During the Fall 2020 semester, three guests will join Professor Mesha Maren-Hogan’s English 110S “Introduction to Creative Writing” class via Zoom. Author Jaquíra Díaz visited the class on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, as the first guest for the David L. Paletz Writing Guest series.
Jaquíra Díaz is a writer, essayist, journalist, and cultural critic. In October of 2019, her memoir Ordinary Girls was released. Ms. Diaz was born in Puerto Rico but spent most of her formative years in Miami, Florida. She completed her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Central Florida before heading to the University of South Florida for her Master’s degree. Ms. Díaz has received numerous honors, including the Whiting Award for nonfiction and a gold medal in the Florida Book Awards. She is currently working on her second book; I am Deliberate: A Novel.
During the week before Díaz’s visit, Professor Maren-Hogan’s class read and discussed an excerpt from Ordinary Girls to prepare for their discussion with the author.
Díaz advised that everyone has a voice and told them that they must decide how to share their "voice" if they elect to in their writing.
One of the first questions asked of Ms. Díaz was, “What made you fall in love with writing?”
Sophomore, Isabel Townsend, asked Díaz, “How would she go about developing three-dimensional characters?” As part of her response to this question, the author provided the group with a writing exercise:
Professor Mesha Maren-Hogan’s English 110S.02 “Introduction to Creative Writing” course is a hands-on, interactive exploration of nonfiction, poetry, playwriting, and fiction. Students in the class read examples from each genre and discuss the craft elements demonstrated in each text.
Professor Maren-Hogan’s class were allowed to have Jaquíra Díaz and future guest visit virtually as the recipient of one of the David L. Paletz Call for Innovative Course Enhancement grants. The David L. Paletz Call for Innovative Course Enhancements invited the submission of proposals for funds to add innovations to courses taught during the Fall 2020 semester. Professor Maren-Hogan submitted a proposal and received a grant because the funds received are being used to provide students in her English 110S: “Intro to Creative Writing” with active and inquiry-based learning opportunities. Proposals that were granted funds modeled Professor Paletz’s style during his teaching career at Duke University. Those criteria were:
Professor Maren-Hogan shared what inspired her to put this series together:
“I really wanted to embrace the idea that online learning affords us wonderful new opportunities, that it is not an inferior substitute for face-to-face learning but rather an exciting new environment that has all sorts of benefits that a regular classroom does not. As a part of this effort, I decided that I wanted to bring into my virtual classroom one nonfiction writer, one fiction writer, and one poet. I wanted to demonstrate to my students how with online learning, our class can speak to a writer from their flat in London (Jaquira Diaz) or from the cornfields of northeastern North Carolina (Ashleigh Bryant Phillips), and we can have engrossing, stimulating conversations that we can also share with the larger Duke community.”
Zoom is being utilized to bring each of the David L. Paletz Creative Writing guests and Prof. Maren-Hogan’s class together. Each episode of this series is also broadcast via Facebook Live on the Duke English Department Facebook page. Recordings of the sessions will also be available on the Duke English Department Facebook page and Duke English YouTube Channel for later viewing.
A full recording of David L. Paletz Creative Writing Guest Series featuring author, Jaquíra Díaz:
Guest Date Time
Jaquíra Díaz September 2, 2020 2:00 pm
Author of the memoir Ordinary Girls and recipient of a Whiting Award, a Lambda Literary Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Reynolds Price Award.
Remica Bingham-Risher October 7, 2020 5:15 pm
Author of three poetry collections and winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.
Ashleigh Bryant Phillips October 21, 2020 5:15 pm
Author of Sleepovers and winner of the C. Michael Curtis Short Story Award. Her short stories have appeared in The Paris Review, The Oxford American, and other literary journals.
English Department
