Scholar in Residence Program 2006-’07
Final Report
Ellen Santasiero and David Bilyeu
Benefits to COCC and the Community
The 2006-’07 Scholar in Residence Program provided opportunities for COCC students, faculty—and the college as a whole—to grow intellectually through involvement with creative writing and literary events.
The 2006-’07 Scholar in Residence was Ellen Santasiero, a creative nonfiction writer whose work appears in Northwest Review, The Sun, High Desert Journal, and other publications. Ellen, who holds a masters degree in creative writing and literature from Bennington College, is also on the editorial board of High Desert Journal and is a past recipient of Caldera and Soapstone writing fellowships.
In fall of 2006, Ellen visited 16 composition and literature courses at COCC to introduce students to the Scholar in Residence Program and invite them to work one-on-one with her on their creative writing projects. This offer helped expand the college’s support of student creative writers, as the college currently offers only one creative writing course per year. During the year, seven students and one faculty member worked with Ellen to develop their skills. Students benefited from working with a person actively working in this field, and most importantly, they connected with their own desire to write and improve their writing.
Three faculty in the Humanities department invited Ellen to visit their classes and offer a workshop or presentation to students. She facilitated writing exercises in Dorothy Leman’s Writing 121 (Composition) class and in Greg Lyons’ Writing 240 (Creative Nonfiction) class. She also presented information about interviewing people in Greg Lyons’ Writing 121 (Composition) class and she read her work and offered feedback on student work in Bill Hoppe’s Art 184 (Watercolor) class. Professor Greg Lyons plans to incorporate an article about memoir authored by Ellen into his class materials for Writing 240 for Spring ’08.
Ellen also hosted literary readings by two visiting Northwest writers, William Kittredge and Aaron Raz Link, which gave students and the rest of the college community a chance to connect with the work of these two writers and ask questions relating to culture and the writing process. Ellen also promoted and facilitated a scholarship competition for students to gain admission to writing workshops organized by the Nature of Words in 2006. At this local literary conference, the two student winners and one faculty winner from COCC had the opportunity to work with nationally-known writers.
The College’s first Scholar in Residence, Judith H. Montgomery, began the literary reading series, “Word Café” during 2005-’06. Ellen continued this series, hosting four readings. Word Café gave students the opportunity to read their own creative work and listen to their peers read as well. It also allowed them to hear the work of local published writers including Tanya Pluth, Jeff Trainor, Abby Beane, Jason Graham, Katy Hays, Collene Funke, Don Kunz, and Suzanne Burns. Moreover, two COCC students, John MacAulay and Brittany Foss, were featured readers at Word Café 8, and COCC faculty member and fiction writer, Hilda Beltran, was a featured reader at Word Café 9.
Word Café 10 featured a panel of COCC and OSU Humanities faculty sharing their favorite books. This event allowed students to connect with their professors in a new way and it allowed the panel members to form new alliances around their research and classroom work.
During spring term, Ellen offered a nonfiction writing workshop to the graduates of Professor Greg Lyons’ Writing 240 (Creative Nonfiction) class. Four students attended. At the bi-weekly meetings, students submitted pieces of writing and received feedback from Ellen and the other group members. Students learned how to critique other students’ work in a constructive way, and they learned more about the technical aspects of writing creative nonfiction, building on what they had learned in Greg’s class. Students also gained information about how to submit their work for publication and asked questions about the writing process.
Faculty benefited from the Scholar in Residence Program in two ways. One, faculty were invited to all of the literary readings hosted by the Scholar in Residence, and two, faculty were invited to work with Ellen on their own creative work. Science faculty member, Cheryl Longfellow, worked with Ellen on her creative nonfiction work, and was the recipient of a scholarship to attend a Nature of Words writing workshop. Humanities faculty benefited in a third way: they could use Ellen as a resource in their classrooms, and as was previously stated, three faculty chose to do so.
COCC enjoyed a positive community profile from the Scholar in Residence Program. The College was the host of local and regional writers and offered these events free to the wider central Oregon community. Major local media outlets featured the programs put on by Ellen, and she appeared in two major articles about writing in the Bulletin over the course of the year. Through Ellen efforts, COCC also partnered with several local arts and nonprofit organizations over the year, including Arts Local 101, Human Dignity Coalition, the Nature of Words, and High Desert Journal. All of these alliances were positive and may strengthen the college’s role in the larger community.
