Seminole State College is a center for learning. However, Rachel DiVeta encounters student writers ready to teach humanity with their creative writings
Authors, poets, and writers all find passion in different areas of life, from their own personal experiences to the events happening around them in society. The Seminole Scribe sat down with some of Seminole State’s very own writers, to find out where their passion stems from and what it’s all about to be a writer.
In a meeting facilitated by Professor Karen Feldman, Lauryn Dryden, Courtney Castor, Michael McCracken, and Stephanie Eiserman provided a glimpse into the minds of writers.
To Professor Feldman, these students are the dreamers and doers of the world. “My writers are my dreamers, and they’re the ones who are brave enough to make themselves vulnerable, vulnerable to express their ideas to whomever.
Pointing out that the student writers don’t have any way of preempting their prospective writers, Feldman gives them kudos for their courage. She enthuses: “They don’t know who’s going to read it. And they were okay with that. And they feel a responsibility to get their ideas out there. And that’s a reward in itself without any exterior prize. And just to be a part of that just brings me joy. “
With a view that people may fear their own vulnerability, Lauryn Dryden wants her readers to feel through her words and evoke some emotion that may have been buried beneath the surface. According to her, “words are just words unless you give them meaning, and I just want to make people think.” Enunciating that reading and writing can become a much-needed break from reality, Dryden, however, points out that writing can still hold a symbolic meaning. “I like symbolic meaning; I like underlying meaning that makes people read through different perspectives because writing… should be about looking at the bigger picture.” Dryden is currently working on a novel tentatively entitled Time’s Turned in which she draws from her own life and other experiences that shape her as a person.
Reading fueled Courtney Castor’s passion for writing. While in High School, she found solace in books while escaping from the drudgery of the world around her. However, through reading, she found that the characters in her books were leading much more exciting lives on the pages. She began to pick up writing courses in college and found her outlet in creating stories and writing things that mattered to her. She finds herself, “just typing away, [and] it’s like a breath of fresh air now.” Finding passion in things that matter most to her, Castor writes on family inspired themes, at times. She states: “People want this idea of peace on earth and we can’t seem to find peace within our own home sometimes.” Consequently, she finds it important to “discuss or write about the troubles inside of our own selves so that, maybe, we can work through those and then be able to extend the better parts of ourselves to others who need it.”
One of the dreamers and doers of the world is Michael McCracken. Finding inspiration in the untraditional, Michael relates to some rap artists like Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem and Jonathan McCollum known as Rittz. McCracken finds a connection with them since he can relate to their experiences. As his kindred spirits, McCracken says Eminem and Rittz “have a lot of the same influences that shape their lives and help them become who they are now as far as their writings, although they are rap artists.” For McCracken, “rap is just another form of poetry.” McCracken’s realist attitude has led him to put in the work it takes to get the results he wants in his life. When asked what he would call his book if he were to write one tomorrow, he came up with Get Real, which will be a testament to the way life works. After all, he argues, “there are just things people can’t change.” As a result, he declares: “Stop complaining about them. Move on.”
Another realist is Stephanie Eiserman, who began writing as a child and wrote her first novel in high school which was entitled All Roses Have Thorns. The novel combined a real life experience while taking on a shape of its own in the reality that Eiserman formed in the novel. Eiserman hopes to impact someone’s life with her writing. Her growth as a person has found its way into her poetry. “The Girl I Used to Know”, which she wrote for her English class here at Seminole State, was a testimony to “who I used to be. And, then, when I became a Christian, how God has changed my life.” Inspired by the reality around her much like McCracken, she enjoys mixing imagination with reality as it “gives you some more liberty” while writing.
Peeping from the outside into the minds of potential future novelists and poets and trying to understand their passion for life in order to better appreciate the experiences they share through their writings which, of course, continues to be a catalyst for their art, the young three writers give credence to the mantra that proclaims that “life imitates art”.