Luck, Case of the Missing Roommate, Authors & Photography, Day 95

There have been three instances in my life where a story in the newspaper has profoundly impacted and stuck with me for many years. Colonial Russell Williams’ story is the fourth. I used to think that journalism was so different than creative writing. And yet it was still a shock to be told in my journalism class that I may NOT use any more flowery language, that I need to condense my sentences a VAST amount and to not put any EMOTION or PERSONAL BIAS into what I am writing. Well hey, why not tell me to just go against everything I have ever been taught in English? My professor actually did just that. At first I was scared of loosing my style or just not be able to write creatively ever again. So far this has not been the case and this condensing-sentences-no-personal-bias-no-emotion-lets-make-alexandra-fail has turned out to be much easier than I imagined.

As I become more familiar and in tune with the journalism practice, I am wondering if the two practices are actually as different as I first thought them to be. Of course, style is a big difference. But content? I have read books that have affected me greatly but those are rare, they are the gems of English literature. And, as I said above, I have been greatly affected by four news articles in my lifetime. What makes journalism and creative writing the same I am finding, is that each provoke emotion. It is the way the authors go about provoking the emotion where the difference lies.

This week has been an interesting one, to say the least. So many positive things have been happening to me that I kind of expect the universe to be playing a trick on me. I found out yesterday that I was one of twenty people to make it into a creative writing course next semester (I submitted a portfolio about three weeks ago) and got a good mark on my first journalism assignment. AND I got to meet my favourite author at an amazing event last night with Sherry Lee. But before I go any further on that one, we also have a new roommate as of today! As you may remember, we had a missing roommate Margarita. It turns out Margarita is stuck in Ecuador (her home) because of visa complications. Today the doorbell rang and our Residence Advisor informed us that we would have a new roommate moving in from the other set of residences in two hours (que Pona and I to go on a mad cleaning rampage). The doorbell rang mid-clean and there was our new roommate standing before us. The funny thing is, she is in one of my art classes and I always look to see what she’s wearing because she has a really nice style. So there you go, case of the missing roommate closed.

One of my favourite authors is in Canada this week for The International Festival of Authors. Aryn Kyle is the author of Boys and Girls Like You and Me and The God of Animals and both her novels have been extremely influential. Everyone who is reading this MUST read her books! Sherry Lee and her friend whose first novel was published last month (Words That Start with the Letter B)

and I went to see an author discussion with Aryn Kyle, Trevor Cole and Andrew O'Hagan. She signed my book after (I was shaking I was so excited) and then we got a photo. (Note my expression, I am just too overwhelmed). Sherry Lee is friends with her and they were just chatting away while I stood staring in awe. I think what was the most exciting part of it for me was that I treasured her words as I was reading her novels-they were all so personal and I finished her novels feeling as though I knew her so well. To meet the person who wrote these words was kind of surreal.

I also produced an art project for my studio class this week. Our task was to create a non-traditional book and my idea was to take photos of as many different people. One photo was of their face and then another was of their torso holding up a sign (I also asked them to bring two different tops to wear). I asked them to each produce one sentence, word or picture that explained who they were in some way. I ended up having thirty photos and lined them all up (mixing up the faces and signs) and bound them together with ribbon. I was trying to explore the idea that we judge people subconsciously; as the reader goes through the book, they are trying to match up the faces to the signs. Below are some photos I took:


I have been feeling very thankful the past few days to have never felt the incomprehensible grief that those around the Willams case are experiencing. And I hope that I, nor anyone else in my circle of family and friends ever does. So maybe that was what the universe wanted me to acknowledge this week: I am so lucky.

Take a look at the articles I've written for the UofT paper here!
http://www.the-underground.ca/2010/10/07/me-to-we-inspires-change-and-diversity/