Pie For Everyone

I had a lovely, lovely time. Thank you for that. The pie was amazing.

I've also had a wonderful semester, and will miss you all. Please keep in touch.

See you (in some form or another, I suppose) on Wednesday.

Some Clarification

I'm excited for our Pie Party tomorrow night!

That, said, I had some things I wanted to clarify before our class is officially over.

Here's what I want in your portfolio:

• One of your two revised short stories, formatted exactly to submission standards, ready to go on submission. (Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, page number with your name on the top right--I will put a sample of this in Dropbox.)

• A query letter for said story.

• A SASE (stamped), if you are sending out via snail mail.

• A larger manila or priority envelope, if you are sending out via snail mail. (I will pay postage.)

• A letter to ME, about your progress and analysis of the class, which I will keep.

All of these things can be turned in at my office between the hours of 12-1 on Wednesday (and in my mailbox upstairs anytime before that) OR in your specific student folder (the one with your name on it) in the Dropbox. Just make a folder for yourself entitled FINAL PORTFOLIO and clearly label everything that goes in that folder. If you are sending your submission via the internet, please send me a screenshot of your confirmation that you have submitted the story. Visit this website if you need instructions on how to take a screenshot.

Final Letter Guidelines

 The idea behind the final letter is to show a context for the class.  The point of teaching in a portfolio style is that I, the instructor, am able to evaluate you, the student, based on your process as a young writer, not on the final products that you produce.  Here is your chance to explain your process and effort to me, before I grade your work.

 

            The letter should answer some or all of the following questions:

 

1)      What was your attitude about publishing before you entered this class?  How did you think about publishing? 

 

2)      How were these ideas about publishing, listed above, challenged or affirmed in this course?  What challenged them?  What was your favorite Conversational Topic?

 

3)      What was your writing process like during the course?  What did you feel was your biggest achievement?  How did you grow as a writer?

 

4)      How would you evaluate your “level of engagement” in the course?  How intellectually engaged were you with the readings we read, the workshops, and finally, your own work?  

 

5)      How did the readings impact your own sense of creative writing?  What were your favorite pieces?  What were the pieces that most affected you, challenged you, made you see another way of thinking?  What pieces did you struggle with the most, and how did you respond to that friction?

 

6)      (mandatory) How did Rust Hills affect your ideas about writing?  How did you see his ideas working through the published stories that we read.  Give at least one clear example of something Hills wrote about that you could apply to one of the stories that we read.

 

7)      What do you want me to know before I read your portfolio?  How do you want me to consider it?  What grade do you believe you deserve in this class?  Why?

 

The best final analysis letters are the ones that vividly show me your process as a writer, using specific texts, making specific reference to moments in the class or moments in your writing, referring to and even quoting your own work and the work of others.  In other words, specificity is the key.  Don’t write this letter in general terms, saying that “this was good,” or “I didn’t understand this. . .”  Dig deep into your experience.  Ask questions, and try valiantly to answer them.   

Query Letters

Please bring in a draft of your query letter on Tuesday, as we are going to cancel class on Friday on account of the Pie Party on Friday night, at 7pm at the Struloeff house! Woot! Bring a pie!

I will put a blank query letter in the Dropbox for you to start with. Please note that you will have to save your own as a separate file. . .

Below I've pasted my own query letter, which I sent to my first publication, The Iowa Review, almost exactly ten years ago, I'm just now noticing. Wow. A lot can happen in ten years.

                                                                                                                 2225 S. 27th Street
                                                                                                                 Lincoln, NE 68502
                                                                                                                 402-742-4150
                                                                                                                 Cindybojam1@aol.com

November 25, 2003

 

Fiction Editor

Iowa Review
University of Iowa
308 EPB
Iowa City, IA, 52242
 

Dear Editor:

Please find enclosed my short story, “The Sugar Shell,” for your consideration.  If accepted, this will be my first published story.

This past May I completed a short story collection entitled What the Good Is.   “The Sugar Shell” is the first of nine stories set in rural Idaho near the Teton mountains, where I lived for almost twenty years.  Currently I teach creative writing at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and also serve on the editorial staff of Prairie Schooner.  In the past I’ve read for The Idaho Review and screened poetry book manuscripts for Ahsahta Press.  In various workshops, I’ve worked with Robert Olmstead, Mitch Wieland, Greg Hrbek, Anthony Doerr, and Jonis Agee. 

A SASE is enclosed for your reply.  There is no need to return the manuscript.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Hand