets and their poems to read poems at the City Council meetings. I have lost track of how many poetry contests I have judged and how many virtual readings I have done at this point. I do know how many I have done in person. I look forward to being more in the community and working with more young people. Poetry is having its day right now! In addition to what I do locally, I am active on the national and regional scene. Being the Madison Poet Laureate is my dream come true! I have been writing since the age of 7, and really it has been unbelievable for me. I feel most fortunate.

CG: Your craft talk will feature an exercise where participants “write their own poems of witness and share.” Could you speak on the importance of writing these types of poems?

ATV: Yes, absolutely. I am among other things a poet of place, space and time. I learned the term "Poetry of Witness" from the amazing poet who I adore Carolyn Forche, and I credit her book, The Country Between Us, as shaping me as a young poet in my twenties. Her work was also part of my thesis, this book, among many of her others. I like to write contemporary poems about the people around me, the times we are in and what I observe and see in the world. I can write a poem about anything; but sometimes I choose to write from the point of view of the witness, and/or create or sculpt on the page what I see, observe and suss out from the world around me. I write when traveling and before the pandemic that meant poems from travels in the US and outside. It can be a serious topic or it can be something else too.  Like my poems from Isla Mujeres. Or poems from this past weekend, poems from my first niece's wedding, the first to call me, name me "Titi." There were so many beautiful moments I have been writing them down, glimmers, and there is also this absence of those we miss like the young groom's father and his grandmother. With fierce love comes this sadness, coupled with coming together after the pandemic. We have to keep laughing or we will be crying moments, what people said, how they danced with the photographer, the moment we lost track of the rings, the way the young people looked, the bridal party walking down the aisle magnificent and pure in their love for the couple getting married. Meanwhile somewhere else there are people being bombed, losing what we all hold precious, our lives, our beloveds, our lives. This is all true. We, the people come and go but "Art Speaks" across the ages. You can time travel in poems. I have touched on this before in many other poems...

CG: In your upcoming craft talk, you will be sharing your poetic influences, including Carolyn Forché, Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Eduardo Galeano, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Arthur Sze, among others. What can we learn from studying the work of other authors, and what is one poetic technique that you have picked up from these writers? 

ATV: This is going to be so exciting for me! There is much to learn from other poets and to enjoy. Think about how much you enjoy standing in front of a piece of art at the Art Institute of Chicago or at the Chazen in Madison, or the Art Museum in Milwaukee, just writing down the names sparks my brain thinking of all the art I have seen and admired being alive. Good art inspires more art I find. There are poems I can never get enough of in this world and poems I am just stumbling on. I have almost passed out at a reading of a colleague or mentor at IAIA. Reading, listening to writing, these are wonderful gifts of humanity. If you want to be an artist/writer I think it is important to study others and not limit it to literary arts by any means. Arthur Sze's notion of every line being a poem is something I greatly admire!

CG: In the description for your upcoming craft talk, you also state that “poets and poems are central to the global movement towards peace and justice”. How can poetry be used as a force for positive societal change? 

ATV: Point of view, empathy, someone else's story, one they have shared with you can be very effective as a tool for creating a more just and peaceful world. The more we know about each other the less we can dehumanize each other, or allow others to do it to large groups of people. Story telling, sharing of words and stories, and poems can only help the equation. Poems are meant to be heard and are rooted in an oral tradition which by definition creates community. Art has traditionally been used for many different causes; it can certainly work for today's concerns as well. I think about how music, songs from the civil rights movement are just as poignant and relative today as they were when they initially played on the radio. I think of Picasso's Guernica and what it felt like to stand under it and witness what he depicted on the canvas for everyone to see and remember.

So what are you waiting for? Register today for Angela Trudell Vasquez’s craft talk to learn how you, too, can take the next steps towards writing poetry that can help bring people together instead of tearing them apart.

The Healing Power of Dogs: An Interview with Bonnie Wright

Some might say it’s best to let “sleeping dogs lie,” but not Bonnie Wright. In her debut memoir, Diggin’ Up Bones: One woman's spiritual struggle and her golden retriever who leads her out of unconscious transgenerational shame, she confronts her own chaotic and abusive childhood with the help of a dog, Saxon. Saxon, who was dangerously aggressive in his early months, was rehabilitated with Bonnie’s help. And as she supported Saxon, Saxon supported her. The result is a painful yet inspiring story of faith, persevering beyond life’s obstacles, and overcoming shame. We recently had the chance to catch up with Bonnie to learn more about her book and writing process.

1.) Diggin’ Up Bones details the psychological and emotional damage you endured growing up.  How has writing helped you process some of those experiences?

Writing my story over the course of twelve years caused deep introspection and research seeking reasons for walking through life with a heavy heart and a broken relationships. The process of balancing a positive outlook and internally battling the self talk inflicted upon me as a child. The messaging of invisibility, silencing, worthlessness, slamming against self- confidence. Being raised to believe the word curses of being stupid and berated.  The counterbalance was having the messages of faith and all things are possible with God which lit my spirit to push through adversity.  A belief that shame is not who I was supposed to be and I had a purpose as early as eight years old. Writing uprooted years of buried trauma. Having the courage to face its reality, using all senses we are given to experience it again, and God’s grace to move through it, forgive those who have done damage, and thanking those who have supported me, to let shame go.

2.) Your book also touches on the power of shame, and its negative impact on those who experience it?  Can you share a bit about how to overcome those feelings that hold us back?  

Yes.  It is a spiritual struggle within that is not fixed by a therapist or drugs, it is a personal choice I made. Faith and believing in Christ sacrifice by accepting him in our hearts and a housecleaning of the heart and mind releasing shame’s power. During my spiritual search to heal, what I learned on this healing journey was the love of God and the Holy Spirit, my mother taught me as a child which anchored me through life’s dark desolate valley, lifting me up to a life of hope, internal peace, wisdom, freedom from anxiety, healthy boundaries, and joy.  That inner small voice that protects us. It is having that one-on-one personal relationship with Christ through prayer that removes the heavy heartedness and living a life filled with promise and improved health. One may say religion, I say Christ who God sacrificed with his pure love for us and has the power to heal because of his blood shed on the cross. Once accepting that nothing in this world will fix the spiritual thirst implanted and believe, shame loses control. Life’s perspective changes and the past trauma is blinded and healed.  Because living in a shame based home love and belonging were absent. We are all children of God who has given each of us a life purpose before we were formed.  We are here to love, serve, forgive, be grateful, humble, and respond to people as Jesus would with kindness, and forbearance. We are here to be stewards. If more of us took that perspective, division and chaos would lose its grip.

Before we can heal we have to recognize and understand what shame looks like and how it has affected one’s life,  and how it operates in each life and across society and government. First and foremost, fear. It holds the mind prisoner blocking out any positive input and is controlling, leading the victim to believe in hopelessness. It forces silence and early death whether through disease or suicide. It pits people against one another causing violence.  It creates an unrelenting psychological abusive environment of chaos and anger. And when anger is planted deep enough shame is in control.  Because shame is transgenerational, it is transferred at conception, reproducing another generation of dysfunctional homes, causing the innocent child to believe it their normal.

“Shame wears many disguises. It comes through in body language of finger pointing, blame, anger, and twisted another’s words, creating fear, gas lighting, name calling, rejection, degrading”

— Bonnie Wright

Shame wears many disguises. It comes through in body language of finger pointing, blame, anger, and twisted another’s words, creating fear, gas lighting, name calling, rejection, degrading. Belittling, control, sexual abusive, addictions, denial, mean-spirited pranks, manipulative, mind games, loves chaos and flies under the radar. Left to its own devices it presents with anger, bitterness, resentment, contempt and eventually disease of the heart, gut and cancer. One never considers shame with all of its disguises. That’s why it is an unconscious villain actor manically laughing at us.

3.) Your book also tells the story of your powerful relationship with your Golden retriever, Saxon.  Can you describe a story in which Saxon helped you overcome some of the obstacles your book describes?

In the chapter called “Muzzled” is when I fully realized my childhood trauma, seeing him silenced wearing a black muzzle, depressed, hopeless, isolated as an outcast, pushing down the bitterness further within sliced into my heart and opened my consciousness and felt my conscience come alive. Love knows no boundaries and that was how I felt about him and the feelings were mutual. He would know joy if it took the rest of his life and the giving of my life to save him. Shame, anger, and stress took his life far too early, proving the detrimental effects that lead to chronic disease. Ultimately he succeeded showing me a hopeful path of life everlasting. He served his life’s purpose.

4.)   Can you share a bit about the writing process?

Yes. The book evolved from a daily journal after Saxon died. The concept of book was there but the know how to write it was not. Doors opened to me of persons who could help me put logic and order to my journaling. I knew nothing about book structure or process, or what a book required to have interest beyond a personal journal. Much less how to write memoir or what the golden thread of Diggin’ Up Bones would be. The book title changed at least four times as the book took on its own energy. After working with three writing coaches and finally connecting with Marion Roach Smith, author and writing coach of the Memoir Project, Troy School of Arts, Troy, New York, I learned how to write my story and give voice to the core message. She deeply cared.

She taught me about book structure and gave me a process she teaches to all of her writing students... She has a very simple algorithm to follow. First, decide one aspect in your life you are writing about or the arc of the book. Eventually I discovered shame to be part of the main theme. But faith was a critical factor and so was Saxon.  Saxon was the symbol of faith.

