As I finish my second week at the Chautauqua Institute, I find myself shocked that I’ve only been here for two weeks. Time moves differently at Chautauqua. It feels somehow both slowed and accelerated. On the one hand, it feels like I’ve been here forever. The friendships I’ve made and the experiences I’ve had make it feel like I’ve been here for years. Yet it's only been two weeks. But that is already almost halfway through this internship. In a lot of ways Chautauqua reminds me of Cornell. The endless lush greeners, the small tight knit community and the fast-paced classes. If you thought learning something in eighteen days is insane, wait until you take a week-long workshop that only meets for three days.
The workshop I took this week was focused on flash fiction–fitting. If you don’t know what flash fiction is–because I certainly didn’t–it is a very brief prose narrative that usually ranges from 5-1000 words. The teacher of this workshop, Grant Faulkner, is actually an Iowa native. I was able to meet him and talk to him at length during a dinner party for the literature department. He runs a website called 100 word story, so naturally our first assignment was to create a 100 word story. In working on this story, I learned a lot about myself as a writer. Specifically, I learned I am not one to be concise. As I’ve been working on novels for almost six years now, the form of fiction I am most comfortable with is long-form prose. But having to limit myself to so few words showed me the importance of simple yet powerful sentences. I was also able to share my story with the class and receive feedback from people at many different levels of writing.
Sharing my storyThe second and even more thrilling thing that came from this workshop is the possibility of continuing to work with Grant after I leave Chautauqua. There is an opening at 100 word story, and after talking it over, I have decided to apply. The position would be unpaid and remote, but it would be my first actual job in literature–my first step through the door.
Outside of my workshop I have been spending most of my time working on the Chautauqua anthology. Chautauqua publishes one every year, and me and the other interns are editorial assistants. The theme for this year is the “Patchwork American Tapestry.” It is focused on the question of what it means to be American and the stories of all the different types of people who call this country home, those who were born here and those who came from somewhere else. Being an immigrant myself, the theme resonated with me on a deeply personal level. I was very consumed with this work dedicating hours of each day to reading through the dozens of submissions and categorizing them. Though this was a group task, we each had to do the work individually. The team is composed of people with vastly different backgrounds. It is this difference of perspective that the literary arts department values from us. By pooling together the ideas and suggestions we all make, the heads of the department will make the final decision on how to organize the anthology. It’s still a long way off, but I am excited to see how it shapes up.