Today's Literature.

I wrote this for the introductory discussion in the current American literature class I'm teaching:

When I studied creative writing as a graduate student, I realized how important contemporary literature was and what a complex range of work was available to me. I spent a year reading dozens of books of contemporary poetry. I realized that in order to be a successful poet, I had to understand how poetry has changed from the rhyming sonnets I read in high school. I've also focused on contemporary novels, short stories, and memoirs, watching new releases in bookstores, at the library, and through magazines. I used to scoff at the idea of current novels, and contemporary poetry confused me. But now I realize how important contemporary literature is for me both as a writer and as a contemporary person. It helps me understand who I am and the world in which I become myself.

Of course, I feel my inadequacy in keeping up with contemporary literature, certainly in reading it but also just in knowing about it. I have a box full of lists of authors and book titles I've noted, and many magazines with book reviews await me. But I try to be aware. Working in bookstores during and immediately after graduate school helped me with this: I saw books coming in constantly, and I touched hundreds of them every day.

I wanted to teach this class in order to to show this to students who may, like me, not know how wide and delightful the range of contemporary literature can be or who think they don't like reading because their experience is too narrow via the dreaded high school English reading lists. I will be reading these totally new essays, stories, and poems along with you, discovering them and expanded myself as a reader, lifelong learner, and writer.