Grant helps San Marcos students to develop into confident writers

Students reading the Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center

October 2007—A group of Texas high school students has developed into a confident community of poets and fiction writers, under the guidance of Texas State Master of Fine Arts students in Creative Writing.

The high school students, from San Marcos, San Antonio, and Dallas schools, participated in the recent Summer Creative Writing Camp at Texas State and gave their first public readings at the Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center.

“They were excited to be reading where visiting writers such as Annie Proulx and Tim O’Brien have read from their works,” said Billie Bernard, a poet in the Texas State MFA program and a camp counselor.

“After the camp was over in June, the students continued throughout the summer to write and read publicly from their works,” Bernard continued. “Some of them came every week to read during open-mic night at Tantra Coffeehouse (in San Marcos). They got compliments from the audience. It was very brave of them and thrilling to see them grow into a community of writers.” Bernard says she expects some of the students to continue their public readings this fall.

Wednesday by Emily Clark Who is the girl Alone and distracted by the window she sits by Her right hand scribbling frantically the words That her left strums out on the table She thinks she speaks English Though she wants the world to watch her For the rest of her life she would like to sit Up here on the sixth floor Where she is taller than the steeples And the other insignificants Where the thoughts in her head can mingle With the metallic skies And the quiet is a song in itself The world owes her something She's just going to say The world owes her something

The students also published a journal of their work, titled dot dot dot (see poems on this page by camp participant Emily Clark).

The summer writing camp was part of a series of initiatives funded by a $10,000 G-Force Grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, aimed at increasing student enrollment in college. The camp gave some of the students their first introduction to a college campus.

“One of the things the G-Force Grant is supposed to do is reach the underserved,” said Nancy Wilson, Texas State Writing Center Director, who obtained the G-Force grant. “A lot of students think they can’t attend college because they don’t do well on standardized tests. Creative writing allows them to exercise their creativity and to realize that they can excel.

“The students enjoyed learning their way around campus and, at the end of the camp, many of them said they want to attend college at Texas State,” Wilson said.

In addition to the camp, the G-Force grant has funded a Writing Center and a Creative Writing Club at San Marcos High School, and a parent workshop to assist the parents of college-bound students in navigating the university system. Because of the programs’ success, the grant has been doubled to $20,000 to enlarge the programs in 2007-2008, Wilson said.

Garden Village by Emily Clark After all my sunrises I have never seen him so reluctant to illuminate The day The shadows that flit to the bottom of my feet Smirk at the yellow-topped weeds growing out of The extra cement Laughing at the extra years Wasted like the Waves in the bay That speak Volumes Repeating the same chant Back and forth Back and forth Change is here Change is here But there is no change. The paint never peels. The cringing leaves never fall My footsteps are the only disturbance in this familiar place.

This fall, for example, the grant will fund the continuation of the Creative Writing Club at San Marcos High School, open to any student who is interested in creative writing.

“We give the students a safe environment in which their ideas are validated,” said Ben Engel, an MFA student in the Texas State Creative Writing Program who, with Ms. Bernard, coaches the club members in writing.

Engel said the club members receive instruction in a variety of writing genres, and in such things as structure and style in poetry and fiction, creating tension in a piece of writing, and overcoming writers’ block. The students often collaborate on their work and they develop the habit of reading it to each other.

“The exercises give the students a means for seeing their own thoughts on the page and a way of interpreting them. Writing down their ideas gives them something to hold onto at a vulnerable time in their lives,” Engel said.

“They develop skills and creative abilities that they can apply to any of their future pursuits,” he continued. “Because creative writing isn’t offered in the high school curriculum, it has been an eye-opening experience for the students to realize that creative writing isn’t something that has to be reserved for rainy days; it’s a conversation that can take place on any subject at any time. Poetry and fiction can change the way we view society and the world around us. It has empowered them to realize that writing can benefit other people.”

More information about the Creative Writing Club and the G-Force Grant is available by contacting Nancy Wilson at (512) 245-7660 or nancywilson@txstate.edu.