SJU Alum Thomas Dooley Talks Poetry, Projects & Lessons Learned with John Rafferty

This interview was conducted by SJU Writing Studies student John Rafferty.

T DooleyTRESPASS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Joseph’s University alumnus, Thomas Dooley’s poetry collection, Trespass, has been named a 2013 National Poetry Series selection. I spoke with him about his many endeavors and the tremendous success he’s enjoying with his poetry.

Trespass is garnering incredible reviews. What was the writing process like?

The writing process for Trespass was, for the most part, enervating. I approached the creation of Trespass as if walking into a dark house and flicking on the light switches; I lifted blinds, opened closet doors, took dust covers off furniture. I tried to look at this family narrative from every angle possible, so when I felt stuck I would ask, “what door have I not opened yet?” When I felt brave enough to look, I could see a new poem take shape.

I was fortunate to have an incredible group of poets around me who offered encouragement and advice for Trespass. I had an excellent editor at HarperCollins who provided some very incisive ideas for edits. A talented watercolorist created the book cover. The process from first poem to published book requires incredible focus and discretion, so I am thankful for the generosity of so many artists.

You’ve brought poetry to the stage with your theatre project, Emotive Fruition. Where did that idea originate?

I founded Emotive Fruition because I wanted to find a new way for audiences to encounter poetry. I bring together two artistic communities that do not often collaborate: actors and poets. Once I have gone through submissions and curated an evening of poetry, I cast professional actors from television, film, and Broadway to perform these poems on stage.

Our process is fueled by collaboration. Actors and poets meet during a rehearsal and work together to make the poems shine on stage. Emotive Fruition has garnered an incredible following and we look forward to new collaborations. In May, we will be hosting an event with NPR’s hit show RadioLab. We are working with universities and MFA programs, such as NYU, to cultivate and foster community and collaboration among student writers and actors. For me, Emotive Fruition has become a place where poetry can live and flourish; it is very much a vibrant and unique addition to the art and culture of New York. I hope to expand it to Philadelphia and beyond!

You are also involved in narrative medicine, something I was until now unfamiliar with.  Can you explain it to those who might be aware of it?

Narrative medicine is the practice of honoring and being attentive to a patient’s story. For the past five years, I have been facilitating creative writing sessions at the bedsides of hospitalized teenagers. I created the literary journal SURGE, which publishes the writing and art from my patients. I also provide creative writing wellness retreats for physicians, mental health professionals, and hospital staff. We all need the therapeutic process of writing to shape and organize our thoughts and feelings.

Between your writing, theatre project, and narrative medicine work, how do you balance it all? 

Balance is hard. There is always renegotiation. At the moment, I am a freelancing artist so I create new work while trying to piece together an income.

I try to stay very present to the demands of my writing projects. I have been busy working on a new manuscript, a verse novella of sorts, entitled Hang Down Your Head. It’s near completion and I am in the process of getting it published. My writing, publishing, and collaborations truly fuel and feed me.

I just accepted an offer to teach creative writing at New York University in 2016. I love mentoring young writers; they infuse the workshop with a sense of discovery. I’m also interested in shaking up the creative writing workshop. I would be interested to craft a workshop that included collaboration among students, writing about illness, performance studies – so many possibilities!

What was the greatest lesson you learned as English major while at St. Joe’s?

I learned some powerful lessons about myself. Dr. April Lindner gave me confidence to be a poet. In her creative writing workshop, I felt like I had potential to write and publish poetry. It also was the first writing workshop I ever attended. Dr. Lindner modeled for me how to discuss and critique student work. To this day, I try to channel her when I teach.

Dr. Owen Gilman created a space in his class for me to find my voice. I remember presenting a paper about my personal history to the class. That paper was a prelude to a lifetime of embracing my own personal narrative and writing about it. I am proud of my time at SJU and love coming back to talk with students. I look forward to the next time I’m on campus.

You can stay up to date with all of Thomas’ work and happenings at his website, http://www.thomasdooley.us/, including his newest work, Hang Down Your Head.

Finding Your Niche – Writing Studies Student Vanessa Constantinidis Tells You How!

 Finding Your Niche

Vanessa

Vanessa Constantinidis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During senior year of my undergraduate career at Saint Joseph’s University, I enrolled in Dr. Lindner’s “Young Adult Novel” course not knowing what an immense impact it would make, not only on my writing career, but my life as a whole. Dr. Lindner told us to pick a topic that we would not get sick of, for we would be writing the start of our own young adult novel all semester. I decided to write about the story I have always dreamed of writing: the one of the Greek girl trying to find her place in the modern American world (I swear it is fiction). The course consisted of reading several current young adult novels, presenting on a young adult novel similar to the one we were writing, workshopping our own novels while providing helpful feedback to our classmates, and producing a final portfolio of about 50 polished pages to the start of our novel. To no surprise, my story turned out drastically different than I could have imagined, but everything I hoped it would be at nine chapters. I was more intrigued by young adult literature than ever before and found myself reading more and more YA books in my spare time, and of course continuing to write.

