{"id":20058,"date":"2016-06-01T10:25:55","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T14:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?p=20058"},"modified":"2024-08-09T07:42:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T11:42:21","slug":"student-storytellers-creative-writing-english-department-carleton-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/2016\/student-storytellers-creative-writing-english-department-carleton-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Storytellers: Creative Writing and the English Department at Carleton University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Student Storytellers: Creative Writing and the English Department at Carleton University\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Despite the fact that the English Department\u2019s Creative Writing Concentration<\/a> was only formally established in 2011, the English Department at Carleton<\/a> has a longstanding tradition of encouraging students in their creative-writing efforts. For many years, Carleton\u2019s English Department has offered creative-writing workshops in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and stage-and-screen writing. Additionally, students have benefited from encounters with faculty members who went out of their way to mentor students and to provide them with unique opportunities for exposing their work within Ottawa\u2019s vibrant literary scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the richness of the creative-writing curriculum, the numerous opportunities to form networks with fellow writers and literature enthusiasts, and the mentorship provided by a warm and engaged faculty, Carleton\u2019s English Department is the perfect environment for aspiring writers to flourish. The following publications by current students and alumni serve as a testament to Carleton\u2019s creative-writing accomplishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin T. Johns<\/a>, for example, completed a Combined Honours degree in English and Film Studies<\/a>; he followed up this undergraduate degree with a Master\u2019s in English Literature<\/a> at Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kevin
Kevin T. Johns<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Today he is an author, ghostwriter, and writing coach; as he put it, writing is his life on three different fronts. The works under his own name include the YA fiction trilogy The Page Turners<\/em><\/a>, instructional writing manuals such as The Novel Writer\u2019s Blueprint<\/em><\/a>, and children\u2019s picture books such as Rocket Princess vs. Snaggletooth the Dragon<\/a>. <\/em>Johns has also co-authored many additional works in his role as ghostwriter for various clients who, he explains, \u201chave ideas to share with the world but who don\u2019t necessarily have the skillset to get them written.\u201d For those people who want to see their ideas bear fruit in their own words but need assistance in completing their writing projects, Johns offers his services as a writing coach. As he explains, \u201cI work one-on-one with writers to help them identify their goals, develop plans for achieving those objectives, and then provide support and accountability as they work towards them. Writing a novel is a long, lonely process and having a coach in your corner to cheer you on, providing tips on the craft of writing, and monitoring progress can be enormously valuable. I find it endlessly rewarding to work with aspiring authors and help them improve their writing, reach their goals, and achieve the success they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rocket
Rocket Princess vs. Snaggletooth the Dragon: Kevin T. Johns, Rich Lauzon<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Johns developed the skills that he parlayed into a career during his studies at Carleton. He still recalls with appreciation the breadth of the literature courses he took as an undergraduate at Carleton. Indeed, Johns was so pleased with his undergraduate experience in the English program that he ignored the common wisdom that one ought to earn one\u2019s degrees at different institutions and decided to remain at Carleton for his MA degree. Johns also speaks highly of the faculty members he encountered during his time at Carleton: \u201cInstructors such as Professors Jodie Medd, Arnd Bohm, and Brian Johnson were all fantastic teachers and mentors throughout my academic career.\u201d One of the most important beliefs that Johns says he took away from his studies at Carleton is that literature matters. \u201cArt isn\u2019t just a part of culture,\u201d he elaborates, \u201cbut rather the very substance from which culture is formed. Literary scholars take their work very seriously, and that is as it should be. The respect and rigour with which art is studied in the English program at Carleton inspired me to follow my own artist pursuits and gave me confidence that a writing career is a worthy one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Johns, Ben Ladouceur <\/a>completed both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Carleton. The former, completed between 2005 and 2009, was in English Literature; the latter, completed between 2010 and 2012, was in Canadian Studies<\/a>. Ladouceur has published a series of poetry chapbooks and a critically acclaimed poetry collection titled Otter<\/a>. <\/em>Published by the Toronto publishing firm Coach House Books, the collection was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Ladouceur traces his decision to become a poet to his experience at Carleton. Recalling \u201cThe Poetry of Witness\u201d course taught by Professor Brenda Vellino and \u201cThe Montreal Modernists\u201d seminar taught by Professor Collett Tracey, he notes that \u201cthose classes seemed like the only places in the world where I could find human beings who had substantial respect for poetry as a medium.