Want to check it out? Bonnie’s book is available at Amazon,

The Local Store, and at bonniewrightwrites.com   

A Journey Across Time—From the Comfort of Your Home: A Sound & Stories Sneak Preview

by Charlotte Gutzmer

Stories and music have been with us throughout all of time; from oral folktales and traditional flute music to modern recreations of poetic forms and ambient synth music, art has evolved alongside us, always surprising us and delighting us with new experiences. On Thursday, May 6th, from 6:30-7:30pm, join the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild for a new Sound & Stories event, “Something Old, Something New.”

Writers and musicians from across western Wisconsin are coming together for the next installment of  the CVWG’s Sound & Stories. The virtual event will be available for free to stream at 6:30pm.

Click here to register for your free ticket today!

Hosted by B.J. Hollars and produced by Jonathan Rylander, settle in for a Pablo Streams event featuring stories from Andy Patrie, Selika Lawton, Mike Paulus, and Angela Hugunin, all accompanied and with original music from Peter Phippen and The Nunnery. And introducing musical guest Simone Patrie! With additional music support from James Igancio and Victoria Shoemaker. And visuals from Erik Elstran!

I had the pleasure of chatting with many of the artists and hearing about their inspiration and their relationships with and through time. They were also kind enough to share a few sneak preview lines from their stories, excerpted in italics below.  Read on to learn more about this exciting event, as well as the writers and musicians working together to bring the magic to you.

Andrew Patrie

“A compelling line from the piece I will be reading, one that proves some things do not change with time, comes from my daughter, who is transgender, following an incident on a school bus. After I share a story that happened to me on the school bus (always a bus!), she asks, ‘Why are people so obsessed with body parts?’ She waits a moment before adding, ‘Why are people so mean?’”

Andrew Patrie, a writer and a teacher, is the author of the collection of poems Half-Life and the book Nights, Grace. He’s also a prolific writer for Volume One, where he features articles on everything from dad jokes to introspective articles on music. The piece he’s reading for the event “is excerpted from a book length memoir I am in the process of revising, a writing project which has placed me squarely in the past for the last couple years I've been working on it in earnest.” His writing strikes a phenomenal balance between what we see as lament and what we celebrate; after all, Andrew reminds us, we “can’t get to these milestones without time, either.”  While his writing looks back towards the past, he “wouldn't say it's necessarily done through a lens of nostalgia. The past is often difficult to look at, but it can allow us to make some sense of the present... I get nostalgic like anybody else (my friends and family might say that's an understatement), but if time was a VCR, I've learned that, for as much as I'd like to press the pause button, it's healthier for the tape to let it play out.”

Angela Hugunin

“So it was that Grandpa, months after losing his beloved wife of sixty-six and a half years, bought a Slingshot.”

Angela Hugunin is a senior at UW-Eau Claire majoring in Creative Writing and French. Angela is “drawn to connections: connections between people, between people and places, and between themes that may look at first glance like they’re unrelated... I’m curious about what’s going on under the surface and about what meaning can be found if we examine our experiences closely. Even the most seemingly mundane moments can hold immense meaning!” Some of Angela’s publications include her poem “Heal” in the Spring 2018 edition of NOTA, her essay “Here, We Do Dignity” in the November 2020 edition of Barstow & Grand, and even a variety of French poetry published in the French magazine D’ailleurs. For her, “writing is a wonderful vessel for exploring time. Playing with time—or at least, sifting through it—in writing allows me to process things, to look for commonalities and differences between experiences or themes, and to give the creative work more depth. In my piece for Sound and Stories, time is a prominent force. Moving through it gives me space to reflect on my current relationship with my grandfather, but in looking backward, I also find powerful truths about who he is and who I am. I get to look at who we’re becoming, too. I find that moving through time in my writing can allow powerful truths to emerge. Time can be a challenging force to pin down, but I’m learning that I don’t necessarily need to wrestle it to the ground or try to figure it out; instead, I can observe it and learn from it.”

Dr. Selika Lawton

“Everyone thinks that where they live, is the best place, the coolest place. When I came to Wisconsin. My students in Eau Claire were eager to tell me that Eau Claire was the New Orleans of the North. I did not exactly believe them…”

Dr. Selika Ducksworth Lawton is currently a Professor of history at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Dr. Ducksworth-Lawton is a specialist in Twentieth-Century African American Military, National Security, and Civil Rights History. She works in the intersection of race, national security, civil rights, and protest. Her book, Honorable Men: Armed Self Defense and the Deacons for Defense and Justice, is under contract with University Press of Mississippi and expected in press early next year. Honorable Men describes how African Americans veterans in the Deacons for Defense and Justice combined their military service knowledge with an African American vision of republicanism and citizenship to create a militia in Louisiana that successfully fought the Klan in the 1965-8 activists and protects white and African American Congress of Racial Equality activists. Dr. Ducksworth Lawton is the co-author of Minority and Gender Differences in Officer Career Progression. She is working on a new book on the impact of culture and geography on the activists’ choices between non-violence and armed self-defense in several states in 1964-1967. She earned her PhD in 1994 from Ohio State University in 20th Century military and African American History.

Mike Paulus

The heat lightning was sorcery to us. Some kind of rare devilry quietly bursting across the midnight horizon, raving over the dark, distant pine trees…

Mike Paulus is the Digital Services & Marketing Specialist for the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library here in Eau Claire. He’s worked in local publishing for over two decades, including 14 years as an editor with Volume One, where his “Rear End” column has appeared since 2004. He’s the co-creator and former host of Volume One’s “Let’s Be Honest” grownup storytelling night, and co-produced Volume One’s 2018 stage show True North. He’s a past contributor to Wisconsin Public Radio’s Wisconsin Life program, and he’s hosted multiple cat shows.

Peter Phippen

Peter Phippen is a Grammy Award Nominee, International Acoustic Music Awards Nominee, One World Music Awards Nominee, multiple Native American Music Awards Nominee and a 2021 Native American Style Flute Awards Lifetime Achievement Awards Winner. Phippen is a performing and recording artist specializing in traditional flutes from around the world. Over the past three decades Phippen has researched the history and performance technique of flutes both ancient and modern. In his approach to world flute performance, he is an experiential, natural folk musician with a penchant for creative and artistic musical improvisation. Phippen offers a captivating collage of sound images, covering the folklore and history of flutes from around the world and throughout time. Phippen performs an enchanting mix of the very old and very new in music. He has shared the stage with R. Carlos Nakai, Coyote Oldman, Xavier Quijas Yxayotl, and many more. As a recording artist, Phippen has recorded for Curb Records, Canyon Records, and Promotion Music Records. Phippen's flute playing has also appeared on Lifescapes, Sounds True, and Heart Dance Records.  For more visit: https://www.peterphippen.com/

The Nunnery

The Nunnery is a solo act featuring Sarah Elstran, a Minneapolis-based musician who uses the art of the loop pedal to explore a world of peaceful and ambient sound. By layering voices and instrumentals upon themselves, Elstran creates a lush atmosphere inspired by the spaces and stories around her. Listening to The Nunnery is an experience that inspires healing, emotional understanding, and meditative contemplation. Elstran’s new single “Whirlpool Ride” is available to stream on Spotify, Youtube, iTunes, and Bandcamp.

So dig out those sepia-toned photos and prepare to view them in Technicolor! Dust off the heirloom and discover the story within! Tilt an ear toward the past, fix your eyes on the future—let’s see what magic awaits in the in-between!

Nourishing Connections: An Interview with Phong Nguyen on Writing, Inspiration, and Collaboration

by Charlotte Gutzmer

How do you craft a lasting story? Most people will tell you that the work begins with compelling characters, strong plots, and resonant themes. But beyond these basics lies the secret to creating stories that will endure the test of time and ingrain themselves in the hearts of readers: connection. Phong Nguyen knows that lasting stories all foster relationships between plot, setting, character, and theme, synergizing their strengths to build a narrative that leaps off the page.

Phong Nguyen is an award-winning author who has published three novels: The Bronze Drum (forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing, 2022), Roundabout: An Improvisational Fiction (Moon City Press, 2020), and The Adventures of Joe Harper (Outpost19, 2016, winner of the Prairie Heritage Book Award); and two short fiction collections: Pages from the Textbook of Alternate History (Mastodon Publishing, 2019) and Memory Sickness (Elixir Press, 2011). He is also the Miller Family Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing at the University of Missouri. On Tuesday, May 18th at 7pm, join him in his upcoming CVWG craft talk: “Building Strong Connective Tissue: Beyond Plot, Character, Setting, and Theme.”

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Phong Nguyen about his phenomenal writing and his upcoming craft talk. Read on to learn all about how nourishing the connections and establishing powerful emotions can strengthen your work, as well as how collaborations between community and literature create lasting impacts on writing.

Charlotte Gutzmer: In the description of your upcoming craft talk, you stress the importance of creating connections between plot, character, setting, and theme. What makes these connections so engaging and important, and how do these connections contribute to a story?

Phong Nguyen: The specific connections we will be discussing in the talk are those between character and plot ("Why is this character in this particular story?") and between character and setting ("How does this character's internal conflict manifest in an external action?"). These connections are vital because you can have the most compelling character and the most interesting plot but if there is no sense of why these events are meaningful to that character and how they affect their future, you will leave readers with the question "So what?" It is not enough to have crafted each of these discrete elements; they need to relate to one another in order to answer that question.

