A major goal of the College of Arts & Sciences is to promote advanced research, mentorship and apprenticeship experiences especially during the student's junior and senior years. CPCW's writing apprenticeships project was created in 2003 to meet this goal.
Each year during the spring semester, the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing hosts three writing apprenticeships. Members of the faculty affiliated with Penn's writing programs sponsor one apprenticeship each. The apprenticeships are one full semester in duration. Students chosen to be CPCW apprentices will receive one course credit (English 199). Sophomores, juniors and seniors are eligible to apply, although juniors and seniors will be given strong preference.
The apprentice and his or her faculty mentor will work together on a project that is at the heart of the mentor's work as a practicing writer and/or as member of a professional writing community. The apprenticeship is not an "independent study," nor a time for the student to write a creative or critical thesis; the goal of the program is to feature advanced problem-solving of the sort writers face when they take on a major project, an in-depth consideration of actual writing practices, an introduction to one of the great variety of writing-related projects writers undertake.
Each apprentice and his or her mentor will create their own expected outcomes and guidelines (including evaluation of any practical and written work to be assigned) for the student's work in this unusual "course."
A Daily Pennsylvanian article on our apprenticeships project is available here.
And read a blog entry by Beth Kephart describing her experience with her 2006 apprentice.
Writing apprenticeships are made possible through a generous grant from Reina Marin Bassini (CW72 GED72) and Emilio Bassini (C71 W71 WG73).
In the spring term of 2010, three members of the writing community are each taking on one apprentice. The three students awarded the apprenticeships and will be enrolled in a course (English 199) that can be counted toward the Creative Writing concentration within the English major, and/or as an elective within the English major for those who are not Creative Writing concentrators, and/or toward the Creative Writing minor, and/or as an elective course toward graduation requirements for those not affiliated with the English major or Creative Writing program.
Kenny writes: "For the past five years, I have been working on rewriting of Walter Benjamin's The Arcades Project, whose tentative title is Capital. Benjamin's book is a 900-page epic work of note-taking on everything that was written about Paris in the nineteenth century; mine uses Benjamin's identical methodology, applying it to New York in the twentieth century."
For this internship, you will be required to intimately acquaint yourself with The Arcades Project, its scope, its methodology, its histories and the critical apparatus surrounding the English publication of the book just a few years ago; you will also be expected to acquaint yourself with Benjamin's other key works. Once you have fully oriented yourself to Benjamin, you will assist me in my research, collection, transcription and editing of materials from a variety of sources including the library, old newspaper articles and the internet.
Kenny Goldsmith's apprentice will be Thomson Guster, a senior English major with a concentration in Creative Writing.
Kathryn Watterson loves stories-she loves to read them, write them, tell them, and elicit them from you. As her apprentice, you will be working with a writer who has won the Christopher Award, had three books listed as New York Times Most Notable Books, and is a celebrated newspaper reporter, editor, free-lance writer, essayist, short-story writer, novelist, and author of creative nonfiction books. Currently, she is completing a novel set in the 1950s; putting finishing touches on The North's Most Southern Town: An Oral History of African American Princeton, 1900-2000; and writing/revising short stories and essays. She writes lyrics, sings and drums with PLP TheUnity, a performance arts ensemble. Her apprentice will research events that occurred in the 1970s for a novel-in-progress that explores the human condition, racism, interracial relationships, and the prison system.
This project and others may include some interviews and transcriptions. She also wishes for help with the nuts and bolts of the writing business, including letters regarding permissions and submissions; proofreading; editing; fact-finding, and fact checking (sometimes on the spur of the moment for a political commentary). The ideal apprentice will enjoy having fun and searching for gems in the assigned research, be well organized, thorough, flexible in terms of the scope of the work, and interested in matters of social justice.
Kitsi Watterson's apprentice will be Katie Sanders, a sophomore majoring in Urban Studies with an English minor
PennSound's first apprentice will work closely with Managing Editor Michael S. Hennessey, building a strong foundation in the technical skills necessary to keep the site running (site-specific methodologies, audio editing, file transfer protocols, webpage building), before assuming more administrative duties, such as workflow management, fact-checking and research, correspondence with poets and archivists, site promotion through Twitter and Facebook, and writing copy for the site. Final goals will include independent oversight of several small projects and writing several short features for the PennSound Daily column. For the ideal candidate, this apprenticeship will be an excellent opportunity to develop useful communications skills while indulging a fervent interest in contemporary poetry and poetics.
