Talking with ... MICHAEL MCCOLLY

http://www.michaelmccolly.vox.com

Interviewed by Magdalen Dale
on March 26, 2009

As a teacher in the Master’s in Creative Writing Program at Northwestern’s School of Continuing Studies and especially after agreeing to be my thesis advisor, I have had numerous conversations with Michael about writing creative nonfiction. I was drawn to Michael because of the way he stresses honesty and connecting your writing both inward to your body and outward to your audience and the larger world. This philosophy is best represented in his memoir The After-Death Room: Journey into Spiritual Activism, which has been described as "a book that travels outward into the world and inward into the farthest reaches of the human heart." On a recent visit back to Chicago, after meeting to discuss my student thesis work, I decided to turn the tables and ask Michael to reflect on his own work as a writer and teacher.

MD: Who or what has been the most influential to your teaching style and the way you think about writing and teaching?

MM: Well, I’ve had several influences and people who have taught me a lot. I learned a lot from just reading of course, but I think my first major influence was taking acting classes in college. There are a few things that are emphasized in acting that I think should be given more emphasis in creative writing, such as listening and creating from your body, knowing about conflict and intention, and the importance of audience. I remember one particular moment of watching and being transfixed by another student’s performance, a much older and wiser student who made me realize that trusting her and others on stage would enable me to reach deeper into my own creative work. Listening is actually a form of trusting. When you act, you instantly know if you are connecting with other actors and an audience. I think actors learn to cultivate an intuitive sense that the audience is why you practice your craft—a real audience of people. Writers often don’t get this practice. In contrast, writing workshops are artificial and often produce a skewed sense of whether a piece is working.

My second influence was the study and practice of Yoga. The philosophy of Yoga is a foundation for my understandings of aesthetics and for how I’ve learned to help people use and trust their bodies—their imaginations, their perceptions, their voice. It’s also critical for cultivating the ability to concentrate. Focus is very very important to writing and it has to be learned and practiced. I’m currently writing a lot about how Yoga and mindfulness practices work for writers and artists. I’ve also been conducting workshops that teach these practices and I can see the benefits.

Do you have a favorite writing exercise or prompt?

Yes. When working on personal narrative essays, I have students make a list of scenes from the piece they are writing and then I ask them to choose one of these scenes and make another list of the key aspects of this scene or memory: place, objects, emotions, senses, people involved, context or situation. Then I have them close their eyes and simply listen to their breathing for a while. Sometimes I have them lie on the floor to do this. When they are relaxed, I ask them to re-see themselves in this scene, mentioning these prompts again, and asking them to check their bodies as they recall this scene, to see if sensations in their body are registering as they remember. I ask them then to record what happened and pay attention to sensations and emotions that came up while doing this exercise.

I know that many students, including myself, have learned a lot from your unique body-centered way of teaching writing. What in turn have you learned from your students?

To be honest and direct and that students aren’t just brains floating out there in space, but whole bodies. Students remind you that it matters to believe in the power of art to awaken people. I taught English as a Second Language for around eight years, and the students, so many, who had very difficult life stories (which I turned into a collection and published) made me see that the basic story of survival was one of the most powerful human stories there is—especially when it is told simply with no sentimentality, using facts, details, actions, and honesty about both human compassion and all the evils of people make a life of taking advantage of people.

Where would you like to see the direction of creative writing headed?

Teaching should take seriously the new discoveries in brain science. We know how the brain works more and more, and cultivating emotional intelligence, sensuality, perception, concentration, and imagination can be learned and explored, both experientially and physiologically. Being smart and witty produces empty prose for the most part. Students need to know and really feel that their words and crafted narratives have the ability to shape other people’s minds.