Students Discuss Occupy Movement

We have seen the footage on the nightly news of protestors and police staring each other down, scuffles breaking out, and students being pepper-sprayed. The Occupy movement has only been in motion for a few months, but it has proven quite capable of grabbing our attentions. It provokes passionate thought and debate. It, like so many movements of this type, calls on us to challenge what we think we know, or feel about the role of our government. However, in its early infancy, some onlookers cannot help but question just what ultimately the message and means of success would be for the Occupy movement.

     On November 15th, a gathering of around 15-20 students came together in the Diversity Achievement Center to discuss just that. Led in part by History Professor, Robert Harrison, many issues were brought up for discussion, such as political actions taken over the last few decades in regards to the economy, to the nature of money in our politics, and even connections to prior protest movements. The recent outbreaks of violence and police brutality came to the forefront of discussions, as did how various news outlets had covered it.

     "What should be their goal?" prompted Professor Harrison.

     It seems like a simple question, but the broad and varied responses from the gathered crowd showed the magnitude of the problem.

     "People are fighting for jobs, and fairness," said one student to nods of agreement from some of their fellow students, and shaking heads from a few others, including one who was more than happy to share phone contact of places he knew of that were actively hiring.

     While one may think of Oregon as a solidly blue, liberal state, the diversity of ideas represented in the discussion spanned more than just a progressive view.

     One student, who spoke openly of being a Tea Party supporter, had questions that he had come to find answers for.

     "What is the Occupy movement about? I really do not know what they hope to achieve, and what message they are bringing to the table."

     They were questions even the Occupy supporters were seeking to understand.

     The passionate debates that ensued spoke of a universal desire of people of all many varied political views to ask the serious question of fairness in our government and its policies. Nothing was off the table, from the behavior of Wall Street, to the responsibilities of the citizens. The answers for how to address the nation's economic problems were as varied as the seemingly endless number of questions posed. It was clear to many that there was no easy answer.

     The tone of the discussion eventually took a more stern direction, even among ardent supporters of the Occupy movement when the issue of the cost of the protest themselves came up. As much as the supporters of the movement believed it was good that people were exercising their constitutional right to peaceful protests, many were worried about the financial burden of the heightened police presence, and the cost to repair the parks.

     "We will not know for months just how much it will cost to repair the park, grow the lost grass, and rehabilitate the trees effected by the protests," said one Occupy supporter. "These parks will now have to be fenced off, possibly until next summer before the public can get back in."

     It was clear to many that for all the good the Occupy movement can do, there was going to be a price for the choices the movement makes in seeking to get their message out there.

     By the end, the gathered students agreed upon one thing: Both sides of this debate recognize that something has to be done about the economic disparages facing our nation.

     The question both sides seem to find a hard time answering is just how we can fix them.

At a glance:

Started: September 17, 2011 in Manhattan’s Liberty Square Park

In 1,500 cities worldwide

Slogan: “We are the 99%”

Practices: Nightly ‘Democratic General Assemblies’ for members to voice concerns and share ideas, and invented ‘Human Megaphone’ to help ensure information passed through crowds when megaphones themselves are not allowed.

Profile: Karelia Stetz-Water - LBCC English Professor

To anyone walking into her office, Karelia Stetz-Waters may seem like a perfectly ordinary professor. Bookshelves dot the walls filled with books, textbooks, and reference works that might make the average student roll their eyes as the thought of being assigned to read. Personal and cultural items are scattered among the texts, and in a corner, a fish tank bubbles away with a few small fish darting around, and a snail oozing its way up the glass. However, a careful eye might spot some differences. From time to time, you might spot a stack of papers tucked away on the corner of her desk, separate from the student papers she is diligently grading. Other times, post-it notes might be crawling up the wall like the mystery snail in the tank, each plotting out an element or idea in a story.

     What many might not know is that Karelia Stetz-Water is a English Professor who likes to put her money where her mouth is, so to speak. Not just content to teach writing and literature to students here at LBCC, Stetz-Waters herself is an avid writer in her own right. She has already written a memoir, a thriller, and is currently hard at work on a sequel. She even currently has a manuscript under consideration by a top literary agency in New York who counts among its clients E! News correspondent, Ken Baker, famed film star and director, Richard Dreyfus, and the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.