CG: In your short story collection Memory Sickness, I was impressed by not only your ability to craft lasting stories, but also by their emotional intensity. How can a writer weave these powerful emotions into their craft?

PN: If a writer is striving for emotional effect, one prerequisite is that the reader feels close to the characters; they need to feel real. For the characters to feel real, they should be highly specific. If you think about the people you know in your own life, they are highly specific-- the more we know someone, the more aware we are of their contradictions and complexity. Character in fiction works the same way; familiarity and identification go hand in hand. Another prerequisite is that the characters want something urgently, whatever that may be. That way, when their yearnings are denied (or fulfilled), the reader has been with them on the journey all along, yearning alongside them and sharing in the glory or tragedy of its attainment.

CG: Many of your stories feature a clear connection between internal characterization and external plot. What advice can you give writers who want to know more about how internal character affects external story?

PN: The most important aspect of this relationship is that the internal conflict must manifest as an external action. Most writers intuitively understand that their character(s) must experience some internal conflict; the trick is to manifest that conflict in a scene. You might call this the "slipper fits" moment. Theoretically, in the Cinderella story, the Prince or his representative could have simply seen Cinderella and recognized her from the ball, and they lived happily ever after. But that would be narratively inert and unsatisfying. It doesn't matter that the internal conflict is resolved. It never manifested. Therefore we need that "slipper fits" moment to make the conflict real and indicate a narrative destiny for the characters through scene.

CG: Where do you find inspiration for intriguing plots, characters, and conflicts?

PN: My answer is "yes." In other words, I find inspiration anywhere I can: life experience, dreams, research, stories, games, you name it. I try not to limit myself by drinking from only one fountain of inspiration.

CG: Several of your novels and short story collections focus on alternate realities or literary retellings, including The Adventures of Joe Harper and Pages from the Textbook of Alternate History. How, in your opinion, can our own lives and realities be affected by exploring these alternatives?

PN: I'm fond of collaborative writing and collaborations in general. Ancient myths were not created by individuals but by communities over vast spans of time. In the same way, I see The Adventures of Joe Harper as a collaboration with Mark Twain, and I see Pages from the Textbook of Alternate History as a playful collaboration with real historians (the highest compliment I receive from Pages is that readers often feel the need to go back to read the real histories after they read the alternate versions). As far as how our own lives and realities are affected by this, I suppose that such collaborations make us less self-centered and egoistic. It's important to remember that we are single links in a long literary chain.

CG: In your craft talk, you’ll be exploring the most difficult aspects of strengthening the connective tissue between the various aspects of fiction. Could you give a sneak preview from your craft talk that will help a writer overcome these difficulties?

PN: One exercise that we will undertake is to look at summaries of stories I've received that succeed on every level when it comes to discrete elements of storytelling but fail when it comes to making connections between them. Those who attend are invited to provide solutions to the lack of "connective tissue" between plot and character, and between character and setting. There will be time for attendees to write their own summaries of stories that make such connections.

So what are you waiting for? Register soon (link forthcoming!) for Phong Nguyen’s craft talk to learn all about how you can craft lasting stories and strengthen the connective tissue between the various aspects of fiction.

On Writing Extraordinary Moments in History: An Interview with Amanda Skenandore

by Charlotte Gutzmer

Have you ever opened the pages of a book only to be transported to a world full of intrigue, allure, and fascination? Amanda Skenandore has, and as a writer of historical fiction, much of her work is devoted to the art of rebuilding remarkable scenes from history and transposing them onto the page. Jennifer Klepper, USA Today bestselling author of Unbroken Threads, even wrote that Skenandore paints these landscapes of history “with such fine strokes that it’s hard to believe she didn’t somehow transport herself back in time to do her research”! 

Amanda Skenandore is the author of two historical novels, The Undertaker’s Assistant and Between Earth & Sky, winner of the 2019 American Library Association’s Reading List Award for Best Historical Fiction. Her third novel The Second Life of Mirielle West comes out in August, 2021. An avid reader, tea-drinker, and wanderlust, Amanda lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and their pet turtle Lenore. On June 15th at 7pm, join her in her upcoming CVWG craft talk: “Writing the Past”.

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Amanda Skenandore about her fascinating historical fiction novels and her upcoming craft talk. Read on to learn how to find extraordinarily inspiring moments in history, how to create resonance between the past and the presence, and how to craft a story that is unforgettable.

Charlotte Gutzmer: What draws you to researching and writing about the past?

Amanda Skenandore: I’ve always loved history. In many ways, the past is like an entirely different world—a world I get to visit in my mind when I research and write. And yet there’s so much that’s relatable in history too, so much that’s relevant to our modern-day lives. History challenges me. It surprises me. It broadens my perspective.

CG: How can one find extraordinary moments in history?

AS: History is filled with extraordinary moments, and you can find them by being curious—not just in your reading but your everyday life. The imprint of those moments is all around us, in the physical spaces we inhabit, in our customs and values. But oftentimes you have to peel back several layers of myth and bias to get at the truth of those moments and find what’s really extraordinary.

CG: In the description of your craft talk, you discuss how there are “common elements that make stories from the past resonate with modern readers”. What are some of these elements?

AS: Many of those elements relate back to our shared humanity. Readers want to be transported to another time, but they want to see people (real or imagined) relating to that world in ways similar to today. Not necessarily on an operational level, but on a physical and emotional one. Heartbreak, ambition, loss, pain, courage—these existed in the past as much as they do today and can bridge that distance in time for the reader.

CG: What are some of the greatest rewards and challenges that come with being a writer of historical fiction?

AS: One of the greatest rewards of writing historical fiction is connecting with readers and sharing with them lesser-known parts of history. I feel like I grow with each novel I write and am able to see the world with a fresh perspective. One of the greatest challenges is finding primary source material, especially for marginalized voices and overlooked events.

CG: Your craft talk will discuss “the responsibility an author has to the historical record and to the reader.” What are some of these responsibilities, and what makes them so important?

AS: I believe writers of historical fiction make a pact with readers. In exchange for their trust, we present a well-researched rendering of the past. Too many errors or misrepresentations and readers will be pulled from the story world and approach the work with suspicion.

CG: Could you give a sneak preview of one of the historical research techniques that you’ll cover in your craft talk?

AS: One of my go-to resources is Google Books. I use it not just to read out-of-print material but also to verify word usage. I can set the date range I want in the advanced settings and search for words or phrases to see if and how they were in use during that time period.

CG: In the description of your craft talk, you quote Rudyard Kipling: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” What makes a story unforgettable?

AS: For me, it’s the character. When we experience history through the lens of a person—their thoughts and fears and hopes and dreams—we connect with the surrounding events, the history, on a more visceral and memorable level.

So what are you waiting for? Register today for Amanda Skenandore’s craft talk for the chance to peer into the past and to transport yourself into a time where you and your writing will never be forgotten.

On the Art of Questions, Storytelling, and Magic: A Conversation with Margi Preus

by Charlotte Gutzmer

When it comes to worlds of mystery and adventure, no one knows how to navigate to the heart of an enchanting story quite like Margi Preus. Whether it’s a breathtaking tale of history and heroism or a bewitching story of myths and magic, she knows exactly what questions will drive her to the deepest and most enthralling moments, settings, and characters.

Margi Preus is a New York Times bestselling author of the Newbery Honor Book Heart of a Samurai and other notable novels and picture books for young readers. New in 2020 are Village of Scoundrels, The Littlest Voyageur, and The Silver Box, part of the Enchantment Lake mystery series. Her books have won multiple awards, been honored as ALA/ALSC Notables, selected as an NPR Backseat Book Club pick, chosen for community reads, and translated into many languages. When not writing, Margi enjoys traveling, speaking, and visiting schools all over the world. On June 8th at 7pm, join her for her CVWG craft talk: “Can I Pull This Off? And Other Questions That Drive Our Writing And Inspire Our Stories”. 

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Margi Preus about her extraordinary stories and her upcoming craft talk. Read on to learn all about how asking questions as you write can hone your craft, the rewards and challenges of writing for young readers, and more!

Charlotte Gutzmer: What are some of the rewards and challenges of being a writer of literature for young readers?

Margi Preus: If you think about what books have meant the most to you, or that have influenced you more than others, it’s likely you’ll single out a book or books from your young reading life. There is no more passionate reader than a young reader. This knowledge makes writing for young readers both rewarding and harrowing. The same thing that makes writing for young readers so rewarding also offers up its greatest challenge: the responsibility that comes with writing for those young hearts and minds.

CG: On your website, you note that your magically fascinating books are rooted in your “family, their stories, and their love of the outdoors.” How does writing help you explore your heritage and the world around you?

MP: Writing makes us see the world more sharply; it allows us to examine human relationships more deeply; and it gives us time to contemplate big questions—the questions raised in and by our own small family spheres as well as the greater world around us.

CG: Your website also refers to a love for travel and for speaking! How have your personal experiences in these passions influenced your craft?

MP: Whether taking shelter behind a boulder during a snowstorm in Norway or getting lost in a forest in France where Jewish children hid during WWII, things I experience when I travel seem to work their way into my stories. And the people I have been privileged to get to know in my travels and through interviews have not only enriched and shaped my writing, but my whole life.

CG: In the description of your upcoming craft talk, you stress the importance of questions and how they are integral to enlightening both writers and readers. How can questions help writers home in on the heart of their craft?

