Ingrid Rojas Contreras on Not Writing for White People

March 21, 2016

This is the third in a series of guest posts on teaching creative writing. Ingrid Rojas Contreras emailed me in response to the "'Pure Craft' Is a Lie" series, and I asked if she would contribute a guest post. Here she writes about a difficulty I find myself always in the midst of--how to avoid writing for a white audience. This week at a reading, someone asked in the Q&A if I felt the pressure to represent "people who ...

Pleiades Interview Series: Mihaela Moscaliuc

March 07, 2016

Mihaela Moscaliuc lived in Romania long enough to see the toppling of the Ceausescu dictatorship. After moving to the states for graduate work, she began writing about her experiences under Communist oppression,as well as the culture that existed behind the wall of news stories and international image. Moscaliuc has authored the poetry collections Father Dirt (2010) and Immigrant Model (2015). She has translated Carmelia ...

Pure Craft Is a Lie (Part 4)

March 04, 2016

This is the final post in this series, continuing on the Part 1 post, Part 2 post, and Part 3 post of “‘Pure Craft’ Is a Lie.” * * * So the time has come to try to put forth some ways to approach these deficits in the workshop. I have a few ideas, but I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface, and maybe not scratching hard enough. I'd love to hear comments from people who talk about the cultural values in ...

“Pure Craft” Is a Lie (Part 3)

February 25, 2016

This is a continuation of the Part 1 post and Part 2 post of “‘Pure Craft’ Is a Lie." The series continues in Part 4. * * * The writers of color in this workshop where the craft values are white, or the LGBT writers in a workshop where craft values are straight and cis, or women writers in a workshop where the craft values are male, end up in the position then where they are told that they need to “know the ...