I entered Berry College undecided upon a major and open to exploring opportunities in every department. During my sophomore year, I declared a biology major and creative writing minor, as I had received a creative writing scholarship that required me to major or minor in English or creative writing, yet I was interested in pursuing a degree in infectious disease epidemiology. However, I was still unhappy – I dreaded looking ahead at the difficult and frankly uninteresting physics and chemistry courses necessary for a biology major’s graduation. Thankfully, I met with Dr. Dasher and Dr. Meek not long after my declaration, and their combined effort ushered me into my first English and creative writing courses at Berry.
In college, not just one door but an entire hallway opened, a coliseum of portals into other dimensions of learning crossed over and melted into one another, leading me to the realization that my interests – creative writing and the biological sciences – could not and would not be kept separate. Berry College’s liberal arts general education requirements kept me moving through disciplines. While initially torn between my first love and a “useful” major which would appease my parents, I declared both worlds as a creative writing major and biology minor.
My entry into the world of creative writing was a rather rough start. This course introduced me to four major literary genres – poetry, short stories, creative nonfiction, and the ten-minute play – and outlined the basics of writing within each. The pieces I produced in each genre were image-rich but not nearly grounded enough for the reader to full comprehend exactly what was taking place. The short story, titled “The Girl in Black” and included in the attached appendix (p. 73-75), presented a surrealistic world where anthropomorphic animals interact with the protagonist, a girl, aflame, in dark clothing. Though intriguing, the plot was nonexistent and left the reader vexed. I also produced a poem in a similar manner. Until this point, I had only written short stories, and the very thought of writing a poem made my hands shake. “July 5th” (p. 76-77) recounted my summers of working at a giant fireworks store in Tennessee and perpetually missing Independence Day celebrations with family and friends. Again, the piece lacks enough grounding information to tether the reader to its reality, so the world of the poem is difficult to imagine. However, the poem is brimming with literary techniques learned in ENG 250. For example, the lines “Elbows flush / against glass counters, home to a web / of cracks, opposite alabaster / smiles plastered…” possesses examples of strong line breaks, enjambment, alliteration, assonance, and consonance.
It was in ENG 301, Intermediate Creative Writing: Poetry, that I began taking poetry seriously, as both a literary genre and one in which I might could work. I wrote our first exercise, “The Hill” (p. 80) and shocked myself (as well as Dr. Meek, I think) with what I composed. My success with this prose poem was likely the catalyst in my becoming a poet. I produced several other good poems in this course, focusing intently on consistent imagery, different styles of poetry within the genre (persona, prose, narrative, etc.), and continuing to acquire knowledge about the craft of the line. My favorite poem written during this course was a stream of consciousness narrative poem entitled “A Hundred Confined and Sweaty Stormclouds” (p. 13-14). It was during the freewriting stages of this piece that I experienced the illusive “flow” so coveted by creative writers. The piece possesses just two end-stopped lines in the speaker’s rambling, heavily-enjambed account of intolerance at a Tampa amusement park. The piece is woven with references to Florida weather, wildlife, and food, which creates an experience of place for the reader as he or she moves through the poem. I have also included “Concerning Our Grandmother” (p. 15-16) and “Draco” (p. 17-18), which both experiment with white space and enjambed stanzas in a way I feared before taking this course. It was also during this course in the Spring of 2015 that one of these poems was selected for the Gordon Barber Memorial poetry award. I, as a sophomore, was among several very talented senior creative writing majors awarded at the annual Honors Convocation.
Dr. Donnelly’s ENG 302: Intermediate Creative Writing: Fiction course proved to be a challenging course, as my prose writing had not had a chance to develop since taking ENG 250. Many of the pieces I produced missed full story arcs or seemed parts of larger stories waiting within the recesses of my mind; however, one piece stands out as exemplary of my grasp of crafting compelling dialogue. “Only Man” (p. 19-25) is a surrealistic short story in which the protagonist journeys across a desert to discover an elderly man living in the hollowed-out head of an ancient, fallen statue. The paragraphs of summary in the piece are purposefully jarring and perplexing, as the intent was to fully iterate the intensity of the environment in which the protagonist resides. Consequently, there must be some concise dialogue to balance the overwhelming description in the piece. “Only Man” demonstrates my understanding of this balance and exemplifies this concept.
In the Advanced Creative Writing courses, ENG 470 and 471, I produced some of my best work yet. Dr. Meek’s advanced poetry course provided exercises and writing prompts very useful for generating ideas; however, they were less restrictive in their criteria than those in ENG 301, so I and my peers had more freedom to explore the concepts to which we were being introduced. In this course, I entered the world of quite difficult hybrid poetry. I learned to take that which I poem is saying for what it is, in the world of the poem, rather than to try and make sense of it in my own world. The poets we read experimented with found poetry, extreme condensing, and white space, and I was inspired to use these techniques in some of my own writing. My favorite poem I have written to date, “Anuyoga” (p. 26-27), was the last poem I wrote for this course. Again, I experienced the illusory “flow” so envied by countless writers, and produced a poem requiring little revision after line breaks. This piece went on to win first prize in the 2016 Southern Literary Festival’s poetry competition and was published in the festival chapbook.
