Clarion on Zoom has involved a lot of sitting — by yesterday I was hitting my limits and had started teaching class while standing at the kitchen island. I may end up teaching on the treadmill today; my back just can’t take that much sitting! Benjamin Rosenbaum and I have also been trying to exercise […]
Keeping Ourselves Sane Read More »
Benjamin Rosenbaum and I were talking to the Clarion students yesterday about the writing life and how to make it sustainable long-term — we told them our goal for ourselves, and hopefully for them, was “a sustainable praxis for yourself that makes your life good.” We talked about other things too, like goal-setting, and how
A Quiet Garden, Time to Think, Time to Write Read More »
We did idea-jam at Clarion today, and Ben made us try to come up with 30 first lines in 10 minutes. I only managed 20! But here they are, in case they’re amusing to you. ***** 1. She leapt into the darkness, gladly. 2. Somehow her bra had made it into his laundry basket; it
Benjamin Rosenbaum and I are deep in Clarion teaching, which is pretty all-consuming, and if you’re waiting on something from me, you’re probably going to need to wait a little longer — we’re working very long days and just carving out enough time for sleeping is a bit of a challenge! But it should get
Deep In Clarion Teaching Read More »
When I was working on Bodies in Motion, I was in grad school, and broken-hearted, so I was going to bed very early (8 p.m.) because I had nothing else I wanted to do in the evenings. While it was miserable emotionally, this turned out to be terrific for productive writing. I developed a ritual:
I may post some of the assignments and such here, if I think they’re potentially useful to others. Obviously, nothing confidential to the class and our students’ work! ***** Good morning, students! I haven’t discussed this assignment with Benjamin yet, because he’s still asleep, but I wanted to get it down before I forgot about
Clarion West Teaching Starts Today Read More »
I really enjoyed teaching at this workshop for UC Berkeley — the attendees were smart and engaged and excited about the material, and I think we had a great discussion of South Asian and SA diaspora speculative fiction. Beautifully organized by Shane Carter of ORIAS, who also fed us really well throughout (a surefire way
Home Again, Home Again Read More »
I’m having a quiet morning catching up with e-mail, straightening the house, watering the garden, and packing — I head out this afternoon to CA for a few days. I’m going to visit Jed tomorrow, and then go up to Berkeley to teach at their Summer Institute for K-12 Teachers, teaching South Asian speculative fiction
Finishing up my promotion materials — here’s my one-page teaching statement, in the interest of transparency. ***** Mohanraj Teaching Statement: All of us teaching literature and creative writing have faced new challenges in the last several years. My general teaching goals have always been: a) to develop the student’s individual voice and thoughts, helping to
Teaching Statement Read More »
In the interests of transparency about the often obscure academic process, I’m going to post the draft of my scholarship statement here; I’ve just sent it to my chair for his feedback, so it may well be drastically revised before it actually goes out. It’s supposed to cover my work from 2015 to today. It’s
Mohanraj Scholarship and Creative Work Statement Read More »