\u201d Ladouceur notes further that Professor Tracey has had a meaningful impact on his life as a writer: \u201cShe taught me (and so many others) not to study literature from a distance, but to consider myself an aspiring member of the Canadian literary continuum. I learned from her that a poem might be best responded to not with an essay but with another poem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ben
Ben Ladouceur\/Otter<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

During his time at Carleton, Ladouceur served as an editor of In\/Words<\/em><\/a> magazine and participated regularly in the English Literary Society\u2019s Monday night writers\u2019 circles. When the Monday night group grew too crowded, he personally hosted a second writers\u2019 circle on Wednesday evenings. \u201cI enjoyed all of it,\u201d he recalls, \u201cand many of my dearest friends come from that world.\u201d The poetry he produced during this time was shortlisted twice for the English Department\u2019s George Johnston Prize. But the most important lesson Ladouceur claims to have learned during his time at Carleton is the notion that writers are simply people who write. As he explains, \u201cThere’s no specific appearance or personality or temperament that writers have in common. The only thing they all do is write<\/em>. So if you want to be one, you have to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Carleton graduate who is passionate about poetry is Laura Clarke<\/a>. Clarke completed her Bachelor of Humanities<\/a> with a Major in English between 2004 and 2008, and like Ladouceur, she considers Professor Brenda Vellino\u2019s poetry courses as having played a key role in her development as a writer. As Clarke recalls, \u201cI was taking a Bachelor of Humanities concurrently, and though I loved learning about Aristotle, Heidegger, and the Bhagavad Gita, I felt an electric pull towards the poetry taught in Professor Vellino\u2019s poetry course. This poetry was modern, diverse and closely engaged with current social and political issues. Professor Vellino not only exposed me to new ideas, but also encouraged me to pursue my own particular interests within the scope of the class.\u201d She felt similarly about Professor Dana Dragunoiu\u2019s fourth-year seminar on Nabokov; she likes to joke that \u201cHer inspiring teaching and breadth of knowledge actually fooled me into thinking for a while that I might also want to be an academic!\u201d About her general experience as an English student at Carleton, Clarke commented, \u201cI was already in love with reading, writing and poetry in particular well before I went to Carleton, but my time there solidified and reshaped that love. I was introduced to so many texts that still resonate with me today and shape the subject matter of my poetry.\u201d Since graduating from Carleton, Clarke has earned a Master\u2019s in English and Creative Writing from the University of Toronto and has made her publishing debut with a collection of poems titled Decline of the Animal Kingdom<\/a>. <\/em>Published by ECW Press, the collection provides (to quote a review from The National Post<\/em>) \u201cnuanced examinations of the relationships between people and animals, domesticity and the wild.\u201d More recently, Clarke has spent time in Texas and Alabama doing research and finding inspiration for her second collection of poems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Decline
Decline of the Animal Kingdom by Laura Clarke<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Another alumnus of Carleton\u2019s English Department who has done a significant amount of travel for his creative-writing projects is Jesse Thom<\/a>. After graduating from Carleton in 2006, Thom attended a clown school in Vancouver. His education in a wide range of creative media\u2014literature, music, and the performing arts\u2014provided him with a unique skillset that he has placed into the service of a career as a performance artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Some
Some Bunny Loves You by Jesse Thom<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When studying English Literature at Carleton, Thom enjoyed especially reading and learning about Victorian authors who also specialized in children\u2019s writing, such as Oscar Wilde and Lewis Carroll, and more recent children\u2019s writers such as Shel Silverstein. The whimsical nature of these writers\u2019 works appealed to Thom and served as inspiration for the characters at the heart of Thom\u2019s work as musician, storyteller and puppeteer. In addition to being the founder of Beat Creatures (furry drums for kids), Thom writes children\u2019s books that are at once light-hearted and educational. His most recent endeavours include the heartwarming children\u2019s book Some Bunny Loves You <\/em><\/a>and a debut seven-song album titled Snowdragons<\/em>. Thom speaks fondly of his time at Carleton; he recalls with affection the