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Poetter Hall was purchased by the SCAD founders in March 1979. Classes began in September of that year.  
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Class in the Spotlight

Students experiment with the medium of language



By Angela Merta
Published: Friday, May 11, 2007
 
Hang around the third and fourth floors of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Crites Hall and you just might spot one. They blend in with other SCAD students — lugging large bags that seem to signal an inner life of magical talents, talents that often come to fruition in the form of visual works of art. What, then, is the creative writing student harboring in that tote? I suppose it’s safe to guess: a few great books by old masters, some dog-eared irreverent satire, perhaps a fat volume of poems by the inimitable Charles Bukowski. Of course, there is most certainly also a mistreated-looking journal complete with coffee stains, scratched-out pages, and the smoky leftovers of months of late nights. Being a writer/artist means having a certain cast of mind, a way of being in the world, and a chosen medium with which to wield imagination.

Like all art forms, writing requires study, practice and a level of faith in oneself, especially after a particularly tough day in workshop. The art of writing allows for reflection, which in turn fosters a kind of compassion that seems unique to literature. What is more compassionate, really, than willingly experiencing someone else’s story, getting inside their human skin and feeling around the rooms of their world? It’s a way of saying, “Look, this is how I see and what I think is important; let me show you how.” And if the writing is really good, the journey taken is a kind of shared experience, so that reader and writer unite for a brief and transformative moment. The ability to communicate well in writing is a kind of benevolence that reaches across the seemingly impenetrable divides of ego and race and gender and class and country. What could be a more noble pursuit?

There are many smart quotations about writing. Kafka said, “A book must be an axe for the frozen sea within us.” Walter Wellesley Smith said, “Writing is easy; all you have to do is sit down at your desk and open a vein.” I have been teaching for more than 10 years, and every time I walk into a class full of writing students I still know it’s an important place to be. There are times when everyone is bent over fervently free-writing, or when the class is breathlessly discussing a poem that feels fundamentally true and real, that I am overcome with gratitude for the young minds trying this most difficult art, and I appreciate the opportunity to share in it. I value the students who find the medium of language endlessly shifting in possibilities, the ones who believe that rummaging through the unconscious may bring about a truth they didn’t know existed, and the ones who recognize they have something to say and pay homage to the rewarding challenge of learning how many ways there might be of saying it.

Some of these students will share their work at the “Artemis” reading May 17, 6:30 p.m., at Poetter Hall, 342 Bull St. The reading marks the third annual publication of Artemis, the SCAD student literary journal sponsored by the SCAD admission department. Composed of fiction, poetry, nonfiction and playwriting, the journal showcases the work of students in the creative writing minor at SCAD. The “Artemis” reading is sponsored by the department of liberal arts.



Merta is a liberal arts professor.

  

 
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