The second guest writer master class in the new 作家的块 series was poet Allison Hutchcraft他的新系列， 沼泽地，最近出版了. 作家的块, along with the 英语 Department 和 PANART, 主持Hutchcraft, who is the sister of Poly 英语 teacher 克里斯蒂Hutchcraft， 11月. 13.

沼泽地 was named the 2019 Editor’s Choice by 新刊诗歌 & 散文. Allison Hutchcraft teaches Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina 在夏洛特. Her work has appeared in many journals including 葛底斯堡评论， Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, The Cincinnati Review, The Southern Review, 和其他人.

回顾一下 沼泽地，散文家和诗人 佩斯利Rekdal 写了, “沼泽地 direct 和 slow the flow of rainwater, 和 this collection directs the reader’s attention to the ways the natural world has indelibly shaped our human consciousness 和, 反过来, the ways we have attempted to trap 和 tame the natural.”

克里斯蒂Hutchcraft welcomed everyone on the Zoom call 和 introduced 凯拉·汤普森，21岁 和 Emily Ng ' 21, the co-founders of 作家的块. Ng introduced Allison Hutchcraft.

Allison Hutchcraft began by explaining that “swale” is the place where l和 和 water meet. She then read selected poems from her collection. Hutchcraft’s poems include vivid images from nature. A number of her poems were written in New York, including one about the Cloisters, 她最喜欢的地方之一. She told the students she invented a character, “Alice,” in the Cloisters. Other poems were inspired by her time in Oregon. She explained that for her a poem can “accumulate over time.” One poem included images of “winter by the sea… serrated 边缘 thrust into cold air….The water looked like the crack I felt in me.”

“I enjoyed how the poet incorporated nature 和 imagery through senses such as smell, 触摸, 和视力,” 安东尼·普法尔，23岁. “Allison Hutchcraft encouraged me to look at my writing through the lens of a person who is present in the scene of my writing 和 who is able to visualize 和 take in all of their surroundings, 风景, 气味, 和感受.” 

After the readings, Ng 和 other students had a Q&与Hutchcraft的对话. Ng asked about the role of nature in Hutchcraft’s work. “Sometimes it comes unbidden,”她说。. Hutchcraft explained that she grew up in southern California 和 “loves space, 边缘, 和 the places where l和 和 water meet… I love how awake the natural world makes me.”

Asked if she had any setbacks, Hutchcraft说, “Setbacks are part of the experience” underneath the act of writing. She described herself as “very slow as a writer,” 和 added, “I am glad they [the poems] find a home.”

Hutchcraft told the students how important the “idea of discovery” is for a writer, adding that “a plan can limit us from the very exciting process of writing… If there is not a discovery for the  writer, then there is not a discovery for the reader.”

“你为什么要写信呢?”问 米洛·蒂尔尼，21岁. “It’s not a choice,” Hutchcraft说, describing a writer as having an “intimacy with language.” She said she usually starts a poem with a tactile word. “In Oregon [at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology], I 触摸ed things more in nature.” She described being at the center where she saw photographers, 画家, 和 sculptors picking up things found in nature. 

“In the art course that I am taking this year,凯拉·汤普森说, “I learned that research plays a vital role in the creation of artwork. Allison Hutchcraft’s work confirms that observation. 当我读她的诗时, I replayed a part of a video I watched in which an artist collected scraps of images 和 various facts in order to compose her art. Allison’s work has that same impact.”

Allison Hutchcraft closed the session with a short writing exercise. She asked the students to compose a poem of 10 lines in free verse. “Use all of the following words,”她说。, 包括悬崖, 皮, 手腕, 黑莓, 妈妈。, 承诺, 刮, 和点燃. She asked them to also include one question 和 one indisputable fact.

Afterward, Milo Tierney shared his poem:

His 妈妈。 carried him all the way to the edge of the 黑莓 patch,
Beneath her feet that 刮d the terrain,
The grass turned to dirt, 和 the dirt, to dust.
他问我们在哪里.
在这里. 她回答
The edge of the cliff glittered from the blinding
太阳. She set him down next to what looked like an elephant 皮 halfway buried in the ground.
Her feet dragged to the car parked by the edge, 和 she put the keys into ignition.

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The next 作家的块 guest author will be 埃文·詹姆斯 1月29日，星期五. 他的工作包括 I’ve Been Wrong Before: Essays 和 振作起来，先生. 威迪库姆:一本小说.