{"id":1767,"date":"2015-05-29T17:18:05","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T21:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=1767"},"modified":"2015-05-29T17:18:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T21:18:05","slug":"a-novel-idea","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2015\/features\/a-novel-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"A Novel Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two creative writing seniors penning works in fantasy genre<\/strong>
\nBy Maura King Scully<\/em><\/p>\n

[ezcol_2third]<\/p>\n

\"novel1\"<\/a>Walk into a bookstore a few years from now, and you may see novels by Georgia Summers \u201915 and David Field \u201915. If you do, you can take pride in knowing each sprang from seeds planted at Trinity. Both Field and Summers are seniors in the College\u2019s Creative Writing Program who have opted to write novels for their senior theses.<\/p>\n

Field and Summers have much in common. Both English majors, the two served as co-editors of the College\u2019s literary magazine, Slate<\/i>, now renamed The Spine<\/i>. They also share a thesis adviser: Assistant Professor of English Ethan Rutherford.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had David and Georgia for \u2018Senior Seminar\u2019 last fall, when they were both working on early stages of these books,\u201d explains Rutherford, who joined the Trinity faculty last fall. \u201cThey both applied to write senior theses, and because I was familiar with their projects, it made sense for me to advise them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The similarities don\u2019t end there. \u201cBoth are writing broadly in the fantasy genre,\u201d he continues, \u201cand both of their projects, to some degree, are geared to a young adult audience. Georgia and David are terrific writers. Their imaginations are vivid: they\u2019re skilled at inventing worlds and putting their characters into fantastic scenarios. I know they also both have a number of other novels tucked in drawers,\u201d he notes. \u201cAnd both participated in NaNoWriMo.\u201d<\/p>\n

A GOOD START<\/strong><\/p>\n

Short for National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo is an online undertaking that challenges participants to write a 50,000-word manuscript over 30 days. Now 16 years old, the event has produced more than 250 traditionally published novels, including bestsellers such as Sara Gruen\u2019s Water for Elephants<\/i> and Erin Morgenstern\u2019s The Night Circus<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Field and Summers are no newcomers to NaNoWriMo; both report they\u2019ve participated for years. They also share long-standing aspirations to be novelists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI developed this whole career ladder when I was 8,\u201d explains Summers, a native of London, England. \u201cWriting a novel is something I\u2019ve always wanted to do.\u201d Summers counts The Night Circus<\/i> as her \u201cvery favorite book. I\u2019d love to write something similar to that,\u201d she confesses.<\/p>\n

[\/ezcol_2third] [ezcol_1third_end]CREATIVE WRITING @ TRINITY<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Aspiring authors-to-be find their home in Trinity\u2019s vibrant and robust Creative Writing Program. A concentration within the English Department, the program has a dedicated faculty of five who teach classes in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, as well as oversee thesis projects. The faculty members \u2013 Ciaran Berry, Lucy Ferriss, Francisco Goldman, Clare Rossini, and Ethan Rutherford \u2013 are all published authors or poets.<\/p>\n

Each year, the English Department sponsors a number of events that bring noted authors and poets to campus to share their works with the Trinity community. Poet David Wojahn was the Hugh Odgen Poet-in-Residence this past spring; Wojahn spent a week on campus meeting with students and presenting a series of lectures. Through the Allan K. Smith Reading Series, which brings in several writers each semester, Sin\u00e9ad Morrissey, the poet laureate of Belfast, Northern Ireland, visited campus in the spring; National Book Award finalist Jim Shepard \u201978 is scheduled to speak in the fall.<\/p>\n

One of the program\u2019s most coveted awards is the South Beach Writing Residency, offered by the family of Hyam Plutzik \u201932 and officially presented at Honors Day for the top senior creative writing thesis. It was announced in late April that David Field \u201915 had won the 2015 prize, marking the second year of the award that the Plutzik family has committed to offering for five years. The prize includes a one-week writing retreat in Florida.<\/p>\n

All together, the program\u2019s rich and varied offerings make for \u201ca really strong undergraduate program,\u201d says Creative Writing Program Director Ciaran Berry.[\/ezcol_1third_end]<\/p>\n

