Students filled the Founders room in Mead Hall for the first Writers@Drew event of the semester to hear readings and writerly insights from authors Cleyvis Natera and Brenda Shaughnessy on Sept. 25.
The event began with Natera, an award-winning novelist, reading an excerpt from her 2022 novel “Neruda on the Park.”
“Neruda on the Park” is Natera’s first novel, and revolves around a Dominican immigrant neighborhood in New York facing gentrification. Natura described the novel as being about “what it means to face unrest both in the neighborhood and at home.”
Shaughnessy, an Okinawan-Irish American Poet with seven poetry collections, then read a selection of poems beginning with “Moving Far Away” from “Tanya,” her 2023 collection.
Shaughnessy explained how “Tanya” is about her freshman-year college roommate, who she was really close with, but stopped speaking to after a fight. She said, “she’s not the subject of the book, she’s the idea of the book.” Shaughnessy described the collection as being “about influence really, artistic influence.”
Before transitioning into a Q&A session with both authors, Shaughnessy concluded the reading portion with “Identity & Community (There Is No ‘I’ in ‘Sea’)” from her 2019 collection, “The Octopus Museum.”
The floor was then opened to students who asked questions about the readings as well as the writing craft and process.
One student was impressed with the vivid imagery throughout both authors’ works and posed the question, “How do you come up with your visuals?”
“I think that multisensory material in any kind of work … is key,” said Shaughnessy. “It’s an easy way for a writer to make that incredible leap into another psyche.”
For Natera, visuals form during the revision process. She begins with “A really strong sense of the character,” then during revision she asks, “what would give them comfort?” allowing the creation of the textured scenes that make her novel come alive.
Another student asked how the writers managed so many themes and ideas in their works, as well as such complex characters.
Natera described that her novel, which took 15 years to bring to publication, evolved through a process. The story was much simpler, but as things in her life started to change and become complicated, “The back story became the front story.”
“People told me it was going to be hard because so much was going on,” said Natera. Despite this, the novel’s complicated nature resonates with many.
Shaughnessy touched on her own experience with writing multiple themes; she begins writing by hand and then rewrites it on the computer, creating two versions of the poem.
“One is much closer to the miasma chaos of my mind,” said Shaughnessy. “I don’t have a linear mind. Whatever’s in my mind is in the poem. I don’t get to choose.”
Speaking on the publishing process, Shaughnessy described her experience losing her editor. “It really crushed me, and made me feel like I was fake and nothing was real,” she said. The many rejections that followed made her feel “humbled and desolate, I thought my biggest dream was dashed.” Ultimately, she found a new editor, and reflected that “It’s good to be rejected,” and “to reassess every single time.”
Natera shared her own experience with struggling to publish her novel. Natera promised herself she would not move on from this novel, and eventually was able to publish.
“Everyone kept telling me I would not sell this book,” said Natera. “There are so many gatekeepers, but once it gets through, people read it.”
Natera extended this advice to other writers when she expressed the sentiment, “Keep with it.”
Katie Carmichael is a senior majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing, minoring in teaching.
Featured image courtesy of Katie Carmichael.
