Allen, Da Silva, & Daye’s David L. Paletz Creative Writing Guest Series Visits

Two of the English Department's creative writing classes have had the pleasure of authors visiting their classes this semester as part of the David L. Paletz Creative Writing Guest Series.  Author Kendra Allen visited Professor Mesha Maren's English 110S "Intro to Creative Writing" class on February 11th.  Cidinha da Silva visited Professor JP Gritton's 221S "Intro to the Writing of Fiction" class February 15th.  Poet Tyree Daye, a North Carolina native, visited Professor Mesha Maren’s “Intro to Creative Writing” class virtually on March 4th. 

During Kendra Allen's visit with "Intro to Creative Writing," she shared her experience as a young author and her feeling about how she is maturing as a writer. Allen's visit utilized a Q&A session format.  Students took advantage of this opportunity to ask Allen questions about her writing style.   

Before Allen's visit, Maren's class studied Allen's collection of essays in When You Learn the Alphabet.  One student inquired as to "why she decided to address readers in the second person.”  The same student shared that they felt this decision gave the piece more of a personal tone. "Easier for me to get my thoughts out in a way I couldn't using the first person," said Allen.  She also stated that she is somewhat anti-"I" when it comes to her writing because she feels that using the second person allows her to explore language in a way that the first person does not. 

When asked for writing tips, Allen advised the class to approach the page "with the least amount of stress possible." As a young writer, she noted that she is still trying to find her writing routine but encouraged the class members to develop their own writing routines to help them find mental clarity when writing.   

"For the entire visit, I couldn't stop smiling. Allen's personality is infectious, and she had such insightful things to say. It's not often you get to meet the people behind the things you read, so talking to her humanized her and made her work all the more remarkable." - Arlene Arevalo, '21 

Author Cidinha da Silva's visit with Professor Gritton's "Intro to the Writing of Fiction" was aided by Courtney Crumpler '21, MA of Fine Arts in Dance, as a translator since da Silva's native language is Portuguese. 

Da Silva's visit began as a conversation between Professor Gritton and Cidinha da Silva, which focused on her experience as a writer and the range of her works.  Professor Gritton noted in his introduction that da Silva's "fiction is loudest where it is silent."   

Gritton began the chat by asking how she started writing fiction, since her work before 2006 had been more of a scholarly nature.  In her response to this question, da Silva spoke of her interest in writing "crônicas," a genre that is not common in the US. "Crônicas" was described to the audience as a form of prose that deals with daily life.  Da Silva noted that one of the challenges for someone that writes "crônicas" is that you want to write in a way that it lives on and has meaning in the future.  In 2006 she published her first collection of "crônicas," Cada tridente em seu lugar (Each Trident In its Place) after working in political activism and writing for newspapers and periodicals.   

Following their conversation, Cidinha da Silva gave a brief reading from her work "I Have Shoes for You." Utilizing Zoom for this virtual visit allowed the audience to view the text both in Portuguese and in English translation while the author read. 

Da Silva's visit concluded with a Q&A session with members of Professor Gritton's "Intro to the Writing of Fiction" class. 

Poet Tyree Daye, a North Carolina native, visited Professor Mesha Maren’s “Intro to Creative Writing” class virtually. He is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has published two poetry collections.   Before his visit, Maren’s class read Daye’s collection River Hymns.   

Daye’s visit began with a Q&A session.  In the first question, he was asked how he goes about starting to write a poem.  Daye shared that an image that triggers a memory often inspires him to put pen to paper.  He stated that images inspire him to write about memories, and he tries to create a world around that image and memory.  One student asked the poet how he goes about putting a collection of poetry together.  Daye responded that he writes his poems individually and not as a series, and when it comes time to create a collection, he looks through his works and brings together those that he feels talk to each other.  Daye was also asked why the formatting differed for each piece in his River Hymns collection.  In response to this question, he stated that he wanted the spacing in each poem to be like “air” and appear differently on the page.  He shared how he envisioned this method as a way to pique interest in his collection.  He wants each poem to appear different, so if a person is only thumbing through a copy in a bookstore, it is clear that each work stands independently. 

Following the Q&A session, Daye shared a writing prompt with the class.  With this prompt, he asked the students to think about a tangible item from their childhood and write a poem about it.  He encouraged them to seek meaning when writing this piece.   

Before concluding his visit, Daye read two poems from his most recent collection, Cardinal, published in 2020.  He shared that this collection of poems focuses on traveling while Black, leaving, and returning home. 

Daye thanked Professor Maren and the class for allowing him to visit them and noted that talking about the craft of writing poetry is one of his favorite things. 

There will be two more visitors during this semester as part of the David L. Paletz Creative Writing Guest series.  Fiction and short story writer Paul Yoon will visit Professor Mesha Maren's English 110S "Intro to Creative Writing" class on March 25th.  On March 29th author Adrienne Perry, Assistant Professor of English at Villanova University, will be the series guest visitor for Professor JP Gritton’s 221S "Intro to the Writing of Fiction" class.  

Recordings of past David L. Paletz Creative Writing Guests are posted on the English website along with details about future visits.