Welcome new Writers’ Program instructor Erin Stalcup! Erin is teaching a section of Copyediting I (reg# 387293) in our Remote Classroom format with weekly meetings on Zoom, starting Thursday, June 30 this Summer. She sat down with us to offer some insight into creative life and her upcoming course.

What sparks your creativity?
What a great question! Other art. Listening to music, going to a museum, reading a book. I think all of my art comes from the ancestors, comes from wanting to honor them and what they made.

What do you look for in a good story?
I want to be transported. I want to be overwhelmed, moved. I want to care desperately about what happens next. I want to be amazed by the sound of the sentences.

What’s your favorite book and/or movie?
My favorite book is still Underworld by Don DeLillo. It’s a huge, wild masterpiece, and I wish I’d written it. Close runners up: Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins, an ecofabulist wonder, and Another Country by James Baldwin, the most heart-wrenching novel on earth. Favorite movie will always be Pump Up the Volume. It showed me who I wanted to be when I was a teenager: punk, into rap, anti-systemic oppression. Runners up: Point Break, and Do the Right Thing.

What’s your favorite quote about writing?
“Yes I know my enemies, they’re the teachers who taught me to fight me: compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite. All of which are American dreams.” –Rage Against the Machine
I know that’s not obviously a quote about writing, but I put it on all of my creative writing syllabi. Because my goal as a teacher is to help students figure out who they want to be as artists, not who I want them to be. I want to help them fight against all the systems that hold them back. Even me, if need be.

What do you find most inspiring about editing as part of the writing/publishing process?
Oh I love publishing other people’s work as much as I love publishing my own. I love helping writers put the best version possible of their art out into the world. I love every stage of the editing process, from developing a writer’s idea to catching a small typo in the final stages. I just think it’s thrilling to bring art into the world, in the shiniest form possible.

What excites you most about teaching for the Writers’ Program?
I have been amazed at the level of support I’ve gotten from the other faculty and administration. Everyone here really cares! I haven’t met my students yet, but I hope to bring that level of enthusiasm and commitment to their success into my classroom.

What do you hope your students get from your course(s)?
In my Editing and Publishing classes, I hope students gain practical skills they can use to gain employment. I hope they gain knowledge, and confidence in their skills. And I really hope they have fun and experience camaraderie along the way. Maybe even some joy! In my creative writing classes, I hope to encourage students to become the singular artist they each are, and to then go out and change the world.

Thank you to Erin for taking time to share with us. Look for more instructor interviews coming soon!

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