No. 6

Spring 2004

I have been playing with firecrackers--lighting fuses and backing up to see what happens. It might not seem productive, but the results, like here, can be spectacular. In a way, this issue reminds me of the sense of eerie joy that overcomes me when I realize that I have spent my afternoon recklessly. From the opening explosive sculpture and photography of Larissa Brown, to the longing confusion after life's seeming order is shattered in Joe Bonomo's "Student Killed by Freight Train," this issue has me a little startled.

Yes, the poetry section cracks and pops and rattles around, tangled between the difficult questions and the difficult answers leaving a din in the ears a taste on the tongue. And yes, the fiction contest is over, but we have a fiction section almost obsessed with issues of place and control. And yes, the creative nonfiction section glows with a beautiful conversation between Hattie Fletcher and Tony Earley, but I am not as startled by the content as I am by something more serious.

I am startled not that the editorial board put together such a great issue - they certainly have the skill to do this in their sleep. I'm startled because I realize that this issue is making me aware of a kind of creative writing crisis. Perhaps it's less of a crisis and more of a neurosis, but read the interviews; look closely at the poems, the fiction and nonfiction. This issue asks its readers to question the institutionalization of writing.

This issue asks us to consider the craft, the systems in and of our craft. What do adults have to unlearn? Where is that space at the end into which certain poems push us or leave us? What is the effect of place on characters, on story? Why do we question the value of MFA programs en masse?

Perhaps this is not a crisis. Perhaps this is something that writers have always been concerned with regarding the institutionalization of their craft. Yet, do engineers question their programs? Do scientists? Must we not be just as calculating? Just as driven to explore or investigate? Are they not just as much of an art? Is there this much hand-wringing over the institutionalization of their fields? It's as though MFA programs have suicidal thoughts. God help us, if we start to have suicidal tendencies. Perhaps this is what is startling me.

These firecrackers I've been playing with have been going off all year: submissions, deadlines, feelings, qualities, concerns, futures, more. Now, they're all spent. Some went brilliantly. Others I botched. In the end, this issue is the show. And, now that the smoke is clearing, I realize that I can only put on a good show if I'm not working in doubt. Sure, a little self-inquiry, self-analysis is healthy, but no kid who has ever held firecrackers ever said, "How useful is this firecracker, how valuable is it?"

As we think about the institutionalization of writing, what we should be asking is "How do I make this go boom?" It's time to stop asking each other about the usefulness of programs, and time to start lighting things up, setting them off--whether it be our programs, or our work, or both.

Of course we must never stop the reflection and inquiry required to write well, but we should be concerned when insights and reflection into craft become drowned out by fretting over the institutionalization of that craft. Perhaps Larissa Brown, by taking the symbols of institutionalization, office supplies, and re-imagining them, has found some middle ground where one can address the fear of institutionaliation by forcing the craft into something startling. Thanks to you reader, and the editorial board, this entire issue is striving to create moments that address and explode that fear -- and these moments will be something that we continue to go after in this journal.

Don Strange takes over next year, but this is the show for now. Enjoy it. Share it. Then come back in four months for the fall issue. Keep sending us your work. There would be no show at all without you.

For your perusal,

Marshall Warfield
Managing Editor

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nidus is an online publication supported by the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh's English Department.