CREATIVE WRITING

at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco

Welcome! CW develops the art and craft of creative writing through instruction, collaboration, and respect. This blog showcases STUDENT WRITING and how to APPLY to Creative Writing.

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  • streetopia

    Have any of you experienced Streetopia SF?  I’ve been out-of-the-loop as I just heard about this collection of art events on the radio yesterday. Streetopia SF involves street art, multi-media performances, poetry and the like.  Tonight’s show includes local band Ruby Howl.

    Christine Shields and The Sea S

    w/ Ruby Howl

    7: 30 PM @ Luggage Store Gallery

    Christine Shields and the Sea S

    This special performance by Christine Shields and collaborators combines video projection and installation with live music and sound to present a dreamlike experience of a parallel reality San Francisco. Opening is San Francisco’s RUBY HOWL

  • The Commons SF (Bernal Heights Poetry Reading)

    reposted from Craigslist:

    Saturday, June 23, is an afternoon poetry read in Bernal Heights. Red Hill Jumps! is an occasional spoken word gathering sponsored by The Commons SF.
    This time around we’re featuring Bernal resident poets. Open mic, $1 a poem. That is, poets are paid $1 a poem. Must live between Bayshore and Mission, Crescent and Cesar Chavez to read. But the rest of San Francisco is welcome.

    Food and drink provided.

    RSVP would be nice.

    Notable House
    189 Ellsworth St.
    SF 94110

  • CW Poetry Salon

    If you’re anything like me, you just spent the past weeks of summer slowly becoming one with the internet and all the nice things it has to offer. Well, let’s fix that, get in touch with the real world, shall we?

    Cdubs Abigail and Nick are hosting a poetry salon this Saturday, June 9th, from 11am to around one in the afternoon, in which there will be readings and a couple of writing exercises just to keep that Creative Writer mind in you kicking. Location is at Abigail’s house, whose address I hesitate to broadcast to the public, so, check your handbooks (*insert wink here*).

  • The Onset of Summer

    Only a week in, and I’ve already had the unparalleled experience of lounging by a swimming pool underneath the sun, sipping lemonade and eating grapes, while mindless pop music played. Cliché doesn’t even begin to cover it.

    But. School.

    What? What school? I don’t understand that incredibly obscure reference you just made.

    But. School.

    The brand new edition of the Creative Writing summer assignment is fresh out of the oven. Or rather, fresh out of my printer; it seems to hum, “Remember me?” as it sits on my desk as an origami duck (just kidding) (but not really). If you haven’t received the email from Heather, click here for the list of assignments.

    Next, Saria! The wonderful Saria is hosting a “Poetry to Performance” workshop this summer, along with her one night-only show, Homeless in Homeland at The Marsh Theatre. For the workshop, tentative cost, tentative schedule, email Saria for more details. Workshop + Show flyer here.

    So, there’s this thing that people do on occasion, and I don’t know much of it, but it’s called recreational reading? Apparently, people do it quite a lot (at least, according to my research). Actually, I think I might have done it at one point, but I’m fuzzy on the details.

    But, guess what? It’s summer. Believe it or not (though I hope for your sake that you do believe it), we have all the time in the world. No more sleeping at one to get your chemistry lab done, or getting up at five in the morning to finish up the last few algebra problems–– you have time to read. For fun. Dig through your bedside table and unearth those novels you’ve been wanting to finish because guess what? You can do that, and more.

    And by more I mean take a look at this list of recommended books by past Cdubs! Guaranteed quality, here‘s your pastime for the summer. You’re very welcome.

    I am obviously horrible at organization, because I’m jumping back to summer writing opportunities again, but continuity is overrated anyways (except it’s really not–– continuity is my baby don’t you dare drop it on its head). The Ripe Fruit School of Creative Writing is offering summer classes in Noe Valley, more info here.

    Now, the important stuff. What will Midori Atlas-holding-up-the-blog Chen be doing over the summer? I realize the chances of current Cdubs reading this are slim to none, but for the sake of the possibly imaginary incoming freshmen that do as they’re told and read this blog, Yes, I will continue to update the blog. Never daily, probably not even weekly, but there will be updates, if only for a reading or writing opportunity.

    I accept submissions too, guys, as in if you have something you think is relevant to Creative Writing, drop me an email at hyuuganeji11@gmail.com and I will (judge it and) publish it on the blog. If one of your submissions come through during the summer, tell me. If you know of a potentially-awesome reading, tell me. If you miss me and want me to write something anything on the blog, tell me. Don’t be shy. I’m talking to you, incoming freshmen. You’re one of us, now, there’s no room for shame.