Over fall, winter and spring terms, Ellen contributed a total of 198 hours to the Scholar in Residence Program. (65 hours per term, 3 terms) During the summer, she is continuing to facilitate the creative nonfiction workshop, which amounts to about two hours per week.
The local community also benefited from the Scholar in Residence Program. Word Café was a free evening event, as were the visiting author readings. The “Altered Readings” event, co-coordinated with Arts Local 101, was a reading opportunity open to the public as well.
Benefits of the Program for Ellen
Ellen used the office and computer provided by the Library for her own creative writing projects. While Scholar in Residence, she developed several essays and worked on an ongoing memoir project. Library privileges, such as interlibrary loan, extended loan periods and easy access to reference librarians contributed to her work. The position enabled her to network with many new groups of people, which familiarized more people with her work, and it allowed her to give back to her community in a meaningful way.
Student Testimonials
I feel very lucky for the writing workshop opportunity that Ellen has provided. I had little formal education in creative writing until winter term 2006/07 at COCC when I took the class titled Creative Non-fiction Writing. Ellen was a guest speaker for our class and her passion for writing was very evident. I was excited when, after the term finished, Ellen offered a writing workshop to members of the class.
The group meets every other week and is comprised of four students from the winter term class whom all share an interest in creative non-fiction.
In just two sessions I have learned several essential techniques to improve my writing and have felt challenged and inspired by my peers.
In the COCC class we read various sub-genres of creative non-fiction and discussed them in class. We learned the differences between the subgenres and commented on writing techniques. We discussed and identified writing techniques like condensing, dialogue, metaphors and more but I didn't effectively learn how to put them to practice in my writing. In the workshop, Ellen reviewed my work and constructively explained that abstraction and summary in writing are harder for readers to relate to. She suggested grounding themes, perceptions, feelings and emotions in concrete details and in using the five senses. She then gave the group published examples to further support and convey her advice.
In addition, the general methodology we follow to discuss each other's pieces has taught me both how to give constructive criticism as well as to use as a guide for each piece I write. We first identify themes, likes and where the energy picks up for us. Then we discuss suggestions for areas that need work. The feedback from each of the students is helpful, and the feedback from Ellen is especially helpful because I find her very experienced and trustworthy. She creates a safe environment for discussion and sharing. She also shares many, many resources such as various non-fiction journals and publications and highly encourages us to read as much non-fiction as possible to find the style of writing that we enjoy and identify with.
In summary Ellen has been instrumental in improving my understanding of how to become a better writer. She brings great energy to the group as well as very high quality expertise. Working with Ellen has been a pleasure.
Alison Mostue
This writing group is a godsend to a beginning writer like me, who is serious about writing and needs to know how other people will react to what they’re writing.
Classes with teachers give a student very little of this type of feedback and encouragement. Taking a class and learning certain writing skills is only one aspect of becoming a good writer. You need to put your skills to use, outside of the class environment. Getting feedback on writing a person intends to publish, along with other helpful information on publishing, submitting work, etc., makes a writing group essential to the furthering of a writer’s education. The close sharing of ideas and opinions also nurtures an atmosphere of true creativity, which rarely happens in a classroom. I LOVE my writing group.
Rose Winters
I am writing to stress how important Ellen Santasiero’s nonfiction writing group has been to me as I continue to pursue writing. Ellen has set up an intimate, trusting atmosphere where we are able to devote significant time to each piece we look at. The feedback I have received on my own work has been invaluable, and I have been surprised how much I have learned through critiquing the work of others. The writing group has improved my ability to look critically at my own and others’ works and to be more conscious of my own writing process, strengths and weaknesses.
I took a nonfiction writing class at Central Oregon Community College last winter, and feared that when the class ended my writing would fall by the wayside as work and other things took over. This writing group has provided the accountability and the support to continue writing, while providing me with the attention and feedback that is not possible in a larger classroom setting. Ellen is a supportive and candid teacher who is generous in sharing her wealth of knowledge. I would be thrilled with the opportunity to participate in future writing groups.