After my Young Adult Novel course had ended, “Greek Girl Crazy” was a story I could not even think of abandoning. Upon graduating from SJU I moved to Arlington, VA for work, where my free time consisted of continuously working on my young adult novel that ultimately contained a part of my soul. I was not just working on a novel; I was a writer. Every day I would find myself thinking how I could develop my characters more and what plot twist I could add to make my novel more enticing. I would find myself laughing and relating everyday events in my life to something that would happen to my main character, Despina. Whenever I would need inspiration, I would recall writing exercises that my professors implemented during our lessons and also observe my surroundings. My “me time” consisted of finding a new location to write (whether it was Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, or unique places to Arlington such as Busboys and Poets or Northside Social) and fully immersing myself into Despina’s world. I had grown to really adore Despina and while she was a fictional character, I continued to bring her to life through my words. I ended my last semester of college having nine chapters of my young adult novel written and found myself with twenty-one chapters written a year later, moving into a sequel.

While it was apparent that I found my niche in young adult literature, I yearned to be back in the classroom and have the ability to workshop the rest of my novel with writers who would critique me. After a move back to Philly to work in higher education, I had the opportunity to embark on my graduate school journey at Saint Joseph’s University through the Writing Studies program. Fatefully enough, the graduate version of Young Adult Novel was being offered. Now, I am currently enrolled in the course and in the midst of working on the sequel to my novel, which is roughly twenty-five chapters (with word count). I have been blessed to have Dr. Lindner critique my work, along with my classmates, and further explore fiction writing, specifically young adult literature.

Writing has become more than a mindset, but rather a lifestyle to me. Everywhere I go and everything I see could serve as some sort of inspiration, which is why I love young adult literature so much. While it is fiction, it is relatable- at all ages. Katherine Prokou writes in her article Young Adult Literature: Rite of Passage or Rite of Its Own in the Alan Review, “It’s literature for teenagers; it’s literature about teenagers; it’s stylistic and simplified literature; it’s overly didactic, and of course, shorter than a real novel,” but she continues to explain how it is so much more than just that, and I would agree. Young adult literature may be aimed at teenagers and adolescents, but writing and reading young adult literature can be directly applied to life, even beyond the teenage years. It is emotional and passionate, while still being light. Many critics of young adult literature would argue that it is an escape from reality, but in fact, it is a dive into reality. While often shorter and written with simpler vocabulary, it still deals with real and complicated concepts of love, heartbreak, family struggles, mental health, friendship, sexuality, and identity, yet still holds a sense of innocence and nostalgia that only young adult literature can truly capture.

Whether it is young adult literature, travel writing, script-writing, journalism, or even rhetoric that allows you to question your purpose of writing, the important thing is to find out what sort of writing makes you get out of bed in the morning. As Ray Bradbury says, “You have to get up in the morning and write something you live, something to live for.” The best part of the Saint Joseph’s University Writing Studies program, along with phenomenal professors and specialized attention, is that it will guide you to find your niche. This program allows you to question who you are as writer and who you want to be. After thirty credits, you will have more than just a degree in Writing; you will have vision of how to be the best writer you can be and you will find what kind of writing makes you tick. I have been so blessed to find a part of literature that I cannot get enough of and I have Saint Joseph’s University’s English/Writing department to thank for it.

 

Thanks for sharing, Vanessa.  What a great tribute to the SJU Writing Studies Program! Congratulations on finding your niche.  Anyone else want to share their story?

 

Writing Studies Alum Danielle Bullen Talks Tips on Editing & Freelancing

MONDAY, MARCH 16, 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Merion Hall, Room 174

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Writing Studies Alum Danielle Bullen (’12) will offers tips on editing and freelancing.

Danielle will discuss her career as a Senior Associate Editor for ADVANCE newsmagazines. She is also a web-based freelancer, most recently for SkilledUp. Learn about working in publishing as an editor or freelancer.

All students are welcome!

Tips on Publishing Young Adult Fiction with Dr. April Linder – by John Rafferty

Photo courtesy of Chris Hensel

Photo courtesy of Chris Hensel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. April Linder teaches writing at St. Joseph’s University and has recently published her third young adult novel, Love, Lucy. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Sarah Lawrence College, and the University of Cincinnati, where she earned her Ph.D., she is also the author of two poetry collections, This Bed Our Bodies Shaped and Skin.

With the current popularity of young adult novels, and so many looking to make their way into its world, she was kind enough to answer the following questions on how to turn a manuscript into a published work.

How did you come to write your first young adult novel, Jane?

I’ve always enjoyed literary retellings, and I’ve long played with the idea of possibly writing one myself.  In the years before I wrote Jane, there weren’t all that many retellings of my favorite novel, Jane Eyre, though now there seem to be hundreds! I’d played with the idea of writing one myself, but couldn’t come up with a way to handle the all-important barrier that stands between Jane and Mr. Rochester—the huge class difference that stands between them. Then one day it occurred to me that Mr. Rochester could be a celebrity, and Jane could be just an ordinary broke college girl.  From there it was just a small step to realizing Mr. Rochester could be a rock star.  At that point I knew I had to write that book—so I did.

