Welcome Dr. Gaskin Chancellor Priorities First Woman VC MIL Fellows Creative Writing Creative Writing Winners Oceans on Mars Maricopans Help for Students Honors Forum Neighborhood Colleges Public Relations Jeanette Stephens 9/01/00

CREATIVE WRITING OFFERS VOICE TO THOSE WHO ARE SILENCED Virginia Chase Sutton inherited the "write" gift. Born into a family of authors, Sutton, English faculty at Phoenix College, found her voice as an award-winning author and poet and uses it to inspire others in her literature and composition classes. Also, for the past six years, she has been the Maricopa Community College District representative to The League for Innovation in the Community College Literary Competition. She helped develop a literary magazine representing all league members and was largely responsible last year for adding the "one-act play" category to the competition. (See related story below) As a teacher and a leader of the literary competition, "I feel it’s one of my missions to give people voice because so many are denied it," she says. "So many people have been silenced because of their race or gender and told not to voice their thoughts." That dynamic was alien to Sutton, who was accustomed to seeing women’s names on book jackets. Both her grandmother and great-aunt were prolific writers. "There were always books arriving in the mail," she recalls. Among them were her the works of her great-aunt, Mary Ellen Chase -- a celebrated author of 40 books, including best sellers of the 1930s through the ‘60s. Chase was an inspiration not only to her grandniece but also to many budding writers. As head of Smith College’s English department, Chase’s proteges included Betty Friedan and the late Sylvia Plath. "We had books on every surface in our home and I was never censored from reading any of them," Sutton says. "I grew up surrounded by books. My mother always said no money was ever wasted on books." THE ‘JOLT’ SHE NEEDED Even so, it wasn’t until her sophomore year in college that Sutton seriously began to develop her own writing gifts. "I was required to read 25 poetry books in my college literature class and then write my own poems. I got only three points out of a possible 10 on my first poem but ended up with an ‘A’ in the class," she recalls. "It was a turning point for me. I knew then I wanted to be more involved in creative writing and especially poetry." She worked as a newspaper reporter and editor, taught creative writing classes at various community colleges, and cranked out two books for the La Leche League: a cookbook and a book on parenting, both registered with the Library of Congress. But marriage, the birth of two daughters, and caring for an invalid mother for 13 years, sidelined her personal creative writing pursuits. That is, until a talented writing student confronted her in 1989. "He said to me, ‘You know so much about writing why aren’t you writing?' " It was the jolt she needed. She began churning out poems and discovered they were marketable. Her work has been published in the Paris Review, Witness Magazine, Boulevard, Antioch Review, Ploughshares, Quarterly West and other distinguished literary publications. She has won numerous poetry writing contests and has been awarded scholarships and fellowships to several prestigious writers conferences, including the Bread Loaf Writers Conference at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt. "The writing life is a life of rejection," said Sutton, who is working on her second poetry manuscript. "But things are beginning to change for me." Her first poetry manuscript has been a finalist 15 times in national literary competitions. Among her awards are a first place in the Tucson Poetry International Festival, second place in the Writers at Work contest in Salt Lake City, and the Paumanock Poetry Award. The artist will give a reading this fall at the State University of New York (SUNY) - Farmingdale on Long Island (where she will also receive a cash award). She has been nominated twice for the prestigious Pushcart Prize, and, close to home, has won awards from the Scottsdale Cultural Council, Phoenix Arts Commission, Arizona Humanities Council, Tempe Arts Council, and the Phoenix Public Libraries. ‘EVERY POEM HAS TO HAVE MUSIC’ "Writing and teaching are both joys to me," proclaims Sutton. "I meet people from rich, diverse backgrounds and teach them about the music in language. Every poem has to have music." And in the composing, she says, "My students inspire me with their passion and dedication and I help them find empowerment in their voice." Sutton calls that stage in her life when she didn’t have time to write creatively her "silent" period, and it served an important purpose. "I think silence is important. I tell my students to be patient and allow themselves time. Creative writing is about accessing the unconscious.” Sutton plans to take a sabbatical this fall to work on her doctorate in creative writing. Click here for next story.