July 17, 2012- Guest Blogger Michelle Lee

Hi friends & writers,

I’m Michelle Lee, bosom buddy of Elisabeth McKetta and writer of short stories, poems, plays, as well as writer of academic whatsit as a professor of English at Daytona State College. When teaching writing classes and mentoring writers, I usually only suggest things I actually do myself as a writer, and this summer, I have been wading into dark water. I have been going into places that might be taboo, places that might spark my friends into thinking, “Could this be true?” even when it is not.

It’s difficult to wade into murk, where you call on emotions, ideas, or even experiences that are purposefully hidden, restrained, and/or painful – or even those that might seem dangerously shocking to admit (for you and for the reader). So my task for you, dear writers, is for you to wade with me. Write about something you dare not write about. You choose whether to fictionalize it or remain true.

Tread water, writers. See what keeps you afloat and makes you sink.

Michelle

PROCESS: EXPLORING THE CATALYST

As writers, we have the opportunity to counsel and heal ourselves through language. We can spill our hurt onto a page and, afterward, look at it from a distance. We have the opportunity to exorcise demons through imagery, then thumb our noses at them when they become nothing more than black letters in a file that we can easily close. But the key is the catalyst.

Try this: Write the name of something (a person, an object, a wish, a feeling, or a desire) that you cannot or should not have. Then, make a list of 5-10 reasons why. Then, next to those reasons, just down the way that makes you feel. If you are a poet, shape that list into a poem. If you are a fiction writer, shape that list into a rough idea for a short story. A non-fiction writer? Shape that list into a piece that reaches out to readers and says, It’s OK to feel this way.

FEATURED VENUE: SCYTHE LITERARY JOURNAL

Send Scythe 3 – 5 of your best poems, the ones that haunt you and stand by you and impel you to thrive. Send the poems that burn a hole in your hand when you cannot write them down fast enough. Send these poems in the body of an email to chenelle23@gmail.com. Online submission deadline: July 21, 2012

Submission guidelines here: http://scytheliteraryjournal.com/

PROMPT

“Taboo means ….” (2 min)

GUEST BLOGGER BIO: Michelle S. Lee is an assistant professor of composition, literature, and creative writing at Daytona State College.  She earned both her M.A. in Creative Writing and her Ph.D. in English Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Her work, both poetry and fiction, has been featured in Tattoo Highway, Bateau Press, pacificReview, 580 Split, and Fickle Muses as well as other publications, but most recently has appeared in the journals, Sliver of Stone and Psychic Meatloaf.  Another poem is forthcoming this summer with Northwind magazine. You may contact her at leem@daytonastate.edu.