Michael Hennessey's apprentice will be Jeffrey Boruszak, a senior in the college. Jeffrey is an English major and a concentration in Poetry and Poetics.
Elizabeth Van Doren is Editor-in-Chief of a small, illustrated book publisher in New York. She juggles a full-time job as well as teaching creative writing at Penn. She needs the help of an apprentice in working on several huge book projects that are overwhelming in their schedule, exciting in their scope, and require various skills from research to editing the manuscript, writing captions, seeking permissions, photo research, creating an art log, proofing pages, etc. The apprentice will have the opportunity to become part of a publishing team, learn how books are acquired, edited, illustrated and made, and to contribute to the making of one or several books to be published in 2009 by performing a variety of tasks research to organizing material to writing. For anyone who thinks they might be interested in pursuing a career in publishing, this is a rare opportunity to work with an experienced editor in a fast-paced professional environment. Since the company is in New York, it would be ideal if the apprentice could come to New York occasionally to work in the office.
Dick Polman, national political correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer, describes the apprenticeship he is hosting as follows: "I have a demanding journalistic routine, writing a political blog - called 'The American Debate' - that is read by as many as 35,000 people a day, and I write other political commentary as well. All these duties require a lot of research, and a constant updating of fresh ideas. The work requires great discipline, but the rhythms are also very unpredictable, because of the need to react quickly to the news. I'm not sure what the writing mix will be like during the spring semester, but there will always be much to do. I'd require a good-humored, political-junkie apprentice who works fast and efficiently, who has a talent for news research, and who can contribute fresh story ideas. The work circumstances would vary - sometimes we would be communicating via email, sometimes face to face in my Penn office, sometimes informally in Penn coffee shops. In short, a semester-long dialogue. Any help in making my writing better would be greatly appreciated. And the helper will undoubtedly gain much practical journalistic experience."
Peter Tarr is completing a book project (A Certain Blindness) that focuses on the U.S. government's first official effort to change the culture of foreign peoples beyond American shores. He refers to the astonishing attempt by U.S. officials and several thousand ordinary American public school teachers to establish English-language public school systems in the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Cuba. These places came under direct U.S. rule following the "Spanish-American War" of 1898. Logistically improbable and culturally aggressive, the educational project of the American conquerors was explicitly designed to de-hispanize (i.e., Anglicize) peoples long ruled by Spanish monarchs and influenced culturally by the Roman Catholic Church. Peter's strategy has been to tell the story for the first time from the perspective of the American teachers -- many of whom were young people just out of college, and some of whom wrote hundreds of letters home. He welcomes the assistance of an apprentice interested in helping him make substantial edits in a historical narrative he has constructed after a six-year period of archival research. Useful contributions will depend on the apprentice's interest in narrative strategy and skills as a close reader and editor. In addition to helping Peter streamline the story-line -- which follows seven young men and women who taught in the Philippines between 1901 and 1910 -- the apprentice also has the opportunity to make a significant contribution to a portion of the final narrative yet to be written: a section comparing the American educational and cultural enterprise of 1900 with that of the Peace Corps, founded in 1961 by John F. Kennedy. The apprentice has an opportunity to collect primary data -- letters from the "field" written by Peace Corps volunteers -- at archives in Washington D.C. An additional opportunity at primary-source gathering and assessment, as well as narrative reconstruction, exists if the apprentice is able to travel to Carlisle, PA. There, letters may (or may not) reside, containing descriptions by American soldiers in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines of their experiences dispensing English-language instruction to "natives," an activity conceptualized by American generals ca. 1900 as a form of counterinsurgency.
In the spring term of 2008, three members of the writing faculty are each taking on one apprentice. The three students awarded the apprenticeships - Sherene Joseph, Allison Stadd, and Hillary Levine - will be enrolled in a course (English 199) that can be counted toward the Creative Writing concentration within the English major, and/or as an elective within the English major for those who are not Creative Writing concentrators, and/or as an elective course toward graduation requirements for those not affiliated with the English major.
