So, anti-fantasy writers. I think I must have been really lucky to run in to MLC when I started taking creative writing, rather than one of the anti-fantasy profs in the English department. Like for my novella class. Now, it's kind of depressing to meet another anti-fantasy prof for workshop. I guess it's a little harsh calling them anti, but they're certainly not supporters of writing fantasy. Well, like the prof said, genre and literary kind of exist on two parallel planes. It's okay to cross over and do a hybrid, but apparently not all the way. Blah.

(And my story wasn't even pure fantasy. It was mythological. And historical. And steeped in long-established cultural sensibilities. And yes, fantasy, if you look at it that way. In your face.

...I guess I just don't like being told I shouldn't write fantasy for a graduate workshop, just because it's fantasy.)

New semester

A new semester! The first week is over, and things are looking good. My first-year composition class is really with it this time--I don't know if they're always like this during spring semester, or if I just have a savvier group this time. Anyways, they talk, they ask questions, they form groups of four like I ask them to and work together. Things my class in the fall couldn't or didn't do. So far, they're a good group.

I'm taking another fiction workshop and also a creative nonfiction workshop. Both workshops will require three pieces each during the semester, plus some readings for discussion and miscellaneous work. Hope I'm up for it. At least I know my fellow fictioneers this semester and what to expect from them, but it makes me a little nervous, wondering how my writing and ideas will be received by the professors who are teaching this semester.

Also taking Archiving Theory and Practice, which promises to be awesome. At least, I hope so. The idea of being an amateur archivist is exciting. Also, it's a service-learning course, so we get to interact with community organizations. Archive for them. I guess it's different from anything I've taken so far, so tanoshimi ni shiteiru.

Other than those three courses, I'm taking the mentorship course again, in which we were promised a lighter workload than last semester, haha. I dropped the Between Essay and Narrative course just because I suck at writing and I need more time to focus on it. Also, the idea of a three-hour discussion seminar with six students following the three-hour archiving seminar promised to be more stressful than I'm up for.

In other news, Julie Otsuka is visiting and giving a reading next Thursday evening, and I volunteered for driving duty on Friday to drop her off at the airport. Whee!