Writers Institute Ribbon Cutting

Susquehanna’s creative writing department has officially moved from the lower level of Hassinger Hall into a building of their own, and I got to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony.

What was once the parish attached to the St. Pius X Catholic church (the congregation has since moved to a larger facility about a block away) is now the new writers house. Completely renovated, the house is now filled with dark wood floors, faculty offices, a conference room, a classroom, and shelves and shelves of books, books written and signed by visiting writers and our own professors as well as plenty of copies of SU's student-run literary magazines and a whole host of chapbooks featuring the work of past SU writing majors.

Before the cutting of the ribbon, Dr. Fincke, our department head, gave a brief speech tracing the history of SU’s writing program, from when it started with three minors in 1992 up through to today—the program is now thriving with 152 majors and 20 minors.  A friend of mine caught the whole speech on tape:

Then, after the speech, the writing faculty armed themselves with scissors and officially opened the new building:

• For more information on SU's writing program, as well as pictures, video, faculty bios, and excerpts of writing from Susquehanna students past and present, visit The Writers Institute website.

• For a more on Susquehanna's writing program, read some of my other Campus Life posts about the Writers Institute, or visit my other blog, Workshop, and follow me through my freshman Intro to Fiction workshop class.

Meeting Steve Yarbrough

When I read Steve Yarbrough, I’m reminded that stories matter. In deep weird ways, stories are a part of who we are.

Like in the title story from his collection Veneer. The narrator sits in a restaurant with an old friend, and he tells her about his worst Fourth of July ever: the summer before his family lost their farm, when they splurged on a grill and some steaks and pretended it was the best meal they’d ever had even though they’d accidentally burnt the meat to a crisp.

The way I tell it, it’s just an anecdote, but in Steve Yarbrough’s hands, this story tells us everything we need to know about the affair the narrator’s about to have.

What I love about Yarbrough’s stories is the way he layers them, stories within stories, the past on top of the present. When you finish his stories, you never quite arrive where you thought you would, but you know you’re in the right place.

He knows how to tell stories. He’s published five novels and three short story collections. His work has appeared in the Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. He’s the winner of the California Book Award, the Mississippi Authors Award, and the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction. His novel Prisoners of War was a finalist for the 2005 PEN/Faulkner Award. He’s also chair of the writing department at Emerson College in Boston.

So it goes without saying I was a little nervous about meeting Steve Yarbrough in person to hear what he thought of my own writing.

Every year Susquehanna’s Writers Institute brings about six acclaimed authors to campus through its Visiting Writers Series. Not only do these writers give Q&As and readings here on campus, often they will also guest-teach classes, have lunch with students, and meet one-on-one with upperclassman writing majors to discuss each student’s work.

That was me, the upperclassman writing major, popping another breath mint as I headed down the sidewalk to the Writers House for my conference with Steve Yarbrough. But it turned out I was nervous in vain—not only is Steve Yarbrough a great writer, he’s also a really nice guy.

He told me he enjoyed my stories and asked me about my background, we ended up talking about our families and books we’ve enjoyed (he recommended about a dozen and I wrote them all down in the margins of one of my manuscripts) and we talked about the grad programs I’m applying to. Our thirty-minute meeting spilled over well into four o’clock, and he ended up shaking my hand three times before I left the building.

  

More books by Visiting Writers

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• Check out all of Susquehanna’s past and current Visiting Writers by clicking here.
• For a more in-depth look at Susquehanna's writing program, visit my other blog, Workshop, and follow me through my freshman year.
• For more information on SU's writing program, as well as pictures, video, faculty bios, and excerpts of writing from Susquehanna students past and present, visit The Writers Institute website.