The three writing faculty members who agreed to take on an apprentice during the spring of 2008 were:
"My journalistic life is a hectic one, and mostly solitary, but it is a varied one. I write a Friday entertainment piece each week out of Atlantic City for the Philadelphia Daily News and will be starting a weekly outdoors column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. I write almost weekly for the New York Times either in Metro, New Jersey, sports, travel and special sections like automobiles and retirement. I do entertainment stories for the Los Angeles Times and national stories out of Philadelphia for the Washington Post. I do business analyses for the Wharton School, write about tech for PC Magazine, and do features for a trade publication called Today's Machining World. It's a bit of this and a bit of that. One big project I will need help with is a book I have a contract for with Rutgers University Press, an oral history of the suburbs of the 1950s-1960s. It uses as its main subject Cherry Hill, New Jersey, from which I have several dozen taped interviews I will need transcribed. I would also like the apprentice to do some more interviews, which should be fun and educational as well. I work out of my house in Haddonfield and am two blocks from the train to Philadelphia so a car, while helpful, isn't a necessity. An willingness to learn a little of everything and a good sense of humor - I use a lot of bad puns - is."
Robert Strauss' apprentice will be Sherene Joseph. Sherene is a junior majoring in English and Psychology with minors in South Asia Studies, Gender Studies and Sociology. At Penn, she has been involved with several cultural and minority organizations, including the South Asia Society (SAS), the Asian Pacific Student Coalition (APSC) and the United Minorities Council (UMC). She loved her "non-creative fiction writing" workshop with Robert Strauss and is looking forward to working with him.
"I'm looking for an apprentice who can help me survive the bipolar disorder of writing screenplays for Hollywood studios. The motto: 'More Art Faster.' At any one time I might be researching a new project, while finishing a first draft, while doing a re-write on an old project -- and they might all be due 'yesterday'. Disaster always looms and the zombies are eternally at the door. I need someone who not only has sharp research skills but also the imagination to understand how to extract 'facts' that are relevant to each film. This might involve gleaning dramatic moments from historic incident, constructing sequences, or fine-tuning dialog. The intern will learn how the architecture of a script differs from novels and plays. He/ She will soon grow comfortable with the myriad day to day tasks of a working screenwriter, such as: throwing around concepts to discard dead end ideas, uncovering punch lines, finding analogous moments in earlier films, uncovering hip slang for characters, finding out the latest army weaponry, or discretely 'borrowing' from other screenplays. Since I am on campus only once a week in the spring, the ability to get up to Bucks County (either by train or car) would be a plus -- though not a deal breaker. High energy is good. Cockiness better. Most of all, the applicant should beware that Hollywood dreams are infectious and can inspire risky behavior that might preclude Penn Law or Med School to disastrous effect."
Mark Rosenthal's apprentice will be Hillary Levine, a junior majoring in Cinema Studies. She has taken several writing courses including Advanced Nonfiction Writing, Creative Nonfiction Writing and "Writing the Personal Essay/Writing Fiction." She hopes the apprenticeship will help her decide if screenwriting is a career for her.
"Since late 2003 I've been engaged in a nonfiction book, under contract to Alfred A. Knopf publishers, about Ernest Hemingway. The book is tentatively titled "Hemingway's Boat." It is trying to be less a conventional work of biography than a narrative concept, a storytelling idea, that's a little tricky to explain. Basically, the project is trying to think about Hemingway through the prism and lens of something that was deeply beloved--and that still exists, on a hillside in Cuba--and that belonged to him for the last twenty-seven years of his complex life. This marks the second time I'll be pleased to work with a CPCW writing apprentice on the project: in 2004, Jessica Lussenhop, now enrolled at Columbia University graduate school of journalism, helped greatly with early stages of the research. The writing is in full swing; I'm approximately half-way through, at least in terms of a first-draft manuscript. I'm now looking for a literary-minded, self-starting creative-writing student who'll be able to work closely with me on several knotty research problems that are up ahead. It should be a good learning experience for both of us."
Paul Hendrickson's apprentice will be Allison Stadd, a Junior at Penn from Bethesda, Maryland. She has a keen interest in Hendrickson's current book-length project on Hemingway. She has alread taken his writing workshop on writing from photographs. Allison plans to pursue a career in writing.
The three writing faculty members who agreed to take on an apprentice during the spring of 2007 were:
Fiction writer Kathleen DeMarco is under contract with Harcourt to write her first childrenís novel, Drizzle, targeted towards readers between eight and twelve years-old, (although, in a perfect world, it would be accessible to readers of all ages). Drizzle tells the story of an eleven year-old girlís discovery that she has inherited a genetic ability to make it rain...or drizzle, as the case may be. [She is also, not-coincidentally, determining whether she should follow the path of her aunt, who represents all things sophisticated and creative, or her mother, who is much less dazzling, and much more interested in showing respect to people and cleaning the house.] Although this book does not need to be scientifically precise, it must be familiar with, among other things, genetics and meterology. Her apprentice should be familiar with - if not passionate about - childrenís literature, and willing to research weather patterns and the science of genetics. All aspects of writing a novel under contract will be observed, including editing the novel-in-progress with Ms. DeMarco, open-ended conversations about the narrative, discussion of the publisherís notes of the first draft, and working under a deadline. An ancillary responsibility will be the creation of a website for this novel with Ms. DeMarco, and all that such a site would entail (including teaching Ms. DeMarco how to maintain the site).
