Students can learn to write fiction from a nationally-acclaimed author
Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes, will begin teaching creative writing courses at the University of Guelph in fall 2016. The news was announced in a February 24th press release by the university.
The author of 10 books, Hill has extensive experience in not just writing, but also teaching. He has taught at the Booming Ground Program at the University of British Columbia, the Humber School for Writers, and the Banff Centre, among others.
So what drew him to the University of Guelph?
“Guelph asked me—that’s a good start!” said Hill in an interview with The Ontarion. “But second of all, Guelph is close to home, because I live in Hamilton, and Guelph was very flexible about the unique needs that I have. Because I’m still an active writer, I can really only manage (time-wise) to teach one school term a year.”
Hill plans to continue writing while he teaches, and is currently working on three projects—a new adult novel, a children’s book, and a screenplay adaption of his newest novel, The Illegal. He plans to teach just one course in the fall, which will be an in-person class on fiction-writing.
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…really loved teaching and encouraging younger writers…[/pullquote]
“I’m a big believer in teaching things that I have expertise in,” said Hill. “So I’ll be teaching fiction, non-fiction, memoir, that kind of thing.”
Though he “won’t be teaching Shakespeare or 19th-century American literature,” Hill still plans to incorporate outside readings into his classes.
“So I’ll say, ‘This is a course on memoir, so I’d like you to read a few of the more famous, say, African-American or African-Canadian memoirs, so we can see what kind of models are at play, and you can try your hand and borrow from some of the things you’re learning technically,” said Hill.
During our interview, Hill stressed that he wanted his course to be open and welcoming to students of all different areas of expertise—not just the students who already consider themselves to be writers.
“Learning to write better, and learning to write creatively is not just for aspiring novelists and people who want to spend their life in literature,” said Hill. “I think that taking one or two courses in creative writing—even if you’re a nursing student or an architecture student, or in veterinary studies or in pre-med or whatever—I think that it’s something that is practically useful to you. You’re going to have to write reports, and documents, and persuade bosses, and engage with the public…And I very firmly believe that there’s no form of communication that’s harder to master than writing creatively, and if you can learn the skills and master the basics of creative writing, chances are, you’ll be a much better communicator in the rest of your life, regardless of your career choice.”
Hill explained that he wants to make writing more accessible to all students.
“I think that art needs to be de-mystified. People shouldn’t be thinking that it’s incomprehensible…If you de-mystify it, and make it seems ordinary and understandable, then more people are willing to try it.”
One of the ways that Hill wants to make art more accessible is by showing people how art is created and shared, from not just a creative standpoint, but also a business one. Hill explained that he wants to provide students with the practical publishing and business skills that he’s picked up after having his books and short stories published for the past 34 years.
“A lot of people have no idea about the business of writing, like how do you get paid, how do you get published, how do you bring your book to print?” said Hill. “And so I’d like to bring literary publishers and literary agents to Guelph so that they can talk to my students and others.”
Hill would also like to reach out to not just university students, but the overall Guelph community as well.
“For example, maybe I can visit a school in Guelph, and talk to high school students about what it means to be a writer, and how you go about constructing a novel. Or maybe—and this is just an example, I’m not saying this is the plan—but maybe if there’s a local prison in the Guelph area, or even an hour from Guelph. Perhaps I could go visit that prison and talk to inmates about literature because inmates in prison, they also need literature, they also need dreams, and they also need hope, and the possibility for a life after they get out…and to have their humanity recognized when they’re behind bars.”
And Hill is certainly no stranger to engaging communities through his role as a writer, such as starting discussions from his works about wide-spread, complex issues such as race and immigration.
“There are all kinds of ways to engage yourself as a creator, and all different ways to engage yourself as a consumer of information. And so I don’t actually walk around thinking that my way is more important than another; it’s just the way that I choose to engage…I think that the artist’s role is to stimulate and provoke your empathy and imagination, and to make you care more deeply about the things that I care about, and the things that I step into in my fiction. I’m there to provoke your responses and to engage you, and to make you see and care, and to stir your own sense of humanity.”
Hill will be officially joining the College of Arts in July, and looks forward to his role.
“I’m really excited to come, and I’ve always really loved teaching and encouraging younger writers…I’m interested in encouraging any and every student who wants to learn to write better.”
[For the full interview, go to www.theontarion.com for more]