     Karelia has been teaching at Linn Benton Community College since September of 2007, and has already made an impression.

     "Karelia is really great to work with," said fellow English professor, Callie Palmer. "She is always upbeat, which is a really nice attribute in a colleague. It is hard not to enjoy someone who is picky about grammar. I guess that is a bit biased, but one thing we share in the department is an enthusiasm for our calling."

     An enthusiasm is not lost on her students. Many current and former students have described her classes as both structure, but fun and engaging. Karelia Stetz-Water sets out to provide an atmosphere that is inviting as she works to help demystify some of the often miss-viewed as challenging aspects of a language it is easy to take for granted. For those lucky enough to take one of her classes, she has found ways to make them seem a little less daunting.

At a Glance

Courses:

• WR 121 English Composition – Exposition
• WR 122 English Composition – Logic and Style
• WR 214 Business Communications – Online and Face-to-Face
• WR 227 Technical Writing – Online and Face-to-Face
• ENG 105 Introduction to Fiction
• ENG 106 Introduction to Poetry
• ENG 208 African Literature

Video of Karelia speaking about her experince as a writer, and reading from her memoir, Suburban Love Stories.

Credentials:

Bachelors of Arts in Comparative Literature from Smith College, 1999

Masters of Arts in English with an emphasis on Queer Theory and Lesbian Fiction from University of Oregon, 2003

Question and Answer - Karelia Stetz-Waters - November 7th, 2011

Cory Warren: What classes do you teach here at Linn-Benton Community College?

Karelia Stetz-Waters: I teach writing 121, I teach technical writing 227, primarily online. I have also taught intro to poetry, intro to fiction, African literature, business communication and I will be teaching writing 115 for the first time.

CW: So, with all those papers to grade, how do you find time to write, yourself?

KSW: I write in the mornings, and on/in the evenings and the weekends, and I try to be very organized and disciplined about my work at work so that I can get my grading done in a 40-hour workweek, as opposed to bringing it home. I also tell my students that that works out well for me and well for them because I'm here, grading, and happy to be doing it. I know myself; if I was grading papers at 8 o'clock on a Saturday night, I would resent it, and no one wants their work read by someone who is resenting doing it. It works out well this way.

CW: What opportunities outside of classrooms does LBCC offer for students to explore writing?

KSW: we have the poetry club. We have the 'fooling around with words' conference, which takes place in April, which is just a writer's conference. Course, we have the creative writing classes, credit and non-credit. Then, hopefully our students are connected with all the neat things that go on in our community; there are always readings at the libraries… all sorts of stuff going on in Albany and Corvallis. Therefore, those are all available to our students.

CW: What is it like as a Professor to be writing a book during school?

KSW: I think it’s a great way to share my student's pain. Their writing a lot, they are pressed for time… they are struggling with the different parts of the writing process… writers block… revisions…. Praise and rejection, and it’s good for their instructors to be going through the same process. Admittedly, my word count is larger, and higher, but the experience is the same, and the five-page paper to a first-year student is just as big as a 50,000 words manuscript feels to me; I have just been doing it longer. And when a student who has been doing it as long as I have been writing, they too will be able to tackle a giant project, so I think it really keeps me honest about what it feels like to be a writer, which is good because it helps me sympathize.

CW: I have always felt self-conscious about people who are grumbling about a two-page paper, and I turned into a five-page paper that I wrote the night before. Therefore, it is keeping up with what the students are doing.

KSW: And I really believe that writing is like long distance running: a lot of doing it well is just putting in the time, a lot of being able to write a long document comes from writing many shorter documents, and practicing on the ability to run a marathon comes from running many shorter races. We all keep working on our skills, whatever the starting place were at… we just keep going forward.

CW: So, it is like 'Practice makes perfect'. As a teacher, you don't want to lapse into 'Well, I've got my degree, I've done it, so I'll judge them on what they're doing', but your also doing it yourself, so you're keeping in the mindset of how you form an idea, and how you put it on paper?

