NULC

View From My Hotel Window

Note: that’s not a picture of Vermont. We’ve got mountains here, but not mountains like those. No, that’s a picture of Ogden, Utah, where I spent the past four days attending the National Undergraduate Literature Conference (NULC).

In February, I found out that a paper I wrote last term on Tom Jones (the book by Henry Fielding, not the singer – there’s a big difference) was accepted by the NULC, and that I was invited to come to Utah and present it. Having never been to either Utah or a conference of this sort, this struck me as an exciting – though intimidating – adventure. One month and three layovers later, I was in Ogden.

This was, in every way, an amazing experience – better than I’d hoped, even. On Friday, I presented my own paper, which introduced me to an entirely new sort of stage fright. The panels were each made up of four students presenting work on similar topics within the same literary genre. Each student was allotted 15 minutes to present, and after all four had gone, there was a question and answer session. I was more nervous than I’d expected I would be – the whole small-classroom-mandatory-participation-in-discussion thing that’s so present at Bennington has made me infinitely more comfortable with public speaking than I was before I came here. But despite the nerves, I got through my presentation alright, and was relieved to be asked some really smart, interesting questions at the end (that I could answer! – very important). I saw these questions as a very good sign, since they told me that people were not only following what I was saying but were interested in it. A big sigh of relief, and the hardest part of the three-day conference was over.

Perhaps even more rewarding than presenting my own paper and listening to those of other students, though, was attending the readings of the four guest authors. The NULC typically gets some pretty impressive names – Ray Bradbury, Raymond Carver, Tim O’Brien, Jamaica Kincaid, and Michael Chabon have all come in the past, to name a few. This past week, I not only sat in on the presentations of writers Ana Menendez, Alan Cheuse, Campbell McGrath, and Lawson Fusao Inada, but I actually met and had really great conversations with both Ana and Alan (on a first name basis now? sure). Alan, who’s a writer and also a book reviewer for NPR’s “All Things Considered,” actually taught at Bennington for a decade back in the ’70s – a fact I only learned Thursday morning. After I introduced myself as a current Bennington student and we’d talked for a while, he and Ana and the conference director offered me a ride back to my hotel. I don’t want to say that this was the most exciting moment of the week for me, but it was pretty thrilling in a wonderfully nerdy sort of way.

If you’re dying to know what my paper is about (not likely, but possible), you can take a look at the introduction below. And if you haven’t already, read Tom Jones. It’s worth every one of its 900 pages. (more…)

By Rachel '10 | Posted in Student Work | Comments (0)

Dealing with Bananas?

Notes from the Playwrighting I Class

This term, I have two classes in the Crossett Library Conference Room.  On Wednesday afternoon, I walked in for literature class with Annabel Davis-Goff.  This was on the white board.  The next day when I returned for my poetry class, this odd array of lists was still there.

One of my classmates joked that his final poetry portfolio may be titled “Dealing with Bananas,” in honor of point six on one of the lists.  When Mark Wunderlich, my poetry teacher entered and saw the lists, he laughed and said, “The optional assignment for this week will be to write a poem using the entirety of one of these lists.”  We all agreed that the list containing “dealing with bananas” would have to be the one.

Turns out, these are notes from Sherry Kramer’s Playwrighting I class.  I’m not quite sure what they are about or what they mean.  While I could go track that information down, I think I enjoy the mystique of the lists a little too much.

By Kaitee '11 | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)