“I find that I am most engaged in my writing not when I am trying to make a statement, but when I am grappling with questions, questions I don’t know the answers to, sometimes unanswerable questions.  ”

— Margi Preus

MP: I find that I am most engaged in my writing not when I am trying to make a statement, but when I am grappling with questions, questions I don’t know the answers to, sometimes unanswerable questions.  

Being aware of the questions that propel you to write in general and why you want to write a particular story help to inform your writing and enrich your writing experience. The questions that you raise within your story for readers to ponder add depth and meaning to that story.  

 I don’t believe we need to always answer the questions we raise, or to wrap everything up in a tidy bow. Raising questions for the reader to ponder and wonder over is a perfectly legitimate purpose of telling stories and may enlighten in deeper ways than answers and solutions.

CG: Of the many questions one might ask oneself when beginning a project, what question is most important?

MP: That is always going to depend on the writer and the project. Still, at some point early in the process the question, “Can I pull this off?” is probably going to occur to the writer. For me, the answer is pretty much always ‘probably not’ which could mean I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, but it might mean there is something wonderful in store—something that will stretch my abilities and expand my imagination, something that will challenge writer and reader.

I think we all ask ourselves questions at the start of a story, even though we’re not always aware of what they are. I hope in my session we can delve into all kinds of things we wonder about, ask ourselves, and consider what questions we hope to pose to the reader.

CG: On your website, you give writers the valuable advice to read “like a writer”. How does one read like a writer, and what benefits does this practice bring?

MP: In a second read-through (the first read-through should always be just for pleasure) look for moments where the story has made you cry, laugh, shiver with suspense, or has kept you turning pages well past your bedtime. What kind of magic trick has the writer performed to make those things happen? Take it apart and study it, as you might learn how to make a coin disappear or pull a rabbit out of a hat. Then practice it. 

So what are you waiting for? Register today for Margi Preus’s craft talk to find out which questions are going to ensnare the senses of your readers, to practice exercises that will create intrigue and magic in your own stories, and to find out how you, too, can delve into the enchanting world of storytelling.

The Intersection Between Writing and Teaching: An Interview with Larry Watson

Charlotte Gutzmer

As writers, we all understand the magic that comes with transcribing our innermost thoughts into tangible stories—what you may not fully recognize, however, is how the creative and transformative power of teaching can be just as magnificent.

Larry Watson isn’t just a renowned writer: he’s also an acclaimed teacher who has been teaching for over 40 years! With decades of experience in the craft of writing and the art of teaching, he has published ten novels, the fiction collection JUSTICE, and the poetry collection Late Assignments. His work has received critical acclaim and won awards and prizes from Milkweed Press, Friends of American Writers, Mountain and Plains Booksellers Association, and more: his 2013 novel, Let Him Go, has even been adapted to the 2020 film sharing the same name and starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane. On Tuesday, June 1st at 7pm, join him in his upcoming CVWG craft talk: “40 in 40: Lessons from 40 Years of Teaching Condensed into 40 Minutes”. 

His craft talk will focus on “narrative modes, conflict in story and how it corresponds to story structure, and the storytelling devices that do a particularly effective job of engaging readers.” Those who join will also learn about “some exercises that might lead to the creation of full-length fictions or that might be incorporated into longer narratives.”

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Larry Watson about his work, his escapades in education, and about his upcoming craft talk. Read on to learn all about how tension “pulls a story taught”, how his experiences in teaching transformed his work, and more.

Charlotte Gutzmer: Congratulations on your novel Let Him Go being adapted into a film! What was the most exciting part of adapting your novel for the screen, and what challenges did it pose?

Larry Watson: Thanks. It was pretty exciting. But really, I had next to nothing to do with making the film. All the challenges of adapting the novel fell to Thomas Bezucha. He wrote the screenplay. He was also a producer and he directed the movie. All credit goes to him and his commitment to the project.

CG: You’ve published 10 acclaimed novels, a fiction collection, and a book of poetry. As someone well-versed in many forms of storytelling, how does the process of writing shift from one mode to another?

LW: I don’t write many short stories. It’s just a very difficult form for me, perhaps because I can never be sure what can be left out. Poems I have to wait for, and they don’t come around much anymore. When they do, I need to get a complete draft written—no matter how rough—as quickly as I can. Subsequent revisions can take hours or years or any span of time in between. But novels I can approach and work on like a job in an office. I can—and do—write something every day. I’m slow but steady.

CG: Your most recent novel, The Lives of Edie Pritchard, “crackles with tension”, according to Kirkus Reviews, and your upcoming craft talk will focus on conflict in story. How do you add tension to your writing, and what makes tension so integral to narrative?

LW: I consider the scene a structural fundamental in my fiction, and I try to make sure that there’s some tension in every scene. It might not be overt (and come to think of it, it seldom is), but there needs to be something to pull things taught. That something often has to do with a character’s desire, stated or unstated. And what one character wants might well be at odds with what another character wants. But if the scene has only one character, I still have to find a way to introduce a conflict of some kind.

CG: In your poetry collection Late Assignments, you refer to memory as a storyteller. How, in your opinion, does memory play a role in telling stories, and how can writers begin to transcribe them?

LW: I’ve said that I write from memory more than from observation. And I think of memory as a kind of filter. Whatever sticks in the filter is there for a reason, though I might not know what that reason is. Part of my task as a writer is to present the image or incident in such a way that its significance becomes apparent. (Significance isn’t necessarily the same, in my view, as meaning). I also don’t care whether the memory is “true” or not; it can be useful for fiction either way. In this way, memory can contribute to storytelling. 

CG: In your opinion, what are some of the biggest misconceptions about teaching, and what are some of the greatest rewards?

“I don’t think people who don’t teach understand how much time it takes. It goes way beyond hours in the classroom or even hours reading student writing”

— Larry Watson

LW: I don’t think people who don’t teach understand how much time it takes. It goes way beyond hours in the classroom or even hours reading student writing. Research is often required to work up lessons or compose lectures (even very short ones). And teaching takes up a lot of thought-time, as teachers think about what they’ll do in class that semester, that week, that day, that hour. Every student is different, and attention must be paid to how all those individuals are progressing—or not. All of these things are true of writing, too. No matter how much time a teacher devotes to [their]  classes and students, [they] can always do more. And no matter how much time a writer spends on his writing, he/she can always do more. More time is what both writers and teachers always need. Of course what writers and teachers learn from their art/craft can be tremendously rewarding, and some of those things are discoveries that could never be reached without the classroom or the devotion to a piece of writing.

CG: How has your style of teaching changed over the course of 40 years, and what’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from your experiences as a teacher?

Maybe I became a bit more efficient as a teacher. After all those years, I might have developed a better sense of the lessons and activities that would be useful and helpful to students. And while this isn’t exactly a lesson, I learned early on that in virtually every class there’d be at least one student with the talent and skill to be a published writer. It was wonderful to come across those students. It was also wonderful to see that other students usually recognized that talent too and went out of their way to praise the writer and the work. But not all those talented writers went on to write and publish. Something besides talent and skill is required.

CG: How has your experience teaching in colleges and universities influenced your writing?

LW: Oh, the influence is so great I couldn’t begin to summarize it! But here’s one way that writing and teaching worked together for me, and, I suppose, influenced each other. In creative writing classes, I usually did the same assignments—both in class prompts and more formal exercises—that I gave my students. Doing that helped me understand what a writer was likely to come up against in the writing. And on a few occasions, what I wrote turned out to be something more than an exercise. I came up with drafts of poems, ideas for stories, and scenes for novels. I tried never to give students exercises or assignments that were frivolous or that couldn’t lead to or couldn’t be a part of something useful to writing fiction, poetry, drama, or nonfiction.

So what are you waiting for? Register today for Larry Watson’s craft talk to experience 40 wondrous years of teaching in what may be the most rewarding 40 minutes of you

Watch David Shih's "'You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone': Writing About Race"

In January, David Shih presented a powerful craft talk on writing about race. The talk was so well received that several attendees asked if we might make it available for replay. We’re so glad we can. Thanks to David for sharing his knowledge, and to attendees and viewers for listening and learning alongside him.

Sending Out Sunshine: On Writing Letters to Bring Healing and Joy

“There’s something intoxicating about a handwritten piece of mail sailing to us across the US Postal Service. ”

Katy Hackworthy

There’s something intoxicating about a handwritten piece of mail sailing to us across the US Postal Service. Every time my roommate slides a pile under my door, I delight in everyone’s unique handwriting, declaring who sent a bit of themselves to make my day a little brighter. The floors of my room are strewn with half ripped envelopes tucked into piles of overdue library books, little reminders motivating me to send out a bit of extra sunshine myself. 

This holiday season, I had  every ambition to write love letters to pals, family members, and even old acquaintances as gifts. Due to the way things tend to go during that bustling time of year (where do the hours run off to?), and a solid dose of grief pervading almost every aspect of my life, I only sent off maybe one or two bits of snail mail. 

Lucky for me, the pile of empty but stamped & addressed envelopes still sat on my desk among spilled candle wax, ink weary pens, and half full journals. While I haven’t completed the pile, I did dive in headfirst to reciprocate the delight I’ve felt coming home to a handwritten letter. What’s the new year for if not to make good on old promises made to yourself in a time that once seemed to be brimming with possibility?