KSW: I certainly think there are a lot of different thing an English Professor can do to work on their professional development; writings mine. Some people research, some people do academic scholarship, some people do various different community/club activities, so I think I would never make it a requirement to write a book, but for me, it is a way I stay connected to my profession.

CW: What attracted you to writing in the first place?

KSW: I have enjoyed writing since I was a little kid, and I think I enjoyed having control over stories.

CW: Having got a few books under your belt, what advice do you have students looking to pursue writing as a career be it fiction, technical writing, or journalism?

KSW: I would say that it is important that students are realistic about the limited financial opportunities that writing presents. I think that writing professionally — either technical writing or creative writing — is enormously fulfilling, and worth doing. It is not something I would recommend as a primary source of income.

CW: What are you working on right now?

KSW: Right now, I am working on a sequel. The Sequel is called Sold, and it is about human trafficking. It is a sequel to my previously book, which was called Stumped, and that is a thriller about a serial killer, and the thriller is currently under review with my agent, which means she is reading the manuscript. If she likes it, she will represent it. If the editors she pitches it to like it, they will pitch it to the publisher, and if the publisher likes it, it will be published. Therefore, getting back to the question of a career in writing, you can see there are many points on the path in which any given work can be rejected, so it is a long process, a lot of it has to do with the vagaries of the market, and what people think will sell, which is an ever-moving target. But my hopes are high that the agent will like it, and that will get the ball rolling, plus I will have a sequel reading and waiting whenever the time comes.

CW: Now is this the same agent who represented your memoir?

KSW: it is.

CW: basically, even though the memoir did not sell, or has not sold yet, the process of getting an agent through your memoir has been positive because it built a working relationship that helped with your fiction works?

KSW: Yah, so it took about six months to find and agent for the memoir that I wrote in 2007, and the woman who was the first to offer representation was prestigious, so I was very excited to have her as my agent. She was not able to sell the book, but having an established relationship with her definitely made the process of pitching my new book much faster. My agent is very good about responding to initial queries; writers tell stories about not hearing from agents for nine months, or two years, if ever, and that is not my agent. She specializes in finding new authors, and is very responsive to letters, so it was not a long process to get in touch with her the first time, but the second time it was certainly much easier, friendlier, and simpler.

CW: So that is something a writer can think about. Getting your foot in a door can take a while, but once you get it in, keep at it, keep in communication with your agent even if they may not be able to get you a book deal on your first, they might be able to get you in the subsequent works?

KSW: Yah.

CW: Do not allow yourself to get discourage too quickly?

KSW: Yah and that would be advice I would give to all writers. First, there is no point of writing unless the person loves the process of writing, because there is no guarantee that you will ever be published, make money, or be successful in the public forum. But you are a success if you enjoy it. Second, every major writer has a story about how many hundreds of rejections they suffered; whether it was rejections from agents or publishers, or books that never were sold, then one day, someone discovers them, and it is enormously satisfying.

CW: I kept telling myself, eight rejections was nothing when J. K. Rowling had fifteen. Therefore, what would have happened if she had stopped at 14?

KSW: Right.

CW: No one would know who she is, and she would have probably given it another go with another book, but if you have something to say, and you have a story to tell, do not sell yourself short.

KSW: I believe that you do not even start counting until you have had at least fifty rejections.

CW: I was reading on your website that you have a book with Dystel and Goderich. How long have you had your fiction manuscript with them?

KSW: they have no accepted it yet. They're just reviewing the manuscript.

CW: Have you just gone through the query process? Have you gotten a request for a full manuscript for review at this point?

  

KSW: maybe a week or two ago they asked for the full manuscript.

CW: So you are still in the heat of things. Is there anything else you want people to know about you? Any quirks or funny stories about your life that have helped you keep perspective as a writer? I know, that is a broad question.

KSW: That is a great question, but I cannot think of anything off the top of my head.

