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On this warm summer morning I am sitting at my desk, hoping for the words to
express themselves effortlessly and in perfect order. But I’ve been writing and
teaching long enough to realize that the muse, the creative spirit, or the process
just doesn’t work that way. For as poet and teacher William Stafford says,
A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has
found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he
had not started to say them.
So as I’m sipping coffee reflecting on his words, I’m thinking of the years I’ve spent engaging in an activity that has brought on a succession of poems, narratives, and memories, a process which has helped me to help others to bring out their stories, poems, essays, screenplays, or random thoughts and emotions. One key element to this process, Stafford says, is just plain receptivity. Similarly, I like to have a spacious interval and special place where I’m not going to be interrupted, except for the cat nibbling my elbow. Whether it’s twenty minutes, an hour, or more, I’m there waiting, like fishing, hooking anything that bites. The point is to get started and trusting that the meandering will take us where we need to go even if we have to edit subsequent drafts. The other key element is reading and studying writers, including imitating their techniques to provide the scaffolding that brings out our own voices. Even writing interpretive essays in response to a writer’s work serves to educate our craft. Surprising results emerge from this process of plain receptivity and the close study of text. Milestone 2003, then, reminds us again of this process and of the rich body of voices we have here at East Los Angeles College, voices that cross cultural, ethnic, generational, thematic borders to meet at the crossroads of creative pollination. Within this bouquet, we have blooming flowers as well as buds that are just beginning to open. And, as in previous Milestones, students continue to examine and confront the enduring issues that impact their lives: identity (personal, ethnic, political), family, the neighborhood, education, love, friendship. But war and the current state of society, in particular the events triggered by our recent involvement in Iraq, have become additional issues for ELAC writers: for example, Frank Castorena’s The Truth Is, Javier Diaz’s Real Guys, David Dominquez’s In Retrospect and War and Sensibility, Oscar Hernandez’s The Rogue Nation, Nathan Smith’s One More Tomorrow. And perhaps as a consequence of the contemporary scene, Nathan Smith takes his reader on a spiritual vision quest in Arizona Suite. I would also point out to instructors and future contributors that Milestone 2003, as in Milestone 2002, includes samples of essays written in response to text: for example, Oscar Hernandez’s His-panic! Who’s Panicking? and Dear Malcolm X, Michelle Iwaki’s Conflicted Existence, Kevin Ma’s To Teenagers --- Looking for Self-Assurance?, Adriana Michel’s In My Blood, Bob Noz’s Ikiru: What is the Choice to Live Rather Than to Exist? and Raymond Carver’s Short Cuts: from Short Stories to Film, and Louise Leftoff’s Rashomon: Truth Is in the Eye of the Beholder. Finally, as the Creative Writing instructor for the Spring 2003 class, I would like to express my appreciation to the class for their contribution in selecting these writings. I am also grateful to Patricia Glover for designing and formatting this issue, members of the Art Department (Jim Uyekawa, Christine Moreno and Christopher Turk) for providing the graphics; Selina Chi and Stan Lim from Resource Development whose support has made Milestone 2003 possible; and to my colleagues in the English Department, Susan Suntree, Joan Gurfield, Eduardo Munoz, Sheila Goldstein, James Kenny, and Gisela Herrera, thank you for your advice and input. |
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