We’re taking a short break from our series on Dr. Mary Galbraith to present an interview with Sofia St. John, one of the graduate assistants at the NCSCL, who discusses her experience learning creative writing from Matt de la Peña.
Matt de la Peña is a former MFA student
and a visiting lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. He is "the #1 New York Times Bestselling, Newbery Medal-winning author of seven young adult novels (including Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, and Superman: Dawnbreaker) and five picture books (including Love and Last Stop on Market Street)."
- (excerpted from https://literature.sdsu.edu/people/bios/de-la-pena.html)
Matt de la Peña reading from his novel Mexican WhiteBoy
English 696: Writing the Young Protagonist.
How does Matt de la Peña’s expertise inform the way he teaches? Can you share something notable about his teaching style?
One really cool thing about Matt is that he’s a successful, published author, so he knows the ins and outs of publishing. One day he just sat down and explained a bit about what it’s like to publish, which is a topic we will go back to later. He has a ton of experience writing and publishing, so he will just have little tidbits of information he shares with us. He’s very real with us: this is the writing world, and this is how he navigates through it.
Also, because our class is mostly workshopping, he’s giving students the space to voice opinions, whether or not they are ones the entire class agrees on. What I really love is we don’t have to completely have a fully formed opinion, because the rest of the class, both the students and the teacher, will help build on it. We basically are given free rein to discuss anything in someone’s work. I had one workshop where it seemed some of the class loved part of my work, and some of the class really didn’t, and like most aspects of writing, there’s not really a right or wrong. He lets us come to terms with what each of us think is “good” writing, because there’s no real way to define it, no matter how many classes we take or pieces we write.
What topics have been your favorite so far?
One of the most fascinating (and most difficult) topics was on narrative restraint, which is letting the story carry itself. I admire the writer who has achieved narrative restraint. Maybe because I am also an academic writer, I feel like I need to control the character’s every motion and word, but that’s really not fun for either the reader or the writer. In academic writing, we point out almost every detail we discover which the author has carefully plotted out. In creative writing, however, we are the ones planting those details for the reader or scholar to find, and for me, it’s so difficult to make writing subtle, but he’s really pushing us to let go of what others interpret from our writing and not try to force an interpretation on the reader, which I really am fascinated by. All those subtle little details we read in books are not as easy to write as they look. I really don’t think there’s much that is effortless in writing.
How does it feel to be an MA student taking an MFA course? What are you gaining as a scholar by taking this course?
Honestly it was really intimidating at first, and even now it’s still a little scary. I believe there is one other MA besides me, but the two of us are surrounded by these insanely talented, creative writers who may have been studying creative writing for two years in their MFA. However, I quickly felt at home in the class; we are all scholars who love writing and want to learn how to be better writers. In that class, we’re all writers.
Last week I had my first workshop, where everyone reads your work and talks about it for a while, and it’s honestly the most terrifying and humbling experience. I’m showing what I see as basically my child and it is being examined and discussed by 10+ people, most of who have been studying the art of creative writing for quite a while.
As a scholar, it reminds me how much love and time and effort are put into this work, and also it reminds me how vulnerable authors are to scholars. Last year I spent a couple months pretty intensely writing about and poring over a book I was really passionate about, and I found some interviews from the author about how a lot of the book is based on his real life. I’m a bit wary to use the study of biographical influence sometimes, but I saw this author’s grief in the book that he is putting out for anyone to read. I tend to forget there is a mind, a heart, behind every writing I encounter, whether it be a picture book or an academic, analytical text. On the other hand, when we’re the ones writing it’s really hard to not be emotional about some aspect of our piece.
I’m also reminded how vulnerable my own writing is. I’m experiencing those emotions of writing, and the difficulty of putting those emotions to the page, and after all that, I show it to a class full of people who for the most part I met one month ago. Academic writing can sometimes seem cold and calculated, but it’s not. Academic writing can be just as vulnerable as creative writing, and really, in learning about creative writing, I’m realizing how creative academic writing is.
As a literature scholar, sometimes it is easy to forget that the author’s lived experiences influence the work that they produce. Having met and studied under an author, how does it impact the way you read his works?
I haven’t read many of his works yet, but I have read “Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt. Knowing Matt humanizes the author of course, and I am able to appreciate all the hard work that goes into his writing. We mostly only see books when they are sold: finished, perfected, every t crossed every i dotted; in this class we get little insights into all of the emotions behind writing a work. It makes the work so much more dimensional; I want to know every meaning behind the words.
What works have you produced in this course so far? How do you feel about them, as someone who studies literature?
We have only done short works in class, and for my one workshop I submitted a chapter of my novel I finished last year. I’m somewhat happy with my chapter, but after my workshop I am seeing a lot of work that needs to be done. It’s been four days since my workshop, and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how it would be perceived by an audience beyond our class, and that’s terrifying to think of. I honestly have really mixed feelings about how my own creative writing is, and I think that might be something a lot of writers experience. Part of me thinks what I have written is good, but another part of me just thinks about how I could make it better.
I feel that my work is never done, there is always something to tinker with in writing, whether it be academic or creative. Honestly, if someone were to ask if reading my book would be enjoyable, I would have no clue how to answer. Overall though, I think getting this strong basis in creative writing, especially by studying young protagonists, I am reminded how dimensional books are, and I hope my writing reflects that.
Thank you so much, Sofia! We loved hearing about your experience working with Matt de la Peña as an MA student. Matt de la Peña will be speaking alongside Chris Baron, author of All of Me, on Wednesday, October 16th at 7 p.m. in Love Library, Room 430. We hope to see you there!
- (AN)
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