For even more accountability, I took some time off social media, but only after asking if anyone would like to be pen pals. To my delight, I got a few takers, including someone I’ve mostly been in professional spaces with whose kind words, meticulously done coloring pages, and sweet cards have brought such joy since our new form of correspondence, and someone who I connected with on a dating app many moons ago who happens to have the same visceral love for the outdoors, working with youth, and Ross Gay as I do. 

While I’m not always consistent, I’ve spent a good chunk of the first few months of 2021 with pen and paper instead of tired eyes & mindless scrolling. As a result, I have gorgeous art reminding me someone out there supports me, I have reclaimed my time in service of myself and others, and I have strengthened connections with people who were mere acquaintances before the word “pal” accompanied our pens. 

“It’s easy to see letter writing as something “less than” writing, but for me, it’s been a welcome creative outlet when I haven’t had the capacity to take the more emotionally laborious path towards poetry, or explore some of the heaviness I’ve been carrying around through creative nonfiction. ”

It’s easy to see letter writing as something “less than” writing, but for me, it’s been a welcome creative outlet when I haven’t had the capacity to take the more emotionally laborious path towards poetry, or explore some of the heaviness I’ve been carrying around through creative nonfiction. I welcome the intimacy that comes from having an audience of one person instead of having to consider a wider swath of readers. The time I’ve spent writing these letters has been a form of healing during such a heavy time, and I’m grateful for the newness the changing of the seasons will continue to bring.

From a rapidly scrawled postcard from a pal abroad to a sprawling letter from a sweet stranger or lover, something about the extra bit of intention involved always makes this kind of correspondence all the more special, especially in times of increased isolation & neverending screen time. From a pen pal’s response trusting me with work advice & a gorgeous, thoughtful coloring sheet that sits atop my dresser to telling my best friend to save one of my letters “for a time she really needs it”, it’s been extra wonderful to witness the tangible impact of these correspondences. I hope you take some time out of your busy, weird, & wild schedules to make some room for this intention, and send a little sunshine for the price of a stamp. 

On Discovering America and Its Stories: A Conversation With Virtual Writers Retreat Speaker Carson Vaughan

by Charlotte Gutzmer

Peering over the devoid field that was once a zoo teeming with life, Carson Vaughan wondered how it came to be like this. What had caused the once popular zoo to become an empty-caged ghost town? None of the locals would tell him about the tragedy that had occurred there, but the tension was palpable. Royal, Nebraska and its zoo had a story to share, Carson knew.  But what was it?

Carson Vaughan is an award-winning nonfiction author, freelance journalist, and editor who finds beautiful stories in places often dismissed in what some might call cultural deserts. His debut nonfiction book, Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream, has garnered critical acclaim (2020 Nebraska Book Award) for its expertly written portrayal of the rural Midwest and the rise and fall of Royal, Nebraska’s uniquely intriguing zoo. On Tuesday, May 11th at 7pm, join him in his upcoming CVWG craft talk: “Distilling The Extra From The Ordinary: Writing And Reporting In ‘Flyover Country’”.

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Carson Vaughan about Zoo Nebraska and his upcoming craft talk. Read on to learn all about his book-writing process, how he discovers stories, and how his experiences as a freelance journalist shapes his view of the world.

Charlotte Gutzmer: Zoo Nebraska is a beautifully written portrait of the rise and fall of a zoo in Royal, Nebraska that explores the dynamics between humanity, animals, and politics. Where did you encounter this history, and what drew you to writing about it?

Carson Vaughan: I had never heard of Royal, Nebraska, or its infamous roadside zoo until 2009. My girlfriend and her mother were giving me a personal tour of northeast Nebraska, and as we passed through Royal, roughly 30 minutes from their farm, they casually mentioned a shooting and somebody named Reuben. I didn't know a single detail, had never heard of this tragic event, and immediately had more questions than they could answer. We pulled off the highway to take a closer look at the derelict zoo, and as luck would have it, the state of Nebraska had placed a small flyer on the chain link fence advertising a public auction to be held the very next weekend. Still sniffing around for an appropriate senior journalism thesis, I drove back the next weekend. It would be another few weeks, maybe months, before I understood exactly what story the story was, but I left that auction buzzing with excitement. The locals refused to discuss the day the chimpanzees broke loose, and it was exactly that resistance that let me know I was on to something. The more time I spent in Royal, the more certain I was that beneath the novelty of an exotic animal escape in rural Nebraska there lay a gripping story reflective of the human condition at large--a story, in other words, that would hopefully resound beyond the community of Royal alone.

CG: As a freelance journalist from central Nebraska, you seem quite skillful at depicting the compelling charm of life in rural communities. Moreover, your sense of time and place seems to be rooted not only in the history of the area, but also in the people who inhabit it. Can you share a bit about how these skills developed throughout your experiences writing about this region?

CV: Not every story allows for it, but in my longform work, I tend to get a little obsessive about the context. In the case of Zoo Nebraska, I could hardly tell the story of this bizarre roadside zoo without explaining the man who first willed it to life, and I could hardly tell the story of its founder without explaining the community that raised him. Oftentimes these contextual details fall to the cutting room floor, but I firmly believe that one's grasp of the history and culture of a place -- whether or not they're frankly acknowledged in the text -- is reflected in the tone of the prose. As a reader, there are few things I find more compelling and refreshing in a piece of writing, be it fiction, nonfiction or poetry, than a confident and authoritative voice, and that sort of authority is often hard won. In short: context informs everything, and I try my best to develop that context as thoroughly and practically as possible in order to give my readers a better sense of who, exactly, they're dealing with.

CG: In the description of your upcoming craft talk, you write that it’s “easy to dismiss America’s rural spaces as cultural deserts, devoid of the intrigue we afford the cities or the coasts or the exotic landscapes of the imagination.” Can you share a bit about how your writing of Zoo Nebraska may have led you to this conclusion, or how this conclusion influenced your writing of Zoo Nebraska?

“I was born and raised in a small town in central Nebraska, and the local histories I grew up with were every bit as exciting as the histories that Hollywood and national media typically portrayed. I carried that philosophy with me as I approached Zoo Nebraska, and yet in my decade of reporting on this zoo and this community, that philosophy was further solidified every day”

 CV: You've posed a great question, because both of these variations are accurate. Well before approaching Zoo Nebraska, I had a pretty firm conviction that American culture was neglecting -- much to its detriment -- the stories of rural America. I was born and raised in a small town in central Nebraska, and the local histories I grew up with were every bit as exciting as the histories that Hollywood and national media typically portrayed. I carried that philosophy with me as I approached Zoo Nebraska, and yet in my decade of reporting on this zoo and this community, that philosophy was further solidified every day. As the full picture of Zoo Nebraska developed, I understood that all those universal themes that make a great story were alive and well in this town of 65 people.

CG: Zoo Nebraska examines the relationship between humans and animals—how does your relationship with animals and nature influence your work?

CV: You're not wrong in your assertion that Zoo Nebraska examines the relationship between humans and animals, but if I'm being completely honest, I was always much more engaged with the relationship between humans and other humans. Between Dick Haskin and his father, or Dick Haskin and the Jensen family. Or between the Jensen family and Kenneth Schlueter. Between the zoo board members and the volunteers. Between the locals and the outsiders. All that said, there was an undeniable bond between Dick Haskin and Reuben the chimpanzee, and to ignore that particular dynamic would have been not only a lost opportunity, but an inaccurate portrayal of nearly every aspect of the zoo. Nothing in Zoo Nebraska would have played out were it not for Dick's initial love of Reuben, which painted his every move for the next two and half decades. 

I'm not sure my own relationship with animals influenced my work to any serious degree -- I have a dog but don't consider myself an animal guy by any stretch of the imagination -- though I am incredibly concerned about our environment and the natural world. Part of my fascination with Dick's story is the purity with which he approached working with great apes. When he first learned about their endangerment, and the destruction of their natural habitat, he devoted himself to the cause and never looked back. Sadly, that drive was corrupted by time and circumstance, and what began as an incredibly admirable dream ended in the death of three more chimpanzees.

CG: What are the rewards and difficulties of being a freelance journalist? How does one even begin?

“The rewards of freelancing are manifold: the freedom to pursue your own interests, the flexible schedule, the opportunity to work with so many different editors and publications and across multiple mediums. On the other hand, the pay often fluctuates wildly, and the grind never stops”

 CV: The rewards of freelancing are manifold: the freedom to pursue your own interests, the flexible schedule, the opportunity to work with so many different editors and publications and across multiple mediums. On the other hand, the pay often fluctuates wildly, and the grind never stops, and it can often be a lonely pursuit, removed as it is from a traditional workplace where you'd be regularly interacting with peers and coworkers. I began immediately after graduate school by pitching as many stories as I could every week. Only a tiny percentage stuck, but those that did often led to my next assignment. The first few years were hardly profitable, but I've slowly climbed that hill and am still climbing it today. Some weeks are easier than others. And some weeks never end.

CG: Many of your essays, as well as your book, focus on fascinating stories discovered in unexpected places. How do you know when something is “story worthy?” And what draws you to uncovering these stories in rural culture most of all?

CV: I'm drawn to rural stories because they're so rarely told, and when they are, they're often told poorly or by outsiders with no real understanding of the cultural milieu they're representing. I'm not sure I can pinpoint one single trigger, but I do feel a mission to bring these rural stories to a larger audience. That said, I feel no obligation to write purely positive stories. I'm not a public relations manager or booster for rural America, but I do feel that rural America has been simplified to a detrimental degree. Whether positive or negative, I consider any story that complicates our understanding of rural America a win for America large.

