Michigan Writers group begins new chapter
By F. Josephine Arrowood
Sun contributor
The work of a writer, like any other artist, can be a hard, lonely, uphill slog. But for over a decade in northern Michigan, a strange tribe of creative loners has come together regularly, to celebrate their art, polish their craft, and support their literary triumphs and defeats. The Michigan Writers, started in 2001 by a group of area scribes (including Norm Wheeler, Joe VanderMeulen, Bronwyn Jones, and others), initially focused on collaborating to help each other improve their work and get published. But the roots of what would become a thriving regional writing network can be found in a small yet vibrant publication, founded around 1996 by Empire poet, essayist, playwright and teacher Anne-Marie Oomen.
The Dunes Review began as a journal of poetry by and for area writers, utilizing a traditional one-on-one mentoring model learned from the late Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) professor and poet William Shaw.
Cover Illustration and Design by Tim Nielsen, Nielsen Design Group
“Even though it’s Traverse City-centered now, its seedling roots are in Leelanau,” she continues. “For a while, we needed a nonprofit umbrella, which the Glen Arbor Art Association provided for about five or six years. We held the first two launch readings at the Leelanau School — we had fabulous crowds for that. People were really hungry for that artistic component in their lives.”
Oomen reflects on the huge popularity of today’s poetry scene. “The spoken word movement has just taken off. In times that are more difficult, people turn to these quieter ways. Poetry can be a humanistic prayer without even realizing it — it’s a secular liturgy. The spoken word movement has really universalized in this way.”
“It’s interesting — Michigan Writers’ mission is broader now, it has an online component, and online submissions. So many more ways of creating; it’s so much more inclusive and welcoming now. Its range has broadened as the quality of the Review and chapbooks have. What a wonderful gift, to give people a leg up and writers an affordable start-up. I just hope that there would always be a strand of honoring Michigan writers in it.”
Recently, poet and teacher Jennifer Yeatts was named the senior editor of the Dunes Review, following Holly Wren Spaulding’s recent relocation to the East Coast. An Upper Peninsula native who moved here after completing her Master’s of Fine Arts in 2011, Yeatts is relatively new to the Traverse area. She says, “I’m excited; there’s so much creative space and freedom here.”
She shares some thoughts on the Review’s future: “I would like to keep [it] as primarily poetry, with one or two larger prose pieces,” reflecting some of the original impetus of the biannual publication. She also plans to continue the move toward digital submissions, although currently, both digital and paper entries are being accepted. She lauds Spaulding’s efforts in the past few years to reach out to a regional and national literary network beyond the Grand Traverse area. Increased visibility would include placement in bookstores and libraries outside Michigan, as well as a more active online presence.
“I’m wanting them to come more and more from all over the place. We’re trying to diversify the geographic base of both readership and writers,” she says. “That’s not to say there isn’t a home,” for local submissions that would be able to stand alongside other selected pieces: “It’s a nice stage for people in this area as well.” (The annual Shaw Prize still contains criteria for Michigan writers living along or north of the US 10 corridors.)
What makes a good fit between a poet in, say, Colorado’s mountains and a reader in Michigan’s lake and dune terrain, and how would the Review maintain its uniqueness while expanding its range? Although the connection may seem tenuous, Yeatts emphasizes that the strength of the journal’s contributions would lie in some recognizable element or quality of the north country’s spirit, “whether through the work itself, or maybe the cover art. I’d like it to reflect the sensibility somehow of this area and the Great Lakes.”
The first issue under her stewardship is slated to come out this winter, with the Shaw Prize deadline moved back to Dec. 1. She says, “I’m very excited to be jumping right in; it’s fun and satisfying, and I’m glad to be a part of this writing community.”
Teresa Scollon serves as the current president of the Michigan Writers. The award-winning poet and NMC professor joined Michigan Writers in 2009 in order to be eligible to compete in the Cooperative Press chapbook competition, which she won in her genre. Shortly thereafter, she joined the board of the all-volunteer group.
She explains, “As with all boards at times, there were a lot of changes, waves of people in and out. Two committee chairs resigned on the same day … all of a sudden, there were only six of us. More board members were asked to join. They’re fantastic: lots of energy, ideas, commitment. I’m pretty happy about it.”