  • Portfolios: Words from the Not-So-Wise

    Incoming freshmen, a grave duty has befallen upon you, to lead the Creative Writing department on the trek to reform our portfolio-utilization skills.

    In other words, keep your stuff together. Literally. Never assume a CW assignment, once done, to be negligible, because chances are, it will end up on the list of items you should have in your portfolio at the end of the year, and you’ll end up tearing your room apart at two in the morning swearing you had that paper somewhere (I speak from personal experience only).

    See, here at Creative Writing, we have a long-standing tradition of leaving our portfolios to the last second, but frankly, I think it’s a tad bit outdated. See how in the picture, the words fade and blur out at the vanishing point? Yeah, it doesn’t. It just kind of goes on and on and on, and the panic’s settled in when you finally take a good look at the pieces you’ve saved in your “CW binder”– a handful of poems, a short story or two, and maybe someone that acted in my play has a script? Collapsing on the floor and hyperventilating is no longer an option, because by that point, there’s paper everywhere and you just kind of run out of your room screaming (again, personal experience).

    So. Learn from past mistakes, future Freshies, and keep up with your portfolio. I mean it. And will some kind soul please get on my case about it next year? I’ll make Jules bring you cookies. They’re to die for.

  • Dana Gioia Reading

    Creative Writers, don’t forget that we’re attending the Dana Gioia reading at Booksmith tomorrow evening, 7:30. This will count as reading credit, so just remember to do your submissions and bring them in for Heather.

    PITY THE BEAUTIFUL is Dana Gioia’s first new poetry book in over a decade. Its emotional revelations and careful construction are hard won, inventive, and resilient. These new poems show Gioia’s craftsmanship at its finest, its most mature, as they make music, crack wise, remember the dead, and in a long, central poem even tell ghost stories.

    Dana Gioia is the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Now back in Calfornia, he lives in Sonoma Country and currently serves as the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California.

    Gioia has published four full-length collections of poetry, as well as eight chapbooks. His poetry collection, Interrogations at Noon, won the 2002 American Book Award. An influential critic as well, Gioia’s 1991 volume Can Poetry Matter?, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture.

    Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest now involves nearly half a million high school students across the country in a national poetry recitation contest that awards $50,000 in scholarships.

  • 2012 Creative Writing Summer Session

    Led by Maia Ipp, CW Artist-in-Residence
    July 10—July 26 (3 weeks)
    Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 11 am—3 pm
    Class held at Maia’s apartment in North Beach and in locations around the city

    This summer workshop is an opportunity to exercise and deepen your
    writing practice over the summer in a more experimental and less
    formal setting. Using place-based inspiration from new adventures all
    over the city, creative exercises, and workshopping, you’ll get to
    spend 3 weeks focused on writing and developing your CW community
    (including the incoming 9th graders!). It will be a great preparation
    for CWII, or for the second year of CWI, where 10th graders step up to
    a leadership position.

    Fee is $500/student. Some need-based scholarship funds available.

  • media night

    Media Night
    An array of short films designed to inspire, challenge, tickle the senses, and–in some cases–expunge the inner demon.

    Friday, May 11, Screening 7:30 pm (Doors open at 7)
    Saturday, May 12 SPOTLIGHT EVENT
    Book Signing 6 pm, Guest Artists Conversation 6:30, Screening 7:30

    Dan Kryston Memorial Theater
    Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts [map]
    Saturday’s Spotlight before the show features author, activist, and Salon.com founder David Talbot in conversation with writer Armistead Maupin, author of nine novels including Tales of the City, his captivating portrait of San Francisco in the ’70s, which was most recently produced as a stage musical with its world premiere at ACT in 2011. David Talbot has been reporting on global and local issues for decades and is a staunch advocate for arts education in the district and beyond. Mr. Talbot will kick off the evening with a signing of his most recent book, Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love, a chronicle of San Francisco history and its values from 1967-1982.  Brought to you over two nights, Media Night features the best from SOTA’s filmmakers. This semester’s films employ documentary, narrative, experimental, and animated styles and feature collaborations with students from across the SOTA arts disciplines, including theater, creative writing, technical theater, visual arts, and–back by popular demand–the music-composition class. The films are one-of-a-kind, the atmosphere lively, thus proving why Media Night continues to be, year after year, one of the most popular and well-reviewed of any SOTA exhibition or performance.

