{"id":880,"date":"2015-11-10T16:23:58","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T16:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/?p=880"},"modified":"2018-02-08T13:34:50","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T13:34:50","slug":"the-creative-niche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/the-creative-niche\/","title":{"rendered":"The Creative Niche"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In March, four Tech alumni returned to a classroom in\u00a0Henderson Hall for a lesson in creative writing. This time,\u00a0the former students \u2013 now published writers \u2013 weren\u2019t\u00a0after a grade.<\/p>\n

They were there to help aspiring writers find their\u00a0voices.<\/p>\n

English graduates Anna Gilbert, \u201995, \u201911 M.A; Kelly\u00a0Hanwright, \u201914; Alvin Knox, \u201996; and Jeff Baker, \u201995,\u00a0answered questions about writing and their careers from\u00a0students and faculty.<\/p>\n

As the discussion flowed back and forth, a student\u2019s\u00a0question nudged the elephant in the room: how can one\u00a0make a career out of creative writing?<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the trick of publishing is finding a niche,\u00a0finding those who are interested in your work,\u201d said Knox.\u00a0\u201cThere are more poetry publications right now than there\u00a0have ever been, but there are more people submitting to\u00a0them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knox, of Baxter, worked his way from writing haikus\u00a0in fourth grade to reading beat poets in high school. He\u00a0serves as poetry editor for 2nd & Church, a Nashville\u00a0literary magazine, and teaches English at Middle\u00a0Tennessee State University.<\/p>\n

Hanwright said she remembered traveling as a child to\u00a0the Houston library with a box to borrow 25 to 50 books\u00a0at a time and reading poetry at open mic nights when she\u00a0grew older. She is a substitute teacher for Warren County\u00a0schools.<\/p>\n

Gilbert, of Cookeville, wrote scraps of young adult\u00a0literature as a girl. She served as creative director and\u00a0editor for Home & Hill, a print magazine that shared\u00a0stories, photographs and recipes from Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Baker attended the Iowa Writers\u2019 Workshop after Tech\u00a0and published his first collection of poetry, Whoop and\u00a0Shush, in May. He provides IT and program support for\u00a0the University of Virginia.<\/p>\n

Though they came from different backgrounds and\u00a0pursued divergent careers, they found a common home\u00a0at Tech among a community of student writers and\u00a0professors who supported them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best criticism you can get is the criticism\u00a0that feels the harshest,\u201d said Hanwright. \u201cThe most\u00a0unrelenting and harsh critic I ever met was Dr.\u00a0Christianson. He\u2019s also the person I learned the most\u00a0from.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he tells you what\u2019s wrong with the work, that\u2019s\u00a0the best gift he can give you.\u201d<\/p>\n

English professor Kevin Christianson mentored\u00a0Baker during his formative creative writing years at Tech.\u00a0They workshopped poems and discussed techniques to\u00a0improve the young writer\u2019s craft. Christianson retired this\u00a0summer, but he was on hand to see Baker read his work at\u00a0the Backdoor Playhouse after the panel.<\/p>\n

Knox said his Tech professors made a difference in\u00a0how he thought about writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy composition teachers \u2013 Mary Padgett, Linda Null\u00a0and Steve Steadman \u2013 taught me to control my prose.\u00a0My literature teachers \u2013 Kelly Hood, Shirley Laird and\u00a0Kurt Eisen \u2013 exposed me to a variety of texts and authors.\u00a0All my professors contributed to a level of thinking that I\u00a0hadn\u2019t previously experienced.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was during those years that I truly began to develop\u00a0as a writer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n

Knox and the other alumni had an outlet to display\u00a0their work. Homespun, Tech\u2019s student literary magazine,\u00a0has a history of ups and downs. It has gone out of print,\u00a0been revived and found a home online. All four alumni\u00a0were first published in Homespun.<\/p>\n

When Gilbert and Hanwright attended Tech, work on\u00a0Homespun had ceased. They worked with a team of other\u00a0students and Christianson to bring it back to life. Through\u00a0fliers and word of mouth, they gathered submissions and\u00a0created an online collection.<\/p>\n

The most recent copy of Homespun is a 66-page\u00a0digital document of Tech student poetry and short\u00a0stories. Many of the pieces have won Tech writing awards.\u00a0Despite the state Hanwright found Homespun in, she\u00a0believes the collection\u2019s legacy is long-lasting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a Tech student, it seemed like readership\u00a0was steadily growing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a quality publication\u00a0that means a great deal to the students who get a chance\u00a0to work on it. It\u2019s ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of Homespun\u2019s submissions came from English\u00a0students, but it is not an exclusive publication. That\u00a0diverse interest in creative writing extends all over\u00a0campus.<\/p>\n

It is visible at nearly every event in the Backdoor\u00a0Playhouse, which is usually packed for plays, readings and\u00a0open mic nights. Baker\u2019s poetry reading was no different,\u00a0as people from across disciplines mingled and talked\u00a0about his work when he finished.<\/p>\n

Christianson moved between the groups, making sure\u00a0everyone had been introduced. A mathematics student\u00a0was paired with an English alumnus. A history faculty\u00a0member was introduced to a few students in the back.\u00a0The theater wasn\u2019t packed during Baker\u2019s reading, but\u00a0for Christianson the number of attendees was not what\u00a0mattered.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvents like these are very dear to me,\u201d he said. \u201cFor\u00a0students to come out and see a Tech alum on stage\u00a0reading the culmination of several years of effort, I hope\u00a0it inspires others to go out and realize their creative\u00a0potential.\u201d V<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March, four Tech alumni returned to a classroom in\u00a0Henderson Hall for a lesson in creative writing. This time,\u00a0the former students \u2013 now published writers \u2013 weren\u2019t\u00a0after a grade. They were there to help aspiring writers find their\u00a0voices. English graduates Anna Gilbert, \u201995, \u201911 M.A; Kelly\u00a0Hanwright, \u201914; Alvin Knox, \u201996; and Jeff Baker, \u201995,\u00a0answered questions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-fall15"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1166,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions\/1166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}