Ellington

In third grade, horror and thriller stories were Blake Dunham’s, well – thrill. His teacher permitted him to read his stories aloud to the class, and more often than not, the characters who were his classmates were pronounced dead.

“They loved it,” laughed Dunham.

Now, a decade later, Dunham is a senior in the UW creative writing program, which offers undergraduates 36 fiction and poetry courses.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Theodore Roethke pioneered the program in 1947. With numerous distinguished and award-winning faculty, the program was recently ranked one of the top-10 creative writing programs in the country.

“We offer graduate and undergraduates classes that are both workshops and literary seminars for writers,” said professor Pimone Triplett, director of the program.

In contrast to Dunham, UW alumna Natalie McNabb spends her mornings, evenings and weekends writing stories on her computer. With a full-time job, these are the only times she has wholly to herself.

“Life is busy, married, two kids, pets,” McNabb said.

Like Dunham, McNabb has been writing since her third year in elementary school.

“Writing is a very personal, isolated, individual thing. Creative writing — I don’t really know if you can teach it; it’s so individualized,” McNabb said.

Initially McNabb was pursuing the creative writing major, but after a few quarters, she switched to the English Honors program.

“The limited amount of time I spent in the creative writing program felt less tangible. It didn’t push you as much to study different forms. English gave me a solid foundation to spring off of,” she said.

McNabb has been published twice in the UW literary journal Bricolage, as well as in other various online literary magazines. Bricolage accepts submissions from students and prints their yearly issue in the spring. This year, the journal released a quarterly issue, entitled Curio, which featured senior Jay Steingold’s poetry.

Similar to writing, McNabb views publishing as an independent process.

“You can find everything online now; online is huge,” she said. “You can do everything by yourself nowadays. It’s about finding better avenues.”

Taking the advice of graduate students, Steingold submitted five poems to the Bricolage panel, and his poetry became an immediate success.

“Getting accepted into Bricolage gave me the confidence to submit to other publications,” said Steingold, who focuses on poetry within the creative-writing major.

Like Dunham and McNabb, Steingold traces his early writing to elementary-school assignments.

There are contradictory opinions when it comes to students pursuing publication. Like others in the department, Steingold noted that teachers do not discuss publishing.

“It’s not their job to get us published; it’s their job to teach us how to write,” Steingold said.

He suggested that they have a class specifically developed to the publishing process or offer a single-day workshop.

“A lot of the teachers think that we’re not ready to submit, but a lot of the grad students say just to do it anyways,” he said.

Brian Larsen, a second-year MFA student in the UW creative-writing department, was initially frustrated with the lack of focus on publication but has since come to terms.

Larsen said writers struggle with timing and that getting published is a personal choice, when you feel you are ready.

“If you get published early, you don’t continue to write. You get stuck. It takes several years for writers to find their voice,” Larsen said.

Triplett said there is no magic bullet in publishing.

“The main thing a student who is interested in publishing should do is read as much as they can, whether in poetry or fiction, take classes with experienced mentors, and be patient,” Triplett said.

During Dunham’s senior year of high school, he said he, regretfully, self-published a fantasy novel. Now he is waiting to publish once he has attained his doctorate in English.

McNabb publishes through numerous online sources, and Steingold is an avid blogger.

Although Steingold is primarily a poetry writer, he suggested trying everything.

“It’s good to be a versatile writer. I feel like going in different directions can actually help you out,” he said.

All three writers brought different agendas to the program, but their ultimate goal would be to see their work on a bookshelf.

“I want to move people, inspire people, help people through my work to change their lives, and have people look at the world differently,” Dunham said.

Reach reporter Breanna Lai at lifestyles@dailyuw.com.