Enact Social Change

Lately over at The Warrior Poet Group, Rod, Dave, and I, in addition to discussing the nature of literature and writing in general, have decided to take up the cross of social change as part of our mission. In addition to adding several groups to our website in the hopes of supporting them and raising awareness, we've decided to also start up a blog, called Warrior's Song. The focus of our blog is to act as, to use Rod's words,

a platform to enact change when we otherwise might not know how. There are a lot of things I'd like to see change in the world, but I'm not always sure where to start or what to do--a problem I don't think I'm alone in. The blog will 1) help us feel like we're doing something when we're at a loss of what else to do, and 2) keep action on our minds.

Our goal at WPG, then is two fold: ensure the advancement of literature despite heavy competition from marginalization and mainstream media, and do so while supporting institutions that value the earth, as well as humanity as a whole. Hopefully, our mission will infect all of our friends, and a true literary and cultural revolution can begin to take hold. So if you have a moment, add our blog to your RSS feed, and maybe you'll see something that will help either yourself or someone around you.

Long Road to Ruin

Today, I kick off my post with a nod to the Foo Fighters. They've always been a band that I've liked and respected, but never listened to seriously until the local college radio station started playing "The Pretender" on heavy rotation. I can't get enough of the new album. Simply, they rock.

Work's been significantly horrific lately--I'm building a project that's guaranteed to waste money, piss people off, and take up a lot of time. But hey, I'm just a goon, and who cares about office automation that saves millions? Not my company. They like making employees feel bad on many levels.

But the point of today's blog isn't to bitch about work (hell, I could get fired for that), It's to talk about the chapter's end booming right up into the presence of my present: The end of Graduate School. In two months, I'll be a Master. Of words. And hopefully by the end of the year, I'll have a finished book.

I sent in my thesis on saturday, and now all that's left are a few things (with ridiculously short deadlines): 1. Workshop Piece 2. Prep for PCEA Conference 3. Warrior Poet Group Creative Assignment 4. Prep for Graduating Lecture and Reading 5. Comment on Workshop stuff.

The worst part? I'm ready to take a break. Yesterday. But I have till the 9th for the Workshop, PCEA, and Warrior Poet Deadlines. I'm sure Rod'll let me slide a little on the WPG (though he may break an arm if I slide more than a day), but the other two are pretty daunting at the moment. For Workshop, I'm taking this story, "The Poetics of Memory" and trying to fix the structural outer story so that it exists as a complete arc in its own vein to mirror the interior arc. Hopefully, the ideas I have tonight will help facilitate that. For the PCEA Conference, I have to condense a 33 page ECE into a 15 minute presentation, and a 23 page story into a similarly timed reading. I don't imagine that portion should be too rough, but it'll still take a couple of days.

Once everything school is done, I'm looking forward to a few days of doin' nuthin' with the family, demolishing my basement, and maybe even playing a little Rockband (the best type of crack/cocaine available).

That's the news from Erie, the city where the weather always sucks, and I like it that way.

(Self Promotion) About Writing Groups

I'm a real big fan of writing groups. After I graduated from college, I co-ran "The WordHungry Workshop"--a writing group for English-major aspirant High schoolers. That was one of the best summers, writing-wise of my life. And during that time, I realized that Writing Groups were the way to go when you don't have the regular stimulation of an ongoing educational program. So, today's blog entry will be about the two writing groups that I'm currently involved with. Thanks to the Internet, it's easier than ever to set one up--Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, or even something like Wikipages are all great locations to pick out as a place to start your own group.

As some of you may know, last year I started up a writing group for fellow students at Spalding called SWING (Spalding Writing is not a Group). The whole idea is for the group to be a sort of writing community meeting ground, where we can share creative endeavors, post information, all kinds of stuff, really. SWING members have shared ECEs, given feedback on stories and poems. We've run some small contests there, and posted a lot of useful information on writerly tools--places to submit, programs to use, job postings etc. It's pretty much a catch-all writer's group, and if you're a Spalding student and interested, shoot me an email and I'll send you an invite to the group.

Recently, Rod Dixon, Dave Harrity and I set up our own group. The Warrior Poet Writing Group. Rod came up with the initial idea--to establish a writing group that regularly explores both creative and academic elements of literature beyond the realm of academia. The idea is that we each take turns teaching a book, short story, poem, whatever to the other members of the group. We then, in turn also write a creative piece based off of our discussion of that author. Our goal is to broaden our literary horizons by attacking the world of literature from multiple angles: creative and critical. We also hope to be able to use our experience in the group to aid us in the classroom by helping us learn to become better teachers, thinkers, writers. Finally, we have some longshot distance goals for the group: attend writing conferences together, start up a Literary journal reflecting our views towards the literary world, and to create several public projects relating to reading, understanding, and writing literature. The above listed website will be where we host all of our goings ons, public info and the like. Our book discussions and creative endeavors, however, will be made available upon request.