Herman Beavers will be working to develop a book project he is currently co-editing with poet, Honoree Jeffers from the University of Oklahoma entitled, Changing Chords: Performing African American Poetics in the 21st Century, which will consist of essays by both established and emerging African American poets dealing with the state of black poetry in the African Diaspora. He is also working with poet Elizabeth Alexander to plan a major conference on African American poetry and poetics to be held in Philadelphia (with a number of events hopefully taking place at Penn) in 2007-08. The apprentice will assist Professors Beavers and Jeffers to compile a bibliography of essays written in the last decade dealing with American poetry and poetics, as well as to help with the logistics for planning the conference, which may include developing a website for the conference, corresponding with potential participants, and working to develop sites off-campus for readings and receptions. The apprentice will be privy to as many discussions on both projects as possible in the hope that s/he will provide substantial input. Because these projects involve long-range planning, a sophomore or a junior is preferred so that they might be able to see both projects along, either into the late stages or to completion.
"I am a working journalist based in New York," writes Anthony DeCurtis of this apprenticeship, "who is blessed and cursed with juggling a variety of projects and assignments, often on short notice and mostly to do with popular music. Here the harrowing truths of such work will be revealed - the corners cleverly cut; the disasters deftly avoided, the mounting deadlines nudged imperceptibly into the realm of the possible. The apprentice's task will be to heroically assist in those processes while revealing nothing about how closely the abyss loomed at all times. For students who have worked at the Daily Pennsylvanian or 34th Street, this will, of course, be familiar terrain, though such experience is not at all required. The work itself will typically involve research, and possibly some transcription and fact-checking. Excellent research skills, reliability and a passion for accuracy are therefore essential virtues. Top-notch computer abilities would be a plus as well. Because I live in New York and likely won't be around campus much in the spring, the ability to travel to New York from time to time would be important. I will routinely be available by phone and email, however, and, needless to say, conversations about the ever-changing journalistic world would be a central part of this experience. This apprenticeship would probably be most valuable to students who are considering journalism as a career, or who foresee writing in popular settings along with whatever else they might be doing later. The apprentice will be welcome to participate in my work as deeply as time, distance and common sense will allow. After this, I promise, nothing will surprise you."
The three writing faculty members who agreed to take on an apprentice during the spring of 2006 were:
Kenneth Goldsmith is under contract to co-edit an anthology of Conceptual Writing, the most recent cutting-edge development in experimental writing circles. The book will be an overview of Conceptual Writing, from its inception during early modernism to the present day. It will be an extension of The UbuWeb Anthology of Conceptual Writing (http://ubu.com/concept) and the apprentice's work will be engaged on the screen as well as on the page. The apprentice's tasks will include editing, correspondence with historic figures, textual and audio conversions, garnering permissions, and extensive research into the past, present and future conditions that have made this one of the most important trends in writing today.
Award-winning literary nonfiction author Beth Kephart is currently focused on a book-length narrative that draws its inspiration from the natural and social history of Philadelphia. Her apprentice will gain exposure to the annals of Philadelphia history, participate in the cataloging of key events, and engage, with Kephart, in conversations about the always-alchemical process of transforming historic fact into poetic possibility. Her apprentice will also gain exposure to Kephart's award-winning communications firm, a writing and design company serving some of the area's largest organizations in the creation of commemorative books, annual reports, and special publications. Read about the outcome of this apprenticeship in Beth's blog!
Lorene Cary's apprentice will work with her on the product side of writing, first, by working on publicity details of the January publication of Free!: Great Escapes from Slavery on the Underground Railroad, a nonfiction middle-school book likely to be used in Philadelphia schools. Because the book is being published jointly by two independent presses, Ms. Cary has more to do than usual with marketing, and will need an apprentice who is fast, smart and literary to work with her on appearances, web site linking and updating, complimentary distribution, postcard announcements, databases and the like. The apprentice will work with Ms. Cary on the final editing, proofing and checking research for Blackface, an adult novel that she has just finished writing. Blackface takes place between 1936 and 1954. It tells the story of three generations of the Needham family whose patriarch is lynched in South Carolina. This post-creation work will give an apprentice a look at the writer's writing life in process. Although definitely not the fun part, publicity, editing, research and proofing are all necessary to do well to protect a writer's work and career.