 

Can you take us through the experience of getting that first young adult novel published?

For most of my career, I’ve been a poet, and getting my books of poetry into print has been an uphill battle. One very welcome thing about writing fiction is that it’s possible to get an agent to help you place your book. (There’s no money in poetry, so very few agents will represent poets.)  When I’d finished polishing up my manuscript for Jane, a friend introduced me to her agent who agreed to represent my book.  She submitted the manuscript to six presses and the fifth one took it.   If the process sounds relatively painless, it really isn’t, considering I had to hone my craft for about twenty years to get there.

 

In what ways has the process of publication for each subsequent novel differed, after obtaining that original publishing deal?

My second novel, Catherine, took a lot longer to write than Jane did, and the third novel, Love, Lucy, took even longer.  But by then I did already have an agent, and an editor who was willing to help me to whip those manuscripts into shape.  I’ve stuck with the same press for all three of my novels and I do love having an ongoing relationship with an agent, a press, and an editor.  There’s never a guarantee that a press will take the next book, but I’ve got book four in the works and I’m hoping.

 

Would you say young adult publishing is different from publishing other genres?

These are boom times for Young Adult books.  I can’t believe the number of YA that are published every year.  YA fiction has an avid readership of both teens and adults, and a really vibrant book blogging scene.  Otherwise, these are tough times in the publishing world, and it seems to be a lot harder these days to get into print as a writer of adult fiction, so I’m thankful to have stumbled into the YA universe.

By the way, I didn’t set out to write YA.  I thought I was writing Jane for an adult audience, but my brilliant agent recognized the book’s YA elements, so that’s the way she decided to sell it.

 

What is the most important thing one can do to break in to the young adult publishing world?

The most important thing any writer needs to do is read—widely and deeply—in your chosen genre/category and beyond.  And the other important thing a writer needs to do is keep writing, no matter what.  You have to be willing to be rejected—it happens to all writers, often repeatedly—and to keep sending your work out into the world.  The more you are rejected the more likely it is that you will someday be accepted, because rejection means you are sending your work out, so you’re already ahead of people who are too afraid to take the risk.  Be hard headed, keep learning and revising, and never stop trying.  Or, to steal the words of Bruce Springsteen, “Keep pushing till it’s understood and these badlands start treating you good.”

John Rafferty is a Masters student in the Writing Studies program at Saint Joseph’s University. His email: johnmrafferty@gmail.com

 

How to Get Your Name in Print – by Elyse Hauser

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Elyse Hauser

 

 

 

 

 

 

As students, we sometimes find the act of writing a lot easier than getting that writing published. We spend more time thinking about the craft itself than about self-promotion—which is as it should be. But (with a few exceptions) the ultimate goal is to see our words in print, somewhere other than our personal computers. How can you go from writer to published writer? These are the tips that helped me do it.

 

 

 

 

  1. Divorce your writing from financial gain—for now.

Obviously we all intend to get compensated for our work at some point. But if you’ve never been published before, submitting a few pieces to unpaid publications can help build up your credentials so you can get into the paid ones. Publishing is a competitive business, but previously published work will give you a leg up on the competition.

  1. Talk to everyone.

You might be sick of the term “networking”—I know I am—but you shouldn’t give up on the concept. Networking doesn’t just happen at labeled “networking events”. It also happens at restaurants, friends’ parties, family gatherings, you name it. The more you talk to people about what you do, and the more questions you ask (even from those in seemingly unrelated fields), the more you’ll open the door for opportunities to come your way.

  1. Self-describe as a writer.

On the same note, talking to people won’t do much good if you don’t tell them you’re a writer. Saying “I’m a writer” when people ask what you do can take some getting used to, especially if you haven’t been published yet. But if you write, you are a writer! I’ve gotten editors’ email addresses and leads on new publications just by mentioning this fact in casual conversation.

  1. Don’t fear rejection.

Rejection is part of the game, so find some way to accept that your writing will probably be turned away far more than it is accepted. In fact, every rejection letter is a credential in a way—it’s proof that you are actively writing and submitting, and one step closer to getting published. Instead of getting discouraged, try doing one small nice thing for yourself every time you get a rejection letter. Or vent to your best friend, write an angry journal entry—whatever it takes to get you back to writing.

  1. Consider genre-crossing.

You may think of yourself in terms of a single genre, as strictly a poetry or fiction writer. But exploring new genres can be a great way to get published. Nonfiction essays are huge right now, especially online—think about the last few articles you clicked on—while fiction opens up a whole new category of literary journals to submit to. Most writing is story-based, so you might find the transition from short stories to personal essays or vice versa easier than you thought. Even “listicles” like this one can make for valuable publication credentials. Experiment and see what sticks.

  1. Be open to new publications.

We’ve all got a list of the places we dream of getting published, but it’s important to submit and pitch to a wide variety of publications, not just your favorites. Be open to having your work appear in a lesser-known publication. You have a better chance of getting published if you cast a wide net—within the boundaries of where your writing style fits, of course.

By the way, The Avenue is currently accepting submissions from Writing Studies students who’d like to see their name in print!  March 19 is the deadline.