ENG 470 also required students to do a response project (p.107-114) on a hybrid poet by doing a close reading of many of his or her poems, attempting to imitate his or her style, and finally using techniques learned from the poet in our own writing. I selected Rae Armantrout, of whom I was not a fan before my investigation of her work, and was schooled by the female master of condensed poetry. Her poems, often only a few lines long, pack a powerful punch in their double meanings and use of negative space. The knowledge I gained is evident in “Anuyoga”’s condensed lines and stanzas and straightforward language. These techniques are contradictory to my past poems, which often contained longer lines with much “filler” language – my attempt at achieving the heightened language I thought poetry ought to contain. Another example piece is “Discovered,” included in the appendix on page 106, a highly-condensed and rather disturbing found poem produced from an exercise assigned by Dr. Meek. At the time of writing, I did not fully understand the message behind the words I had chosen nor the negative space used, but there was some divine feeling that the piece was completed. After analyzing the piece further in class, my peers and Dr. Meek aided me in understanding the significance of, at first, not understanding my own piece – sometimes, the muse directs and the poet simply must listen and learn.
ENG 471 extended my understanding of theme, tone, and character development in short stories. Though prose is still not what I consider my strong point, I produced “On High” (p. 36-44), of which I am extremely proud. The reader is able to experience the full arc of the relationship between the protagonist and her hippie lover, which is a difficulty I had with plot in the past. Additionally, I allowed my poetic voice to flourish once again in the paragraphs of summary and scene, yet it was restrained enough to leave the reader grounded and concise descriptions without becoming too bland. This piece is set to be published in the Sigma Tau Delta Rectangle, an international creative writing journal, at the end of March 2017.
The capstone creative writing courses, ENG 475 and 495, challenged me to integrate that which I learned in my biology courses. Writing and Community and Writing About Place, which I took in the spring and fall of 2016, respectively, though partly workshop based, were especially relevant to my career interests, as they provided me with not only knowledge about but also firsthand experience with organizing informal creative writing workshops and intensive research and writing about specific locations. In ENG 475, less focus was placed on writing creatively than how writing can be used to help communities. It was during this course that I participated in the facilitation of Utterances, an informal creative writing workshop for high school students of Rome, Georgia, held weekly at the Sarah Hightower Memorial Library in downtown Rome.
In ENG 495, Writing About Place, my writing turned out to be more creative prose than I anticipated. However, I think it was in this course that I solidified my prose voice. The voice is poetic, yet unlike the voice in poems, which can change depending upon from which perspective I speak, this prose voice is consistent throughout the works I produced. It is eloquent, lilting, and occasionally overwhelming, which is something I plan to restrain in future works. It was in this course that I produced my exemplary work (and my most favorite work so far).
Included in the portfolio is an exercise, “Apertures” and “Dearth” (p. 45-51), and my final course project, called “Succession” (p. 52-64). In “Succession,” I examined various disturbed spaces, either because of natural disaster or human intervention, which I have experienced personally. Place has been a theme in many of my past writings, but this course allowed me to delve deeper into the experience of place and how that may be translated from person to person through art, specifically creative writing, in order to convey a larger message about the place (or places) in question. “Apertures” makes an appearance later in “Succession,” which is the reason I thought to include it before the longer work. “Succession,” in accordance with the title, examines several disrupted landscapes and what came after the disturbances, a culmination of heightened, poetic language, extensive research of place, and autobiographical elements.
I will continue writing through graduate school and once I begin my career, and I will use that writing to benefit the communities I visit while working with infectious diseases. I have always wanted to travel, though I have never had the privilege, and working outside the country as an epidemiologist will undoubtedly inspire much creative prose and poetry about the places and people with whom I speak and work. I am particularly interested in working in Hispanic countries, where I will improve upon my knowledge of Spanish language and the variety of Hispanic cultures in Latin America, South America, and the Caribbean. Informal creative writing or oral storytelling workshops will help participants process emotions and cope in tumultuous times. For example, in the aftermath of an epidemic, workshop participants will enjoy recalling positive memories of lost loved ones while working through emotions felt during the epidemic. My creative writing major has equipped me with the skills and knowledge necessary to generate my own writing, create workshops and exercises for afflicted populations, and most importantly, to connect on a much deeper level with those whom I am helping than a student in the hard sciences likely would.
The Global Health programs at the graduate schools to which I am applying are the culmination of my career interests: to work with a global focus, allowing me both to employ and further cultivate the ethical intelligence and interdisciplinary knowledge I have accumulated during my undergraduate studies, to be culturally aware and become familiar with the people with whom I work, and to write about and with those people, helping them cope with disease in more ways than can halting an epidemic or administering vaccines alone. I am particularly interested in exploring opportunities to cooperate with programs and nonprofit organizations in the surrounding communities, as well as with global partners of the university, as part of my professional enhancement, and these programs’ proximity to and direct involvement with organizations such as these will supply me with the opportunity to do so.