NaNoWriMo: Noveling Turbocharged

The room is filled with the din of keyboard keys, the ding of a defiant typewriter coming to the end of its line, and the occasional burst of laughter as someone leaned into a read a line. To the casual observer, the conference room at the Salem Public Library would look like nothing more than a bunch of writers working away on their laptops, or scribbling away with pen on paper. However, this group is different.

     It's November, and for over 200,000 writers worldwide, it is NaNoWriMo time, where daring writers take the month to write 50,000 words on a novel. And for members of the mid-Willamette valley, meetings such as these offer a chance for NaNo'ers, as they are called, to gather, share their stories, goof off, and get some much needed time into their word counts.

     NaNoWriMo firststarted in July of 1999, when a group of 21 writers in the San Francisco Bay area decided to try something new, and set out to challenge themselves to write a short novel quickly, allowing in the rush of trying to meet a seemingly impossible deadline for the ideas to flow freely and without censorship. The next year, the group came together, choosing to move the event to its new home of November, and opened a website. From that day forward, the number of participants have steady grown into a worldwide phenomenon, with over 2.8billion words written during the 2010 event alone.

     Moreover, as the event has grown, so too has the yearly meetings with the Salem NaNo region. What once was only ten people sitting at a table in a room at Chemeketa Community College, the growing popularity of the event means the Salem Region, once only one of a handful in Oregon, now boasts nearly 900 members, with hundreds coming to the many write-ins hosted throughout the month of November.

     On Saturday November 5th, after a quick introduction by Jamie King, the Salem Area Municipal Liaison (a volunteer who organizes a region's events), and a few games to break the ice and get the silliness flowing, the writers were off. Each was quickly lost in their own stories as they worked to catch up to the daily word count goal (1,667 being the average daily word count one must write to stay on target.)

     Periodically, Jamie would stand out, and shout over the clack of keyboards to announce that they would be starting a word war, where everyone tries to out type all the rest in a burst of ten-fifteen minutes of writing. The mood in the room changed immediately; as everyone took a quick break to let, their hands have a rest before the sprint. It did not take long into the first Word War to realize how seriously the gathered writers took it. Everyone fell silent, and were focused solely on beating the others, or at least, beating their own record. By the end of it, when people slumped back in their chairs, massaging their wrists (especially those of us who handwrote during the challenge), many walked away with a sizeable portion of their daily word count finished, and three (one each for laptops, typewriter, and handwritten) walked away with a prize.

     However, why would someone want to put themselves through such a grueling challenge as NaNoWriMo?

     Jamie, the long time Salem Area ML summed it up as such: "I was very interested in the idea of being able to write without the constraints of having to worry about editing and the consistency and quality,"

     To the average student who is so intent on getting a good grade on their papers, this approach to writing may seem foreign. The idea of rushing an idea out, and working on the number of words over the quality of what they are saying can seem like a scary thought when you are used to being graded on the content, and not simply the length. However, even our professors here at LBCC see the benefit of throwing caution to the wind, and setting ideas down on paper without censorship.

     Writing Professor, Karelia Stetz-Waters, who is doing her first NaNoWriMo this year, spoke of how stepping away from her usual rigidly structured plans for a story and just jumping in with abandon was in some ways freeing:

     "It allows me to explore the ideas and solutions that would occur to me on the spot that I may have discovered later in the process, but could now weave into my story as I write it, and see what interesting new paths they opened as I continued to write."

     Now, as November continues to wind down, the last push to reach the coveted 50,000 words gets into high gear, those who have taken part are hopefully finding their voice (and a good solution for sore hands), and chugging away at their word count. For some writers, they may love what they have written, and look forward to dig down and edit it as winter continues to settle upon us (There is National Novel Editing Month in March), or those who loathe their novels, and want to burn it, or hide it away from. Either way, each word written is one more word proving that anyone can write a novel if they take up the challenge.

     For now, for the group gathered in the conference room of the Salem Public Library, they just want to get in another few words before Jamie calls the end of the Word War.

