“A spider-web pattern, they call it, when tempered/glass cracks this way, not breaking all the way through but/broken just the same, useless now. A spider spends — how long?/ an hour, a lifetime? — literally hanging its life on a thread. A broom/handle in the hand of a bored schoolboy brings down in no time;/ broken, lifeless now. Residual matter. Sticky.”
These poignant opening lines from CCE student Brian Smith’s poem, “Spider-web,” introduce an intriguingly mysterious story of a fawn playing possum, a wheelchair and the S-curve. “Spider-web” was published in the 2013 edition of the Greenleaf Review and is now moving on to a much bigger platform.
“We think of writing as a solitary activity, but it can’t just exist within you,” said Smith. “It has to go somewhere.”
For many Guilford students that somewhere is the yearly publication of the Greenleaf Review. And now, for the first time, Guilford writers and artists will be published in Bennington College’s national anthology of undergraduate work “plain china: Best Undergraduate Writing 2013.”
Published on a website that has gotten more than 43,000 hits from all 50 states and more than a 150 countries, “plain china” offers undergraduates another publication through which young writers and artists can be connected.
Sharing on such a large platform can be intimidating.
“When you make art, it’s an extension of yourself,” said junior Juliet Magoon, whose old Hollywood-inspired photograph will be published in “plain china.” And the fear of exposing that extension of yourself is great, but so is the reward.
“It’s important to be vulnerable because when people are vulnerable, they connect,” said Magoon.
Mylène Dressler, assistant professor of English, Greenleaf Review advisor and published author, speaks of the time she received an ink drawing of a rooster from a reader who wanted to reciprocate the sharing of creative work. This call and response between the artist and the audience is what makes art special and worthwhile.
An audience can reassure the author that they are not alone. An audience can draw attention to themes that the author did not consciously intend. The conversation between the artist and the audience creates community.
“You have to spread your voice around,” said Hannah Reed, senior art major who will have an oil painting published.
Reed, inspired by the idea of theater sets, asks for a response in making art that creates a place for a story.
In regards to the creative community at Guilford, the process is cyclical. Whether in Digital Darkroom or Creative Writing, professors at Guilford challenge and encourage their students to create work worthy of being in an anthology.
“Creativity has a way of breeding more creativity,” said Dressler.
Make sure to check out Smith, Magoon, Reed and senior Raina Martens in “plain china” later this year, and enter the cycle yourself by submitting your short stories, poems and artwork to the Greenleaf Review ([email protected]) by Feb. 10.
