Caleb Gonzalez
First Year M.A. Student, Creative Nonfiction
Graduate Teaching Assistant for CO150

How do you spend most of your time in Eddy Hall? I spend my time in the computer lab on the third floor, doing my homework, printing out stories for my classes and getting ready for my CO150 classes.

What’s your favorite English class or teacher? Debby Thompson. It’s really fun to go to her office and gripe about the current political situation with her, as we have very similar views about the world. She just gives really good feedback, especially on the current “Cheese” essay that I wrote for workshop.

Tell us about the “Cheese” essay. I’m very excited about it! It’s my newest essay that I wrote based on a prompt in Debby’s class. Cheese is a metaphor for identity, class, race, and individual growth as a person.

Describe Eddy Hall in one word. Unpredictable. Also, my favorite word is “whimsical.”

What’s your favorite author or work of literature? One of them is Russian Journal by Andrea Lee. It’s a creative nonfiction book about her and her husband living in Russia as academics. She uses her experiences to make sense of the former Society Union and its relationship to the United States, as well, which is interesting. She was a staff writer for The New Yorker and has done a lot for the New York Times Magazine. Russian Journal was published in 1981.

If you were to give advice to incoming CSU grad students, what would it be? Trust yourself. Have confidence in your own writing. As hard as it might be, learn to be a part of the community.

What’s your biggest goal or priority right now? I’m going to be facilitating Rekindle the Classics, and it will be on Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. So my biggest goal is to read that work and do a good job facilitating that work.