  • Playwriting Cagematch

    The Douglas Morrisson Theatre is now accepting submissions for their first Playwriting Cagematch! Isaiah has generously offered his expertise for feedback on anything you might want to submit.

    Five playwrights enter, but only one will emerge victorious and win a grand prize!
    We are seeking brief plays (5-20 minutes) set at the fictional “Hairless Raccoon Saloon,” an out-of-the-way, hole-in-the-wall, dive bar somewhere in northern Mississippi. Will two lovers meet for an illicit tryst? Old enemies accidentally reunite? Will crimes be hatched? It’s all up to you—anything can come through the doors at the Hairless Raccoon, but please limit your scenes to no more than four characters.
    DMT staff will select the top five submissions. Then, on July 2, 2012, the five scenes will compete at a live staged reading event at the Douglas Morrisson Theatre, complete with drinks and refreshments. Each of the five submissions will get a brief rehearsal. The audience will vote to determine the winner. The event will be free to attend but $5 to vote!
    The deadline for emailed submissions is June 18, 2012.
    You can email a DOC or PDF to seva@dmtonline.org or you can mail a hard copy (postmarked by June 15, 2012) to:
    H.A.R.D./ Douglas Morrisson Theatre
    Attn: Susan E. Evans
    1099 E Street
    Hayward, CA 94541

    So, in the wise words of our department head:

    HAIRLESS RACCOON SALOON? Someone ought to “forget” one of the “os” in the “saloon” and write a scene that takes place in the Hairless Raccoon Salon.

    -H

  • “Young at Art” Winners!

    “Young at Art” (the annual San Franciscan competition, where local youth can champion their art) has rolled around once more, and the results are in! No surprise, our department is heavy on the victories across the category board: Playwriting, Poetry, Short Story, and Non-fiction.

    DRAMATIC SCRIPT

    1st Place

    Michelle Ang, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “Run: A Poem Play”

    2nd Place

    Jules Cunningham, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “Maggots”

    Megan McCarthy, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “Pants”

    3rd Place

    Dean Shearer, Balboa High School: “untitled”

    Honorable Mentions

    Tavana Faataui, Downtown High School: “Smacked with Some Sense”

    Joseph Givens II, Downtown High School: “Big Problems in Small Packages”

    Vanessa Cabrera, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “Mercado”

    HIGH SCHOOL POETRY

    1st Places

    Flavia Mora, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts:  “Armando”

    Zoe Kaiser, Lowell High School:  “That Moment When You Look UP at the Clouds and Say ‘I Am’”

    Abigail Schott-Rosenfield, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts:  “The Rains of Summer”

    Mykel Mogg, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts:  “march me very”

    2nd Places

    Elizabeth Kroner, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “From a Bird’s-Eye View”

    Nicholas Cloud, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “An Exercise Written on March the Twenty-Eighth”

    Julian Greenhill, Lowell High School: “Ode to Blood Oranges”

    3rd Places

    Vanessa See, Lowell High School:  “Stinky Tofu”

    Anita Chen, Lowell High School:  “For the Love of Beautiful Things that Grow on Sidewalks”

    Honorable Mentions

    Kendra Allen, Hilltop School: “Bay Bridge: Tell It Like It Is”

    Agnes Zhu, Lowell High School:  “I come from a family of farmers”

    Sammy Au, Lowell High School:  “The Life”

    Ying Zhang (Rain), Lowell High School:  “I belonged to the year of the rat”

    Naser Suleiman, Lowell High School:  “I’m a seed”

    Sophia Luo, Lowell High School:  “That One Place I Would Never Forget”

    HIGH SCHOOL SHORT STORY

    1st Place

    Shanna P-Williams, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “Hero”

    2nd Place

    Nathan Seidman, Abraham Lincoln High School: “The Gull”

    3rd Place

    Aly Robalino, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “Invisible”

    Honorable Mentions

    Molly Bond, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “Circling”

    Amelia Williams, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “Mel and No Ma(n)”

    Cara Kessler, Independence High School: “untitled”

    HIGH SCHOOL NONFICTION

    1st Place

    Mary Le, Galileo Academy: “The Bridge I Run On”

    2nd Place

    Amelia Williams, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “A Look at the Self”

    3rd Place

    Midori Chen, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: “You’re Wrong”

    -Reba