Kate Fitzpatrick
Faculty Testimonials
Ellen,
I appreciate your visits to my classes and your continuing work as mentor to an informal writing group drawn from my students in the winter creative nonfiction class. Also, I appreciated all the “word cafe” events that you organized. I recommended them to my students and know that some attended—at least at the events I could get to. The tribute to William Stafford event I found particularly moving.
Your talk on interviewing techniques really engaged my students in WR 122. In fact, one student was so taken by your handout that she ended up practically transcribing her informants’ responses to your questions within her essay. It was also clear in a few other essays that students had adapted your techniques in interviewing subjects for their own essays.
In the creative nonfiction class, those students clearly enjoyed the “knife story” exercise, and everyone was able to spontaneously relate a tale to the group. Your impact also showed clearly in later emails from my students asking for your article on “memory and reliability” in memoir writing. These are the kinds of hands-on exercises and advice that novice writers need to jump-start their creative efforts. As you know, I have decided to use that article in my packet for the course next year, so your impact will live on in the curriculum, even though your tenure as scholar in residence is ending this summer.
In any case, the program should definitely continue. It seems that scholars representing a wide variety of writing promise a rich infusion into the writing life of the college, and may stimulate creativity beyond their immediate classroom projects.
Thanks again.
Greg Lyons
Professor of English
In Academic Year 2005-2006 and 2006-2007, my students benefited from the Scholar in Residence program. Both 2005-2006 Poet in Residence Judith Montgomery and 2006-2007 Scholar in Residence Ellen Santasiero were valuable guest speakers in my Wr 121 / English Composition classes. In Wr 121, my students write a “reflective essay” as the last major project of the term. In this assignment, the student must vividly describe an incident and then reflect on its significance. As part of the lead-up to this essay, I asked Judith and later Ellen to discuss with my students how they, as professional writers, gather and recall experiences in their poetry and prose works.
In the Wr 121 sections she visited over several terms in 2005-2006, Judith shared several of her poems, and in the case of one poem, “Yellow Jacket,” explained to us how she arrived at a certain group of images about a creature at once menacing and vulnerable. During her visit with one of my classes, a student asked Judith, “How many times did you revise this poem?” She thought about that and then said, “About forty times. So far.” And that, more than anything I could say, drove home to that student and his classmates the importance of revision and re-seeing one’s own writing. And Judith’s imagistic approach to poetry encouraged my students to appeal to many senses to create more vivid reflective essays.
Writer in Residence Ellen Santasiero’s visit to my Wr 121 in the Fall of 2006 was especially influential because of a writer’s brainstorming activity she had our class try. Ellen had us sit in a circle, and she explained she wanted to hear our “knife stories” if we were willing to share them. She had with her a hunting knife in a sheath. She told us a brief memory of her own about a knife, and then she passed the knife to the student on her left. Invariably the student would say, “I don’t have a knife story,” and then would launch into a remarkable brief narrative about a knife. No fewer than four of the strongest “reflective essays” came out of Ellen’s “knife story” invitation.
Starting in 2005-2006, Poet in Residence Judith Montgomery organized the Word Café, a periodical gathering of students, staff, and faculty to enjoy the written and spoken word together. The Word Café has continued and prospered during Ellen’s tenure. I can think of several of my Wr 121 students who, thanks to Ellen’s and Judith’s classroom visits, were emboldened not only to attend Word Café, but read their own work there, including one student who had never read his poetry in public before, and another student who later attended activities at “The Nature of Words,” the writers’ conference in Bend.
My students and I are grateful for the Scholar in Residence program. I hope it continues for years to come.
Dorothy Leman, Ph. D.
Instructor of Humanities and Writing
Ellen,
Thanks for the opportunity to get behind the Scholar in Residence program. I am so grateful for your classroom visits and the critique which you gave in the watercolor class. Your reading and the project that resulted from it offered my students an immediate and direct access into your creative process. The intensity and focus they gave to their image responses showed a depth and authenticity in their thinking that stood apart from other work in their portfolios. This is the second year where the visit of the Scholar in Residence has resulted in a memorable teaching experience for me and a powerful learning experience for my students. I would strongly urge that the program be continued and expanded to include working artists in all the creative disciples. Your presence makes real my students dreams.
Bill Hoppe
Associate Professor of Art