CG: As your award-winning debut nonfiction book, Zoo Nebraska has seen a lot of success and acclaim. What advice would you give to someone who is writing their debut work of nonfiction?

 CV: Allow yourself to ask stupid questions and keep asking stupid questions until they don't sound stupid anymore. Read widely. Read fiction and poetry, too. And always remember that you're writing about real people with very real lives. Your final portrayal may not be entirely rosy, but it should be true, and it should always be approached with empathy.

So what are you waiting for? Register today for Carson Vaughan’s craft talk so you, too, can learn how to distill the ‘Extra’ from the ‘Ordinary’.

A Journey Into The Wild--From The Comforts Of Your Home A Sound & Stories Sneak Preview

Charlotte Gutzmer

The animal world is full of magic and beauty: from the majestic beasts of the jungle to the pets who sleep beside us at night, they have always coexisted with us, providing inspiration for all kinds of music, art, and stories. On March 4 at 6:30pm, join Pablo Streams’s Sound & Stories event, “All Creatures Great and Small” for an unforgettable evening of music and tales (or maybe tails?) centered on the animal world. 

Writers and musicians from across western Wisconsin are coming together for the next installment of  the CVWG’s Sound & Stories. The virtual event will be available for free to stream at 6:30pm, and will include American Sign Language interpretation as well as subtitle services. Click here to register for your free ticket today.

The line-up includes award-winning nonfiction writer John Hildebrand, animal welfare expert Bekah Weitz, environmentalist and ornithologist Steve Betchkal, and author Katherine Schneider, all accompanied and with original music from Humbird and The Nunnery.

I had the pleasure of chatting with each artist and hearing about their inspiration and their relationships with animals. They were also kind enough to share a few sneak preview lines from their stories, excerpted in italics below.  Read on to learn more about this exciting event, as well as the writers and musicians working together to bring the magic to you.

Katherine Schneider

“Since I’ve had Seeing Eye dogs for forty-eight years, you might think it would be an old hat to train with a new one, but it isn’t. The journey is an intense one, full of heartache and miracles…”

Photo description: Kathie and Calvin

Katherine Schneider, a retired clinical psychologist, prolific writer, and speaker on disability issues, joins the Guild for this event with her tenth Seeing Eye dog Calvin. Her relationship with her Seeing Eye dogs offer an exceptional perspective on animals. “Each one is a unique being, but each has been my best friend, my eyes, and my transportation. The way the partnership works is a daily miracle.” Schneider’s writing revolves around her identity as someone living with disabilities, and she has published four compelling books that explore how her life experiences and her wisdom affects her world. “Both the accommodations necessitated by the disabilities and people’s reactions to me as a disabled elder creates opportunities for fresh stories about life’s frustrations and joys.”

Steve Betchkal

“The outdoors is a wild and dangerous place, populated with shameless, grease-seeking, ring-tailed miscreants. It’s not for the meek or credulous or unsuspecting. Be well advised, my domesticated friends, of the inherent hazards of Nature. Frolic at your own risk.”

Photo description: Steve Betchkal birding

Steve Betchkal, a life-long environmentalist and professional ornithologist, fell in love with animals at an early age: “In fact, my Mom deflected me from a life of crime at age six. I wanted a bird book so badly I tried to shoplift it before she caught me at the register!” Betchkal has travelled the Western Hemisphere and encountered nearly 1100 birds, as well as an extensive list of mammals, dragonflies, butterflies, grasses, wildflowers, and even Wisconsin’s own Tiger Beetles. He believes that “humans are intimately responsible for the significant decline in natural habitats, systems, and species, and that they need to be actively educated that plants and animals add to the quality of our lives.” His award-winning writing, which focuses on the complicated and beautiful natural world, is a delight for all of those fascinated with the environment. “This is at the very root of all my writing: I love life because it’s essential and sacred. Don’t you?”

John Hildebrand

“I’ve been reading up on gophers since their lives remain such a mystery. Like us, they don’t hibernate but put up their own hay in underground storage chambers to last the winter. They live an almost entirely subterranean existence… If they view the surface the way we do the dirt, as a nasty place and potential burial plot, it’s because every predator has gopher on the menu.”

Photo description: John Hildebrand on an icy shoreline.

John Hildebrand is the author of five non-fiction books and a professor at UW-Eau Claire. This March he’ll be sharing a piece from his second book, Mapping the Farm: The Chronicle of a Family. Hildebrand, who is fascinated with “the complexities and unpredictabilities of everyday life”, goes looking for captivating and sensational stories. These stories, which view animals as an essential fabric of the world, incorporate his experiences with meeting with those who have complicated, unique relationships with creatures, including “wildlife biologists, subsistence hunters in Alaskan Native villages, Midwestern farmers… Each has informed (and enlarged) my view of the natural world.”

Bekah Weitz

“My coworker was right that he was beautiful. Pale grey and white feathery hair, big soft feet, eyes such a pale blue they looked cold, like ice. A picture-perfect Husky puppy. But he was also angry. Not just aggressive like other dogs I’d seen. This puppy was backed all the way into the furthest corner of his kennel, eyes darting back and forth at all of us, staring with the most irate resolve I’d ever seen from a dog. He wanted no part of any of this. He was angry.”

Photo description: Bekah Weitz and dog

Bekah Weitz is an animal health inspector and an expert in the complicated relationship that is the human-animal bond. She’s worked in animal shelters with homeless pets, investigated crimes against animals, and now works to keep animal industries healthy and strong. She explains that “my work reinforces that humans simply wouldn’t be who we are without the wild and domesticated animals in our lives supporting us. They have changed and now sustain who we are as a species by providing us with companionship, food, transportation, entertainment, or a combination of those things. Animals and humans are inextricably connected and extraordinarily important to our humanity.” Weitz has encountered a plethora of animals in her work, from house cats to tigers, and is now excited to share her experiences with the beautiful creatures. She’s been around animals since birth, and has “learned to listen to them and hear what they feel deeper than one learns a language. Because my person is so tied to the animals that surround me, I’ve been dedicated to doing my best to serve animals and the people who depend on them. I didn’t choose this work – it was simply the only work I ever could have done.”

Humbird

“My relationship with nature and animals is one of total enchantment and wonder. I wish I was better at slowing down to simply witness the world. When I am able to do so, I feel most complete, and inevitably, I think that’s when the best work comes out, too.”

Humbird is a Minneapolis-based musical artist who explores the relationship between nature, folktales, and longing through experimental folk and environmental Americana. Siri Undlin, the creator and face of Humbird, is inspired by the complexities and intricacies of everyday life and the world around her: “Inspiration can come from anywhere if you’re paying close attention. All of my music starts with a seed of inspiration, then grows from there.” With over 400,000 monthly listeners, Humbird’s music is a refreshing blend of indie-folk and the poetic magic of Midwestern winters. In preparation for this event, Undlin is “excited to see how the collaborative elements of this event resonate between the different performers – it’s always really magical to witness and participate in that.”

The Nunnery

Photo description: The Nunnery, Sarah Elstran, posing.

The Nunnery is a solo act featuring Sarah Elstran, a Minneapolis-based musician who uses the art of the loop pedal to explore a world of peaceful and ambient sound. By layering voices and instrumentals upon themselves, Elstran creates a lush atmosphere inspired by the spaces and stories around her. Listening to The Nunnery is an experience that inspires healing, emotional understanding, and meditative contemplation. Elstran’s most recent album “We are the Stars” focuses on themes of nature and space and embodies the importance of understanding and growth. 

So what are you waiting for? Plant your gardens, fill your feeders, and invite your pets up on the couch. Then join us on March 4 at 6:30pm for a journey into the wild – from the comforts of your home.

Magic, Forests, and Transcribing The Abstract Into The Tangible: An Interview with the Guild's Newest Intern, Charlotte Gutzmer!

Guild friends, we are overjoyed to introduce Charlotte Gutzmer, the CVWG’s new Spring 2021 intern! Charlotte is an English (creative writing) major at UW-Eau Claire and an avid reader and writer. (So clearly she’s in the right place!). We recently sat down with Charlotte to get to know her a bit better, and in particular, to learn more about what inspired her to become a part of the Guild! Read on! And look forward to all sorts of great articles from Charlotte in the coming weeks!

Interviewer: What inspired you to become a part of the CVWG?

Charlotte Gutzmer: In elementary school, I fell in love with words. Reading and writing were a big part of my life growing up, and they still are--in fact, I’m a creative writing major! I think that the way words bring people together is magical in a way. I sought out the Guild because I wanted to be a part of a community of people who love words as much as I do, and I really feel like I’ve found that. I’m really looking forward to creating connections with other writers and to getting to know the writing scene of Chippewa Valley. 

I: What do you like to write?

CG: I consider myself an experimental writer. I like to dabble in all areas of writing, but my absolute favorites are fictional prose and poetry. Writing poetry is really cathartic to me. It’s nice to be able to transcribe abstract thoughts and aesthetics into something more tangible, and it helps me get to know myself more, too. In addition, I love to write short stories. It’s fascinating how you can encapsulate so much emotion and change into a short piece. The limited space of a short story also inspires me; there’s something about the pressure of working in a confined space that makes me explore themes I wouldn’t otherwise.

I: What’s your favorite genre?