She says, “The chapbooks, Dunes Review — we’ve had to work hard to clarify what’s important to us as a group now. We no longer run writing groups. We looked carefully at that, and we reconfigured [it] to provide the means to create them by people who have common goals … to connect to other writers.”
Another feature of the early days, one-on-one style mentorship, has given way to 21st century styles of connection. “We try to use the technology that will help run things more smoothly to minimize hassle, maximize the community part,” Scollon says.
“We’re building up, the literary cultural base” of the Grand Traverse region. “The Michigan Writers work is great in debunking the myth of writers being closeted in their garrets with TB,” she laughs. “There’s a happier model: to break bread with, share the work with others,” including both newer and seasoned wordsmiths. Access to others practicing their solitary craft can be found through the michwriters.org website, Facebook page, monthly e-newsletter and public radio show, workshops, semi-annual potlucks, contests, readings and book launches.
“Both the Review and the chapbooks’ significance is hard to overstate,” Scollon states. For emerging writers, “to see your work in print is a very important moment … it’s real in a way that’s not just in your own imagination.”
She continues, “More established writers are committed to the idea of writing, and we are all enlarged by that. They’ve been published, they know what their goals are, they’re working on their craft. How can we better serve them?”
Scollon would also like to find more ways to partner with other area cultural organizations. In the past, the Beach Bards, the Glen Arbor Art Association provided much-needed support. Traverse City’s Land Information Access Association continues to offer a place for board meetings and workshops, area bookstores and cafes create welcoming venues for readings and other writer happenings, and Interlochen Public Radio produces the group’s monthly show, hosted by Aaron Stander, a past Michigan Writers president.
“There’s a lot of mutual support [in the region]; we could leverage what’s already coming into the community.” She cites fellow board member John Mauk and poet Fleda Brown, who have “upped the credo of the Michigan Writers chapbook process” with nationally known writers as outside judges of the annual contest for unpublished member writers. The deadline is Dec. 15.
Fiction writer, rhetorician and college instructor Mauk has coordinated the competition since 2010, after being named the winner in the fiction genre that year. He laughs at the notion of volunteering as part of the award, but like all of the hands-on board members, takes his responsibilities to heart. “It’s an all-volunteer organization, so the more support we can give, the less heaving and sweating,” he explains.
He manages a “furrowed brow” process that includes collecting manuscript submissions in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, setting up review criteria, securing judges, and coordinating first and second rounds of reading and selecting the winners.
He says, “We’ve really benefitted from Fleda Brown’s suggestion that we reach out to nationally known judges. We had poets Stephen Dunn, Judith Kitchen, Thomas Lynch, Lia Purpura, Patty McNair. This year’s judges are Laura Kasischke, Keith Taylor and Matt Rigney. We’ve found that these titans of the literary world are more than willing to help us out; they’re doing it to forward the work. It just helps the whole community of Michigan Writers when they see internationally acclaimed writers taking us seriously.”
He calls the finished product “a nice, tight, little literary appetizer” — a foretaste of the rich smorgasbord of the larger world of published authors.
“A lot of us [who have won] have found that the chapbook is a ‘literary calling card.’ I tell winners to use it as a way to get read by [agents]. At the very least, winning is some leverage.” As one example, he shares news that a full-length story collection of his was recently accepted by a publisher. “The chapbook folded into that process,” opening doors and giving the writer the courage to continue the hard, creative work.
He notes, “This is a vibrant writers’ community. So many of the local comrades are just animals, just so focused! It’s really inspiring; even the defeats, rejections from publishers you admire. If you’ve got a community, you can weather that stuff.”
Reflecting on the seminal contributions to the northern Michigan writing scene by founder Anne-Marie Oomen, he says, “She, of course, was the visionary and organizer of the press and the chapbook idea, along with a few others. Anne-Marie is just a light! We’ve got to try and maintain that spirit,” to guide the group as it continues to grow and move forward in all its endeavors.
Writer, historian and new board member Daniel Stewart serves as the group’s webmaster. He summons this spirit in his post, “Michigan Writers: Now Cuter Than Ever”. “Writing is the adjective; life is the noun. For those of us who aspire to live ‘the writing life,’ writing is ultimately about sharing in the product of our writing and in the process, too.”
Check out the Michigan Writers group online at www.MichWriters.org.
