Adjunct Working Conditions

Check out this thoughtful article from Josh Boldt on the working conditions of adjunct professors.  Boldt discusses the MLA’s recent recommendation for what you might call an adjunct “minimum wage,” then says this:

In light of this new pay recommendation, I’ve decided to start collecting data about how many schools come close to this standard. By making this information public, we can recognize the schools that are doing a great job (like my school, the University of Georgia, for example). They deserve to be patted on the back for their good work. On the other hand, we will also be able expose those schools that have chosen to ignore the basic human rights of their employees and shortchange their students and their communities by devaluing the very education they pretend to celebrate.

If you’re an adjunct, consider sharing your information in his Google Doc.

“Penned Up,” James O’Brien

Last week, my students and I read and discussed “Penned Up,” a stunning short short by James O’Brien (up at The Collagist).  Here’s how the piece opens:

Penned up with the USMC when I was seventeen.

Dad said they’d take care of me. He wasn’t going to.

I drilled with the JROTC on Fridays. Had to wear this uniform with a strap across the chest. Buzzed my head. Looked like the Hitler Youth but the girls liked it. I had one or two. Dad looked at me different. Didn’t say much about it. I took the ASVAB and placed like he said I would. Infantry and light armor. The typical. I could’ve tried. I didn’t. I was okay with that.

My students had a lot to say about the narrator’s voice, about how the omission of pronouns and lack of commas help create it.  Later, when the commas appear, we feel time shudder to a terrifying slowness:

But maybe I did see it, the rocket.

By the sound, it could’ve been any piece of our Humvee, a belt a little loose or a gear offset. I might’ve turned to watch it grow larger and larger in the side window. I might have seen the door erupt. I might have seen someone’s chest come apart, bone by bone. I might have thought about a girl I kissed once. I might’ve.

An incredible piece — we could’ve talked about it all period.  Check it out.

Matt Bell on Community

Laura van den Berg  interviews Matt Bell for “Innovators in Lit #7″ at Ploughshares. Read it!  Here’s a killer excerpt on writerly responsibility:

I think the big mistake most writers make is thinking that becoming involved in your community is something you do after your book is published. Instead, I urge writers to become involved as early as possible, in a genuine, non-book-related way. It’s always a little off-putting when a person suddenly becomes interested in book review venues only once they have their own book. In a similar way, it seems false to only be interested in independent bookstores when you’re trying to get your own book stocked. The better solution is, as a part of your daily work as a writer, support the communities you wish to be a part of, by reading books, writing reviews, promoting other writers or bookstores or whatever in your social networking. It’s a small but old truth, but the more you give, the more you will receive. And this isn’t any kind of slimy networking. This is every writer’s responsibility, and the writers who create the most buzz for the good work of others will find that same energy waiting for them, when their own excellent book finally comes out.

This is wonderful and practical advice — to think of community participation as part of your “daily work as a writer.”  To think of it as your responsibility.  When you support a community, the community supports you.  Why?  Because you’re suddenly part of it.

 

Student misconceptions as “extra inhabitants”

Here’s an excerpt from “Starting with No,” Jonterri Gadson’s guest post at HTMLGIANT:

Now when I teach my own intro to poetry writing workshops, I am aware of the extra inhabitants in the room—the students’ misconceptions.

 This idea resonates with me – to think of student’s misconceptions as “extra inhabitants”– potential participants a teacher can invite to the conversation.

Whenever I teach a composition course, I ask my freshmen, “What were you told you couldn’t do, writing-wise?”  More often than not, what follows is a fascinating, useful, and (for the students) liberating conversation.

Why not do this in a creative writing course? 

 

Writing, reading, teaching. And posting.

Soledad Canyon, New Mexico.

Welcome!  This is my personal blog.

On this blog, I’ll post about WRITING, READING, and TEACHING.  On a weekly basis.

My hope is that these posts will help me discover things about WRITING, READING, and TEACHING.

My hope is that these posts will in some small way be useful to readers, readers who are WRITERS, READERS, and TEACHERS.

Thanks for being here.