This spring, Assistant Researcher and Composition Specialist cookie b egret and Associate Professor of English Education Ricki Ginsberg were selected as the latest Writer in Residence and Reader in Residence (respectively) at Wolverine Farm Publick House. Both residencies started in April and will conclude at the end of June with a showcase event hosted by egret, Ginsberg, and this spring’s Maker in Residence Liz Ortiz.

Established in 2018, the Writer in Residence program was created “to better serve the writing community and encourage individual authors and poets to interact with one another and build a strong network.” Throughout a three-month term, residents spend time writing and engaging the community at the Publick House and complete their residency by participating in a collaborative showcase with other monthly residents.

The Reader in Residence program began in 2021 and is supported by Perelandra Bookshop. During a three-month tenure, residents “simply read — not aloud, but to themself — at the bookshop.” Within this space, the reader in residence is granted the opportunity to “hone their attention while making literary engagement visible and relevant.”

Earlier this summer, the English department had a chance to chat with egret and Ginsberg about their residency experiences and how this time has shaped their writing and reading practices. Check out the Q&A below to learn more!

 

cookie b egret Q&A with Writer in Residence cookie b egret

What have you been working on? Did you go into the residency with a specific writing project in mind?

I’m always writing poetry and drafting ideas that I file away somewhere. I’m also currently working on an academic article on solidarity, hoping to contribute to some new and ongoing conversations on care and solidarity, locally and transnationally, in the Social Studies of Science and Technology (STS) field. This writing project stems from my longtime involvement in community organizing work and from more recent work in the Future Organisms research group, examining the social and political dimensions of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in the fields of Synthetic Genomics and Biological Engineering. We organized a workshop in May of 2023 that was international, interdisciplinary and experimental, and was hosted at Wolverine Farm. I did go into this writing residency at Wolverine working on this paper on solidarity, but the work is making an even fuller circle than I first imagined.

Can you describe what your writing process looks like? Do you have any habits/routines that feel essential to the process of beginning?

Writing is hard. Being a parent, a partner, an organizer and college instructor of writing requires me to steal time to write, but then writing also steals time back, as in, it takes a lot of time and writing to figure out what it is I’m trying to say, that is, to actually begin to write. I often draft twice more work than I’ll use, 20 pages to every 8, let’s say. Everyone I know and read about – because I love to read about other famous writers’ writing practice instead of write myself – say we must write every day, and I agree, but as of yet, have not attained this practice. I guess that knowing this, no, feeling this, going through this and failing at it sometimes, is essential.

What have you learned about yourself as a writer through this experience? What do you hope to gain by the end of it?

I am learning that scholarly writing is like a call and response, or a conversation, as we teach it in college. Maybe all writing is. I really am amplifying and combining the work of others, making more complex and simultaneously accessible and actionable ideas that come from really different places and people. My writing voice and teaching self and parent/partner self are all facilitators to an extent (on my good days, let’s say) only able to say something helpful in dialogue with the history (and historiography) that shapes and constrains the moment we’re in. I’m learning how to better take accountability in this complex web of unending influence – to read it more expansively and openly – so that I can keep working on aligning the form with the force, as in, listen, respond to, and live the work I’m writing.

About cookie b egret

cookie b egret, born and raised in the Fort Collins area is performing at becoming with other others more capaciously, as a matter of habit building differently. Writing, parenting, performing arts and double-libra-ness structures most of their space-time selfing. Serving rhetorical-based writing instruction topped with shaved bits of postmodern zest and cross-cultural analysis is another practice cookie engages in on the regular. Currently, they’re finishing up a few years of research attempting to reframe the operationalizability of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in synthetic genomics and bioengineering. They’re working on a paper, conference presentation and poetry to these regards. Can new life find us? (What is “new,” what is “us” what counts as alive?) What will that encounter look, sound, or feel like? How will we open to understanding?

Q&A with Reader in Residence Ricki Ginsberg

In contrast to a writing residency, how have you approached a residency devoted to reading? (This is a fairly new concept to me, and I’m interested in how you’ve decided to shape your attention.)

This is also new to me! I’ve been approaching this opportunity to practice one of the strategies we use in schools called DEAR (Drop Everything And Read). I put all technology or distractions away and devote myself to the words on the page. I’ve loved chatting with other customers about the books they are reading—it’s very inspiring!

What have you found surprising and/or exciting about this opportunity? What have you learned about yourself as a reader?

I tend to read a lot of young adult literature, and for this residency, I’ve aimed to read more books marketed to adults. The Perelandra Bookshop has an amazing mix of books, and I find myself switching between books because I have Book FOMO when I am in there. It’s very difficult to walk into that bookstore without purchasing a book–there are options for everyone.

What are you currently reading, and what’s next on your list?

I’m reading two different books right now. They are both books that I hadn’t gotten to yet, so I’m really excited to have the dedicated time to focus on reading them. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson has won a lot of awards. It is a nonfiction text that explores how the hidden caste system shapes (and has shaped) America today. This was adapted into a film called Origin. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a novel about two people who are in love and leave Nigeria for the US. This book has also won a lot of awards, and I hadn’t read it yet! It’s been great to have this dedicated time to dig into each book (while drinking a delicious tea!).

About Ricki Ginsberg

Dr. Ricki Ginsberg teaches courses in reading and writing pedagogies, teaching and research methods, and young adult literature. Her research interests focus on educational equity, particularly centered on 1) reimagining literacy practices to be grounded in local communities and focused on activism, 2) supporting teachers with book censorship and intellectual freedom, and 3) recruiting and retaining Indigenous teachers and teachers of color. She is Co-Chair of English Education with a focus on the undergraduate program.

Dr. Ginsberg is a former president of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English (ALAN), Director of the Black, Indigenous, and Teachers of Color (BIToC) Collective at Colorado State University, Co-Chair of the Native American Advisory Council to the president, a faculty affiliate for the Race and Intersectional Studies for Educational Equity (RISE) Center, and a former editor of The ALAN Review. Her work has been published in journals like American Indian Quarterly, College Teaching, English Journal, Journal of Human Rights, Multicultural Perspectives, Reading Research Quarterly, Research in the Teaching of English, and Teachers College Record. 

Residency Showcase at Wolverine Farm

Thursday, June 27 from 6 – 9 p.m.
316 Willow St, Fort Collins, CO 80524

Reading, Writing, Printmaking Event

Join Wolverine Farm Publick House for an exciting evening event hosted by their reader-, writer-, and maker-in residence (Ricki Ginsberg, cookie egret, and Liz Ortiz, respectively). This interactive event will feature a read-in, writing exercise, and printmaking workshop.

Space is limited to 30 participants.

Cost: $25.00 per person.

Scholarships available–please reach out to chelsea@wolverinefarm.org.

Learn more at https://www.wolverinefarm.org/event/residency-showcase-reading-writing-and-printmaking/