warmth and encouragement of faculty and peers he met not only in his courses, but also in poetry clubs and late-night music sessions hosted by Carleton\u2019s Music Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Thom, Jeremy Hanson-Finger<\/a> is no stranger to branching out creatively. Hanson-Finger completed his BA with a Combined Honours in English and Communications in 2009 and an MA in English a year later. One of his favourite aspects of his English degree is the wide range of critical and theoretical approaches he encountered in his courses. At the time, he admits, he was under the impression that most programs offered such a breadth of perspectives, but after speaking with students at other universities he discovered otherwise. He recalls being intellectually invigorated by the theory courses he took with Professors Brian Johnson and Rob Holton as well as the creative-writing workshops he took with Professor Armand Ruffo and Carleton\u2019s 2007 Writer-in-Residence Ivan Coyote. He remembers with special vividness an insight shared with the class by Coyote: paraphrasing an unknown author, Coyote told the class that \u201cin the same manner as leaving your tap running to flush out rusty water, you should write until it runs clear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jeremy
Jeremy Hanson-Finger (Stephanie Coffey Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

During his time at Carleton, Hanson-Finger won the George Johnston Prize in 2009. This led to the inclusion of his prize-winning poem in Susan McMaster\u2019s anthology Pith & Wry: Canadian Poetry<\/em>, a collection of poetry that also featured the work of Margaret Atwood. Since completing his studies, Hanson-Finger has written two long essays for the online journal Puritan<\/em> and a short story titled \u201cMicrocosm\u201d for the online magazine Joyland. <\/em>He also served as co-editor of the online literary magazine Dragnet<\/em>. As a technical writer at Shopify, he considers the writing and editing skills he acquired at Carleton as key assets. He is also in the process of putting the final touches on a novel provisionally titled Death and the Intern<\/em>. Scheduled to be released by Invisible Press in the spring of 2017, the novel takes place in Ottawa and is in equal parts hospital drama and hardboiled fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though only in her fourth year of study as an English major at Carleton, Sanita Fejzi\u0107<\/a> is already an accomplished writer. Her novella Psychomachia <\/em>has been shortlisted for the 2015 Ken Klonsky novella prize and is under contract with Quattro Books. Additionally, she has a short story forthcoming in The Antigonish Review<\/em> and has published a poem in The Steel Chisel. <\/em>Fejzi\u0107 describes her time at Carleton enthusiastically: \u201cI have grown, I have blossomed and I can smell the perfume of literary success,\u201d she observes optimistically. A member of the newly established Creative Writing Concentration, Fejzi\u0107 has taken all of the creative writing workshops offered by the English department and found them to be very instructive: \u201cThe workshops were a place for exploration, experimentation and personal development.\u201d She has high praise for the workshops led by writers Nadia Bozak, Mark Frutkin and Rick Taylor especially, noting that each of these instructors created a unique classroom atmosphere and rich learning trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Ladouceur before her, Fejzi\u0107 serves as co-editor of In\/Words <\/em>magazine, where she says she has learned a lot about publishing. Together with her co-editors Jenny Greenberg, Geoff Bates, and Drew Douglas, Fejzi\u0107 has launched a number of chapbooks and will also be launching In\/Words<\/em>\u2019 first-ever themed edition in collaboration with Lisa Rochefort, editor of Arc Poetry<\/em> magazine. Fejzi\u0107 takes a very practical approach to writing, explaining that for her writing has to be worked at on a daily basis and is not a process to be romanticized to the point of allowing for writer\u2019s block to slow down one\u2019s productivity. \u201cFinding the right words is supposed to be a struggle, but this can be experienced in a positive light,\u201d she explains, \u201cI suppose that what I\u2019m trying to say is that writing must become a habit before it can become art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Despite the fact that the English Department\u2019s Creative Writing Concentration was only formally established in 2011, the English Department at Carleton has a longstanding tradition of encouraging students in their creative-writing efforts. For many years, Carleton\u2019s English Department has offered creative-writing workshops in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and stage-and-screen writing. Additionally, students have benefited from encounters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[53,206,26,90,44,41,180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-of-the-humanities","category-current-students","category-english","category-fass-news","category-for-students","category-canadian-studies","category-prospective-students"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20058"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34157,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20058\/revisions\/34157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}