“I’m enamored by the idea of magic and how it plays into our everyday lives, so magical realism has a special place in my heart.”

CG: Ooh, this is a tough one. I’m enamored by the idea of magic and how it plays into our everyday lives, so magical realism has a special place in my heart. I love the idea that magic is found in the mundane, not just the fantastical, and that we encounter it constantly. Looking at the world through this lens has really helped me with my own mental health. However, I wouldn’t be able to discuss my favorite genres without mentioning fantasy, science fiction, horror, and psychological thrillers. Exploring what makes us human is at the heart of what I love about literature, and these genres really do a good job of highlighting exactly that while also exploring beautiful, terrifying, and sometimes impossible-to-understand places.

I: What do you love about the Chippewa Valley?

“Forests have always been a place of incredible beauty and peace for me. I often spend hours just hiking through the forest while daydreaming, listening to music, or just appreciating the world around me. ”

CG: I grew up in the Madison area and came to Eau Claire for the first time when I started college. The first thing that drew me here was the landscape, particularly the forests. Forests have always been a place of incredible beauty and peace for me. I often spend hours just hiking through the forest while daydreaming, listening to music, or just appreciating the world around me. The rivers and fauna are amazing, too! After moving to Eau Claire, I knew I’d made the right choice. Not only have I made incredible friends here, but I love the atmosphere of the city, especially downtown Eau Claire. And now I have the incredible opportunity to work closely with other writers! It’s a win-win situation.

I: Finally, what are you most excited for in this internship?
CG: There are lots of occasions that I’m really looking forward to this semester, such as the (soon to be officially announced!) Sound & Stories: All Creatures Great and Small event. We have some really talented writers on the line-up this semester that I can’t wait to meet and speak to! I’m also excited for the opportunity to make connections with the professional world of writing and to grow as a writer myself.

On Authenticity, Freedom in Form, and Imitation Crab: A Conversation with Katie Vagnino

 What is authenticity? In a culture that loves reality shows and movies “based on a true story,” yet puts on a facade for social media and our everyday lives, what’s real? What’s simply an “imitation” of the truth? In her new book Imitation Crab, poet Katie Vagnino explores questions of artificiality versus authenticity while maintaining a playful, humorous tone.

Katie Vagnino is a poet and a former professor at UW-Eau Claire. She is now based in the Twin Cities and working in marketing, yet her passion for teaching, creative writing, and poetry are still very apparent in her life. I had the opportunity to chat with Vagnino over the phone about Imitation Crab, releasing February 5th, 2021, as well as her perspective on the freedom that poetic forms provide, inspiringly weird critters and creatures, and collaborative cover art. Enjoy the interview below, and preorder your copy of Imitation Crab now on Finishing Line Press here!

Elise Eystad: Imitation Crab, what a fun title! I read the title poem on your website, and wondered, what was the inspiration behind titling the book with that poem? Does it hint at a general theme throughout the poems included?

Katie Vagnino: I decided to make that the title because I'm a fan of that poem, but I also think it reflects the themes echoed in the collection; questions of authenticity and how we determine what's real and what’s fake or artificial. Poetry as a genre gets accused of being off-putting or alienating because of some of the artifice that goes into it. Poems sometimes have rhyme or meter and it’s a little less natural than normal speech, right? That can make people suspicious of poetry. That’s kind of a meta-explanation of the title. More to the point, it's a trend that interests me: in our era we seem obsessed with truth and reality—whether we're having conversations about fake news or reality shows—and you see things marketed as being “based on a true story.” As a culture, we’re kind of obsessed with the idea that there’s more value if things are real. And also, just in our everyday lives, I imagine a lot of us are trying to live authentically or according to some sort of truth that is meaningful to us. I think that that’s something that bubbles up in the book: questions about where we may be performing in our lives, like playing different roles depending on where we are and who we are interacting with. Sometimes those roles are prescribed by gender or other things that relate to identity. I also just genuinely thought it would be fun to have a quirky title. There’s a lot of very serious poetry titles out there, and I just wanted something playful and a little bit weird. There's some humor in some of the poems, so I wanted that to be reflected in the title, as well.

EE: What would you say some of the main themes of the book are? Are there consistent things that inspire your poetry?

“Not all of it is necessarily autobiographical, but most of my poems are pretty narrative. I like to tell stories or at least hint at them. ”

KV: Like I said, there are considerations of artificiality versus authenticity. There is also a feminist bent to the poems. I think I’m just drawn more to women's perspectives, women’s stories. Something that I didn't really intentionally do, but that became apparent as I was putting it all together, is that there are also a lot of small creatures and insects [in the book]. I'm not sure what that necessarily means, per say, but it seems to be a trope. For example, I have a sonnet about oysters, and there's some other critters that come up. In terms of imagery, it seems to be something I'm drawn to. There’s a poem called “Small Mammals of Tree Haven” about creatures that are in a diorama that I saw when I was in Rhinelander, WI. It’s all about weasels, voles, and other little weird animals that populate the Northwoods forest.

Obviously, there are also poems about relationships and family. Not all of it is necessarily autobiographical, but most of my poems are pretty narrative. I like to tell stories or at least hint at them. Stylistically, there's definitely a lot of formal pieces. I do tend to write more in verse forms, like sonnets, sestinas, villanelles. There is some free verse in the collection, too, but I’d say one of the hallmarks of my style is narrative formalism.

EE: I was going to ask about some of the poetic techniques and devices that you use. It seems that you like more of the formal side of poetry!

“I feel like it actually can be paradoxically freeing to have some constraints to work with. Free verse can be a little daunting, because you have literally all possibilities open to you...”

KV: Yeah, I feel like it actually can be paradoxically freeing to have some constraints to work with. Free verse can be a little daunting, because you have literally all possibilities open to you. Sometimes by having some rules or guidelines, you wind up making more interesting, unusual, or surprising choices, which can be exciting. If you’re not having to think about rhyme, meter, or a repeating word in a particular place, I find that a little bit paralyzing; it's like too much freedom. I also think the things I might come up with aren’t necessarily as interesting as how my mind works if I'm working within a form.

Sound is also really important to me. My poems don't necessarily have a lot of rhyme, which is what people tend to think of when they're thinking about sound in a poem. But there are a lot of other tools and devices that can make a poem musical. All the same things we think about and talk about with music apply to poetry, in terms of rhythm and pacing. You can use sound to speed up how a reader moves through a poem or slow them down, so modifying sound impacts tempo, if you will. Also, just how the words sound, how they feel in your mouth, how your ear interprets different sounds makes a difference. Long vowel sounds have a very different impact than a lot of short plosives syllables, right? There's a reason that expletives have hard consonants: it gives them more impact. So, basically I believe the words, the music, and the sound of the poem should tell the story of the poem, ideally. Whatever the poem is about should in some way be reinforced or expressed in the music of it.

EE: Yeah, definitely! I like that a lot. So, this is your first published collection of poetry. Can you walk me through the process of getting to this point?

KV: A chunk of the poems came from my MFA thesis. As part of getting my MFA in Creative Writing, my final project was a book-length project. This book is not that project, but some of the poems started there; I'd say a lot of them started there, though they changed. I continued to edit them, rearrange them, and whatnot. And I continued to write, because it's been almost a decade since I finished that degree. When I came out of school, I felt like I didn't really have a book of poems yet. I felt like I had a start, and then just in the last few years, I started thinking about trying to put together a manuscript, which involved looking at everything I had. A traditional full-length collection is anywhere from 48 to 100 or pages, so I had to decide what I wanted in, what I didn't want to include, and how I wanted to organize the poems, which was which was difficult, because it's not like a novel where there’s a story that is told in some sort of order. It was hard for me to wrap my mind around how it would make sense to cohesively group the poems, so I got some input from other folks. I shared some poems with them and got some ideas around how to think about arranging them.

About two years ago is when I started sending out the manuscript. I started entering it into contests. There are a number of first book contests, or contests for people who haven't yet published a book of poetry. I felt like that was a good way to get my foot in the door. I also just entered contests that were open to anyone. Also, some small presses have open reading periods, where you're allowed to send them your work. That’s the way a lot of poetry books come into the world. It’s a little different than fiction, for example. Poets don't usually work through agents. It’s more direct; you send your stuff and either have to win a contest or be memorable out of a pile of submissions during an open reading period. So, I got a lot of rejections, obviously, and a few promising ones, where they didn't accept the manuscript but said it came close or that they thought it had potential. I was a finalist a few times in different contests, and then this past May, I got notified that Finishing Line Press was interested in publishing it.

EE: Local artist Jen Schultz created your cover art. Were there any specifications that you had or an image in your head for it? Or did she just create something and give it to you?

KV: It was definitely a collaborative process. I found Jen through Volume One and saw some of her work on her Instagram. I liked her collage style; I thought it had a fun, surreal, playful energy to it. We met up in June, in Eau Claire (socially distanced, of course), and I shared some poems with her. We talked a little bit about what kind of aesthetic I was looking for, but I didn't give her real prescriptive guidelines. I thought I wanted some sort of crab representation on the cover, whether that was going to be a literal crab or crab claws. I was curious to see what she would come up with.

After we met initially, she mocked up a few design ideas with some images that she had found. The first image she sent me had those women with the crab accessories, and I immediately responded to that. It’s funny because she sent me maybe eight or ten images that involved crabs, and that just happened to be the first one in the group, and then that one just kept coming back as a favorite. From there, she laid out a few different covers, and then there was some back and forth about fonts and the color palette. So, it was very collaborative; I wasn't doing the work of making the changes, but there was back and forth until we landed on something we both really liked.

