The Place of Writing

Abstract

The workshop is a place where poems and stories are tested for artistic originality and technical coherence, and their problems fixed in a collaborative effort. But it is not just that. In its intense sessions of scrutiny and questioning, and with nervous sidelong glances at exemplars and masters, it is also a place where the students are posed the question which Rilke would have his young poet confront: ‘Must I write?’ The students either embrace their writing as a mission or keep it separate in an outer compartment of their lives, as a hobby. I see the role of the teacher-writer as a sort of priest-confessor, one who will direct the students to the inner place of writing, where they ask themselves the deepest questions of life and art. For this to happen, there must be what Martin Buber calls an I-Thou relationship to evolve between the teacher and the students, a connection of mutual respect and listening. Only then can the teacher point the students to the place where the poems and stories are waiting to be found. The paper proposes some writing exercises to enable this creative process to take place and turn the workshop into a place of sacramental encounter, where students discover the life of writing in the writing of their lives.