March 5, 2008 – Superintendent Dan Teplesky has taken to calling me “Lord of The Snow,” because everytime I am scheduled to meet with the writers of Granville High, the winter furies descent and school is either cancelled or delayed. It’s quite a circus when we come in – bags, coffee, books, tripods, dog treats, papers.
But dogs, camera, equipment and me made it this morning – I brought both dogs, as we had a Hospice visit scheduled for later – and the Granville writers and I (we are doing a book based on their stories, “Tales of Granville High” got in a full two hours, which blazed by so fast we are all astonished when time was up. At this stage, we are reading and critiquing one another’s stories and talking about structure. Izzy and Lenore are both well-trained in writer support, and moved about the room dispensing love and concern. These two have become a reliable working pair. Izzy can go anywhere, but if you can bring a seven-month old Lab puppy into a high school for two hours without incident, you’re getting somewhere.
Lenore LOVES writers groups, as bags are filled with food and everyone likes to scratch her belly.
We all liked the idea, which I wrote about on this blog yesterday, that stories are what the soul wants, how the soul heals torn and pressured spirits.
This is certainly true of the amazing stories pouring out of these talented young Granville writers, who have distinct and powerful spirits – some torn and bruised – and voices, and who bring a lot of reality to story-telling – betrayal, abuse, friendship and loss, as well as hope, courage and a ton of creativity.
We talked about the important of making it clear why they are choosing their stories – what the point is – and each writer told the rest of us why they felt strongly about their stories. Annie talked about the challenges of having an identify with a lot of siblings, Jacob is struggling to pare down his sci-fi tale, Cheyanne talked about her struggle to find people who shared her love of music, and Jen said she told her story because she wanted her little sister, who looks up to her, to know there is help in the world. Shayna lost her favorite bird this week, and was much affected by that, and Molly talked about her identification with one of her chickens, an “outsider chicken,” who stays away from the others. (Individuality is not a strong trait in chickens, in my experience). Crysta returned to the class and her story is about a broken friendship, and the pain of losing a relationship.
Ashley spoke quite movingly about how her move from a small town in Vermont to Granville changed much about her, and her life. Even though the immigrant experience is everywhere in America, it has a particular cast in a town like Granville, Rachel said, and she is often angry about it.
I made the point – strongly – that the stories have to make it clear why people should read them.
I’m excited to have the privilege of working with these great people, and we are amazingly comfortable together, for so short a time. This will be a strong book, I can feel it. Cheyanne turned in a powerful story of struggle and alienation, and it included some of her own lyrics:
“Goodbye
Goodbye, Goodbye”
“how many times have you told me lies
without a doubt I can’t satisfy
how many times have you denied
my existence in your perfect life
how many times do I have to beg
how many kicks ’til my poor heart breaks
“Goodbye
Goodbye, Goodbye…”
Wish I could write like that. Chayenne will also help illustrate the book (I will do some pictures) and she will sing this song at our first reading, hopefully in September. More photos above.
Jen, Ashley, Rachel, reading