The three writing faculty members who agreed to take on an apprentice during the spring of 2005 were:
Paul Hendrickson has been working for about a year on what will be his next nonfiction book project, tentatively titled "Hemingway's Boat," and under contract to Alfred A. Knopf. Like his previous nonfiction books, it is a conceptual project, using Ernest Hemingway's life and work to consider some thorny cultural and literary and political issues as America struggles into the twenty-first century. The work is still in the research stage; much has been done; much remains to do before the writing can begin--starting, Hendrickson hopes, in the spring of 05. A student apprentice would help the author with some specific research areas, including plans for travel to Cuba. An apprentice would also lend his/her insight to the narrative structure now jaggedly in place--and yet always in need of new youthful eyes and ideas.
J.C. Hallman is nearing the end of "The God Variations," a book to be published by Random House. "The God Variations" is a survey of new religious movements in the United States, told in the spirit of William James's book Varieties of Religious Experience, but in the narrative journalism style of Bruce Chatwin or Barbara Ehrenreich. The book explores movements such as Wicca, the Monks of New Skete, Atheism, the Christian Wrestling Federation, and a pair of UFO cults. An apprentice will read the manuscript to help shape some of its core thematic threads and arguments, as well as assist in some of the detail work that arises in a manuscript close to completion.
Tom Devaney is editing The Use of the Useless: Selected Prose, to be published by Fish Drum Press. The book is a collection of Devaney's work, a survey of the landscape of contemporary poetry. It will contain his essays, talks, reviews, and interviews, originally published in a variety of publications including The Boston Review, The Poetry Project Newsletter, and Poets & Writers Magazine. The Use of the Useless charts both established and newly-discovered American writers: Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, Fanny Howe, Lyn Hejinian, Robert Creeley, Peter Gizzi, Eileen Myles, Sparrow, and others. It is a collection governed by a passion for and a curiosity about writers and writing, and it enters into the long-standing conversation and bond among critical writing, poetry, and art. An apprentice will be involved in all aspects of the creation of this book, helping compile, edit and make decisions about individual sections and chapters of the manuscript and provide editorial feed-back on the selections themselves. Tom Devaney hopes to find an undergraduate apprentice who is excited and deeply curious about writers and the process of writing.
The three writing faculty members who agreed to take on an apprentice during the spring of 2004 were:
Max Apple will work with an apprentice on the art of fiction writing. His stories and essays are widely anthologized and have appeared in Atlantic, Harpers, Esquire, and many literary magazines and in Best American Stories and Best Spiritual Writing. The chosen apprentice will work closely with him on his or her own fiction project and will receive advice about placing the work in magazines and journals.
The poet Gregory Djanikian is currently writing a book of poems about genocide--an emotionally complex, deeply personal kind of writing (as well as historical). His apprentice will work closely with him on this project and, in a sense, will be a focused study on, as he puts it, "how does one write about what is unspeakable without diminishing its enormity"? At the bottom of this page you will a full description of this project.
Greg Djanikian adds: "My project for the last two years has been writing poems about the Armenian genocide of 1915 and the diaspora that ensued, sending Armenians emigrating to all parts of the world. That genocide, during which a million to a million-and-a-half Armenians died, is regarded as the first genocide of the 20th Century, and in some ways, it paved the way for succeeding genocides and ethnic cleansings. Writing about such a cataclysm is difficult for many reasons. It raises, for instance, questions of aesthetics--how does one write about what is unspeakable without diminishing its enormity? It brings into play feelings that one has to resolve, suppress or manage without repeating the savagery of the event itself. It forces us to ask for whom the poems are being written, for the victims of the genocide, intending to pay them honor and sacralize their lives, or for the poet or readers who, for peace of mind, may want to contain the unholy brutality of such events in something as shapely and fastidious as a work of art. Finally, it tries to discover how, by focusing on particular events, it might embrace a whole range of human feeling that is not reserved to a particular time or community."
This apprenticeship will involve the making (and conceptualizing) of a stupendously comprehensive digital poetry archive. It is called "PennSound," and will feature freely shared MP3 files of poets reading their own poems. Prospective apprentices should look at the PennSound web page.