\u201cIn first through fifth grade, I wrote a book each year that was between 40 and 60 pages,\u201d says Field, who is from Franklin, Massachusetts. As he entered middle school, those books gradually increased in length. Field remembers loving the Goosebumps<\/i> series, eventually growing into Harry Potter before discovering Stephen King.<\/p>\n

The two each worked on versions of their thesis project for the 2014 NaNoWriMo, what Rutherford calls \u201ca good start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"novel3\"<\/a>Field, a Henry F. MacLean Memorial Scholar, classifies his novel-in-the-works as an \u201curban fantasy.\u201d Called Suburban Train<\/i>, \u201cit\u2019s a modern-day reinterpretation of Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/i>,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s about a young guy with a mentally ill mother and a girlfriend who dies in a tragic accident. He runs away from home and ends up on the wrong train, which takes him to the capital of hell. There, he has to grapple with loss, death, and guilt over the things he\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Field says he was inspired by taking a class on the Divine Comedy<\/i> (which includes the Inferno<\/i>) in addition to \u201cRemixing Literature.\u201d \u201cThat course had us retelling old stories in new ways,\u201d he says. \u201cBoth cemented my interest in what I\u2019m doing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"georgia\"<\/a>Summers\u2019 novel, The Assistant<\/i>, is \u201ca fantasy, but not in a Lord of the Rings<\/i> kind of way. It\u2019s more whimsical,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about a reclusive magician who\u2019s trapped in his house. When he loses his assistant to an unfortunate accident, he ends up hiring two assistants \u2013 which is unheard of \u2013 essentially pitting them against each other. It\u2019s about each of the characters working through their own problems, which gives you insight into how they\u2019ve come to be the people they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summers, who has moved around a lot, found herself drawn to probing the sedentary life. \u201cMy mom\u2019s Trinidadian; my dad is British,\u201d she explains. \u201cBesides the U.K., my family has lived in Colombia, in Russia, and briefly in Switzerland. I wanted to explore what it means to stay in one place for your whole life and what that does to a person\u2019s relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

NO ORDINARY PROJECT<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fact that Summers and Field are writing novels is unusual. And, according to Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program Ciaran Berry, it makes them standouts in a small field. \u201cThe senior thesis is open only to seniors with either an A- average in the major or who submit a successful petition. This year, only six students are writing theses,\u201d he explains. Two are working on short story collections; one is writing a novella; another, a piece of creative nonfiction. Though those longer-form projects are more typical, Berry is happy to encourage these budding novelists. \u201cI think it\u2019s great. They\u2019re two very talented students, and they\u2019ve been geared up to do this for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summers and Field, in turn, praise the English Department faculty as mentors and role models. \u201cCreative Writing has professors who are passionate about writing and invested in the individual successes of their students,\u201d says Field. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the main factors that drew me to Trinity.\u201d All of the Creative Writing faculty are, in fact, published authors. They are Francisco Goldman, a novelist and journalist; novelist Lucy Ferriss; Rutherford, who recently published a short story collection, The Peripatetic Coffin<\/i>; as well as poets Clare Rossini and Berry.<\/p>\n

\"novel\"<\/a>

Assistant Professor of English Ethan Rutherford, Georgia Summers \u201915, and David Field \u201915<\/p><\/div>\n

My professors have been so interested and encouraging,\u201d adds Summers. \u201cProfessor Rutherford in particular has been very supportive. It\u2019s so nice to have someone who is interested not just in the thesis requirements, but in what I want to do as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Rutherford says, \u201cGeorgia and David have always wanted to write novels \u2013\u00a0so this is their chance. This thesis project gives them permission to prioritize their own work and see how that feels.\u201d Early in the semester, \u201cThey\u2019re already well into writing. We\u2019ve set up a schedule to meet weekly and workshop what they\u2019ve written. They\u2019re excited, and it\u2019s exciting to see that kind of work ethic in them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutherford predicts Summers and Field will finish the semester with solid first drafts. \u201cWho knows what will happen with these projects?\u201d he muses. \u201cThey may well become published. That would be a dream. It doesn\u2019t always happen. They\u2019re approaching their projects very seriously, but they\u2019re realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rutherford is currently working on a novel himself. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be done by May, unfortunately,\u201d he says. \u201cBut as I keep telling Georgia and David, writing is a process. To show up every day, keep a schedule, be consistent \u2013 that\u2019s something to be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos by Al Ferreira<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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