EE: Lastly, anything you’d like to share about yourself? What do you do when you’re not writing a poetry book?

“I joke sometimes that I feel like marketing and poetry are diametrically opposed. Like, you can’t get more opposite. Poetry is interested in truth, and marketing is interested in selling and promoting, creating the appearance of value. There’s that real vs. fake dichotomy again!”

KV: I still really love teaching; that's what brought me to Eau Claire in the first place. I still feel connected to friends there and the University, and I'm still doing some teaching. I teach my own monthly workshop, currently on Zoom. Otherwise, my day job is marketing for a digital health company. I joke sometimes that I feel like marketing and poetry are diametrically opposed. Like, you can’t get more opposite. Poetry is interested in truth, and marketing is interested in selling and promoting, creating the appearance of value. There’s that real vs. fake dichotomy again! Also, I’m still in a band that's based in Eau Claire: The Flaming Doublewides, so I sing in my band when there's not a pandemic happening! 

EE: What’s the release date and where can people get a copy of Imitation Crab?

KV: It releases Febuary 5th. You can preorder it now through the Finishing Line Press website. Once it comes out, it will be available on Amazon and the publisher’s website, and hopefully in some local bookstores! I live in the Twin Cities, but I’m hoping to get it to some Eau Claire bookstores, as well.

"To me, the truth is whatever scares you into silence": An Interview with David Shih

James Baldwin said that the “hardest” and “most fearful” thing in the world for the writer is simplicity. This is especially the case for writers who write about race. On January 17, award-winning UWEC English professor David Shih will share how he came to understand that his worst, most convoluted writing about race revealed a fear of telling the truth. Join us for a conversation on how this realization guided his approach to completing his current nonfiction book project—coming your way soon! We recently caught up with David and learned more about his upcoming event, his forthcoming book, and the impact of teaching on writing. Scroll on for the complete interview!

B.J. Hollars: Tell us a bit about your craft talk.  What inspired this topic, and what are you most excited to share?

David Shih: It was inspired by the book I am writing now, a memoir/cultural criticism hybrid. I find that some of the most tortured language today comes from the decision to write about race and racism. I include my own writing in this lot, of course, which is always going to be a work in progress as long as I am one myself. The challenge may come from imagining multiple audiences while we write—always tricky—but also from imagining ourselves being someone we’re not. I plan to share my experiences about writing about white people, which began as the most natural thing in the world to me when I was an assimilated teenager. What was exciting for me to learn was how quickly your story or essay about race and racism falls into place as soon as you’re willing to write about what scares you the most.

BH: How has teaching about race impacted your creative work?

“My job as a professor and as a writer is basically the same, which is to get someone else to see something that they might otherwise miss, but the way you go about that work is and should be different.”

DS: It has mattered a lot. I don’t think I could have written this book even ten years ago—at least not very well—because I was still learning how to bring that knowledge from the class onto the page in a way that wasn’t just a dressed-up transcript. I absolutely don’t want my creative work to be an extension of my pedagogy, although I expect that it might be received that way by some. My job as a professor and as a writer is basically the same, which is to get someone else to see something that they might otherwise miss, but the way you go about that work is and should be different. And then when undertaking both endeavors, teaching and writing, you have to leave something for the other party to do that you, as the “authority,” should not know yourself.

BH: Can you share a bit about your latest book project?

DS: As I mentioned above, it is a memoir/cultural criticism hybrid. It covers social issues that are important to Asian Americans today by focusing on my own experiences as a Chinese American belonging to a generation that saw some of the greatest shifts in meaning for Asian identity in this country—Gen X. I expect that readers will learn more about the history and dynamics of anti-Asian racism in this respect, but the book’s narrative is not ultimately instrumental in the way that we see in Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist or DiAngelo’s White Fragility. It is not a “how to” book. For that to be the case, I would have to have the answers already, and I wanted to write the book because I didn’t have them. All that said, the closest comp in purpose and approach, if not in style or content, might be Cathy Park Hong’s excellent book Minor Feelings (2020).

BH: In your craft talk description you mentioned a "fear of telling the truth."  Can you tell us more about that fear, and that truth?

“To me, the truth is whatever scares you into silence”

DS: To me, the truth is whatever scares you into silence. People do tend to know what it is but may not have to confront it because they have options—money, position, a generous partner, whatever. These options allow you to maintain the status quo in your own life, which, if you’re in this place, is probably comfortable enough in superficial ways. Baldwin knew that a hypocritical society was the outcome of hypocritical individuals whose private lives were inconsonant with those they showed to the public. So if there were ever going to be any reduction in harm socially, it had to begin at the personal level, and the reason is that you cannot hide the truth from everyone. Someone else knows that you’re lying. Maybe a lot of people. This is what Baldwin meant when he said that black people can never be strangers to white Americans—only witnesses—no matter how much the latter long for that innocence. It is the same innocence that he saw them maintaining in their stories.

BH: Who are some writers who have impacted your understanding of writing on the subject of race?

DS: Well, as for so many others, James Baldwin is probably at the top of the list, which is why the talk centers on his idea of the fear of telling the truth. I didn’t read him until I was a doctoral student. Better late than never. And even then I didn’t quite understand him in the way that I thought I understood Richard Wright or Ralph Ellison. I think we naturally expect writers like them to be writing about black people. And they are, except my mistake was thinking that they could do so independently of white people. Baldwin disabused me of that fallacy right away. In his essays, he wrote not so much about black people but about white people and in a way that took others decades to catch up with, if they ever did. I would not be writing my book if not for Maxine Hong Kingston. I tend to return to The Woman Warrior whenever I feel stuck and prosaic. It taught me how to count syllables in my sentences and how one too many or too few could wreck everything. It’s probably why I write so slowly. But it also taught me how to be an American and honor my parents at the same time. There was nothing that seemed off-limits in that book, no fear at all, which was such a valuable lesson. It is a wonder.

Tune into to David’s craft talk on January 19 at 7PM. Thanks to our co-sponsor, L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library!

Things That Go Bump When You Film: An Interview with Eau Claire Filmmaker Steve Dayton on the Release of His New Film, "gIVE"

Kensie Kiesow

Halloween may be in the rearview, but there’s still plenty of time to beat the dust from your sweaters, heat up a mug of cider, and huddle in front of the TV for an evening of frights and fun! This December, the Guild is thrilled to spotlight another inspired creative from Eau Claire: Steve Dayton. Dayton is a local film producer, writer, and director whose art warns what happens when you go poking about in the shadows of your psyche, where your worst fears come out to play. Despite his busy schedule and early calls to the set, Dayton was kind enough to tell me more about his upcoming movie “gIVE” recently filmed right here in the gorgeous forests of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Kensie Kiesow: Have you made other movies, horror or otherwise, before gIVE? Where could someone find them? 

Steve Dayton: My first feature that I directed is titled Pop Punk Zombies, and it’s about two friends going to the opening night concert for the first ever zombie punk band. As you can imagine, it doesn't go well. But, as of 2020 we ended our deal with Brain Damage Films, and we’re looking to get it on new platforms in 2021.

KK: Are you producing this movie as well as writing and directing it?

SD: Yes, this is a low budget endeavor that came out of my need to create another feature.  I wanted to do something a little different where, instead of having a locked down script, we had a treatment and worked through the scenes as we shot them.

KK: Why did you choose a Wisconsin forest for the setting?

“Low budget movie making is all about using what you have. I had a house, an amazing family and wife, great friends, and a Wisconsin forest, so that’s what I used to make this movie. Plus, I also had five mannequin heads.”

SD: Low budget movie making is all about using what you have. I had a house, an amazing family and wife, great friends, and a Wisconsin forest, so that's what I used to make this movie. Plus, I also had five mannequin heads.

KK: What about the horror genre interests you? 

SD: I like the suspense of it all.  I love Hitchcock movies and really terrible b- horror films and everything in-between.

KK: What was your first introduction to horror?

SD: I remember watching JAWS at a really young age and loving it.  I specifically remember being drawn to the scene where the little boy gets eaten mid-day at the packed beach.  The mom running around in the ocean screaming for her son. It's the emotion of that, that I am drawn to.  It's funny that you asked that because gIVE has a lot of that type of drama!

KK: Horror movies are often a reflection of what scares us, like communists during the 60’s or diseases now. Does this movie mirror your own fears?

SD: gIVE is a combination of my two greatest fears.  As a kid I was afraid that I would be taken away from my parents or they would be taken away from me.  I would lay in bed as a kid and think that aliens were going to take me.  As an adult, or at least someone who pretends to be an adult, my greatest fear would be to lose a child.  My life is my kids, and imagining something happening to them is something I don't even want to think about.

KK: What can you tell me about your movie without giving anything away?

SD: gIVE is about a couple whose daughter goes missing in a mysterious way.  After his wife becomes unresponsive to life, Jay, the main character, is left to enter the forest where his daughter was last seen to see if he can put together the pieces to a life that is fractured. giVE explores how humans cope with extreme loss and how to move on when you feel like you are not ready to.

gIVE is currently available for streaming on Amazon. Click here.

For more information about the movie gIVE, visit moviegive.com.

Follow Steve on Facebook and Instagram @give.movie