At a Glance:

2010: 200,500 participants and 37, 500 winners
Number of official NaNoWriMo chapters around the world: Over 500
Number of K-12 schools who participated in 2010: 1,800
Number of words officially logged during the 2010 event: 2,872,682,109
This years word count as of November 18th: 1,777,694,313

Those wishing to join the fun can signup for a account at www.nanowrimo.org

early incomplete draft of NaNo story

The room is filled with the din of keyboard keys, the ding of a defiant typewriter coming to the end of its line, and the occasional burst of laughter as someone leaned into a read a line. To the casual observer, the conference room at the Salem Public Library would look like nothing more than a bunch of writers working away. However, this group is different.

     It's November, and for over 200,000 writers worldwide, it is NaNoWriMo time, where daring writers take the month to write 50,000 words on a novel. And for members of the mid-Willamette valley, meetings such as these offer a chance for NaNo'ers, as they are called, to gather, share their stories, goof off, and get some much needed time into their word counts.

     NaNoWriMo first started in July of 1999, when a group of 21 writers in the San Francisco Bay area decided to try something new, and set out to challenge themselves to write a short novel quickly, allowing in the rush of trying to meet a seemingly impossible deadline for the ideas to flow freely and without censorship. The next year, the group came together, choosing to move the event to its new home of November, and opened a website. From that day forward, the number of participants have steady grown into a worldwide phenomenon, with over 2.8billion words written during the 2010 event alone.

     Moreover, as the event has grown, so too has the yearly meetings with the Salem NaNo region. What once was only ten people sitting at a table in a room at Chemeketa Community College, the growing popularity of the event means the Salem Region, once only one of a handful in Oregon, now boasts nearly 900 members, with hundreds coming to the many write-ins hosted throughout the month of November.

***more to come as I continue to finish transcription of interviews, and work on fleshing out the rest of the article.***

Incomplete Transcript: Profile of Keralia Stetz-Waters

Here is a incomplete transcript of my interview for my profile. I am still trancribing it, and working on a few more interviews for the peice:

Question and Answer - Karelia Stetz-Waters - November 7th, 2011

Cory Warren: What classes do you teach here at Linn-Benton Community College?

Karelia Stetz-Waters: I teach writing 121, I teach technical writing 227, primarily online. I have also taught intro to poetry, intro to fiction, African literature, business communication and I will be teaching writing 115 for the first time.

CW: So, with all those papers to grade, how do you find time to write, yourself?

KSW: I write in the mornings, and on/in the evenings and the weekends, and I try to be very organized and disciplined about my work at work so that I can get my grading done in a 40-hour workweek, as opposed to bringing it home. I also tell my students that that works out well for me and well for them because I'm here, grading, and happy to be doing it. I know myself; if I was grading papers at 8 o'clock on a Saturday night, I would resent it, and no one wants their work read by someone who is resenting doing it. It works out well this way.

CW: What opportunities outside of classrooms does LBCC offer for students to explore writing?

KSW: we have the poetry club. We have the 'fooling around with words' conference, which takes place in April, which is just a writer's conference. Course, we have the creative writing classes, credit and non-credit. Then, hopefully our students are connected with all the neat things that go on in our community; there are always readings at the libraries… all sorts of stuff going on in Albany and Corvallis. Therefore, those are all available to our students.

CW: What is it like as a Professor to be writing a book during school?

KSW: I think it’s a great way to share my student's pain. Their writing a lot, they are pressed for time… they are struggling with the different parts of the writing process… writers block… revisions…. Praise and rejection, and it’s good for their instructors to be going through the same process. Admittedly, my word count is larger, and higher, but the experience is the same, and the five-page paper to a first-year student is just as big as a 50,000 words manuscript feels to me; I have just been doing it longer. And when a student who has been doing it as long as I have been writing, they too will be able to tackle a giant project, so I think it really keeps me honest about what it feels like to be a writer, which is good because it helps me sympathize.

CW: I have always felt self-conciouse about people who are grumbling about a two page paper, and I turned into a five page paper that I wrote the night before. So, basically it's keeping up with what the students are doing.

KSW: And I really believe that writing is like long distance running: a lot of doing it well is just putting in the time, and a lot of being able to write a long document comes from writing many shorter documents, and practicing on the ability to run a marathon comes from running many shorter races.