Shout Out to the original WWU cast

I was just sifting through my folder of old college homework and came across an anthology that was pieced together from my English 354 Class from Fall, 2002 at Western Washington University-- “Coda: a Collection of Creative Nonfiction”. And I have to give a quick shout out to the professor, Brenda Miller, and the students, because this was the best and most significant class of my undergrad experience. Cheers! to the following writers: Mike Anderson, Rebecca Collins, Megan Cooley, Kris Drake, Megan Fitzpatrick, Gina Gately, Heather Hintz, Hollie Huthman, Tammy Kelso, Mary Lohnes, Beth Louon, Denise Mickelson, Nathan Nelson, Jon Perez, Erik Peterson, Sara Rowley, Nathaniel Shepard, Katie Stephens, and Jody Tice.

I really wish I had the syllabus from this class. The theme of the course was personal historical essays. And I recall doing a lot of brainstorming and discussion about how we define "creative nonfiction", "truth" and "memory". We were thirsty guinna pigs for information and assignments, which Brenda (and co-author Susan Paola) supplied in their drafts of "Telling it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nondiction". The class was historical for all of us because this was the first college course of the year, after 9/11/02. Brenda asked us: What does it mean to be a writer in the face of a tragedy that renders us mute? What is our role as writers? Why bother? During the 10 week class we helped each other see that we write because we must give voice to what it means to be human. We write because we're trying to make sense of ourselves and our place in this world.