Visiting Writer Steve Yarbrough and Creative Writing at SU

A huge part of being a Creative Writing major at Susquehanna University is reading and being exposed to authors you may have never read before—or so it seems from my Intro to Fiction class.  I’ve gotten to read plenty of short stories, and though I haven’t connected with all of them, there has been true love in some cases.  Robert Boswell’s “The Darkness of Love,” for instance, has me eager to buy one of his short story collections.  Though I’ve read it before, “Lust” by Susan Minot was even more poignant this time around.   

One writer whose work I’ve gotten to know has been Steve Yarbrough, one of Susquehanna’s visiting writers.  Our class read his short story anthology Veneer.  I particularly liked “Bohemia,” a story set in Prague that explores a woman’s issues with her boyfriend and body image. 

On Monday, Steve Yarbrough spoke to my Intro to Fiction class, sitting between me and my friend Lindsey.  I got the chance to ask him a question relating to one of his stories, “The Rest of Her Life,” and listen to him talk about writing.  Of particular to interest to me was the discussion on setting and how the place he grew up factored into his stories.  I tend to skimp on setting, so I am trying to be particularly attentive to such discussions.  Hearing about his process was likewise intriguing.  Previously I’ve heard that you should finish your first draft of a novel before doing nit-picky editing, but Yarbrough uses the revise-as-you-go option, which I’ve learned is just an effective method.  Whether it’s the method for me, however, has yet to be discovered. 

Yesterday I attended Steve Yarbrough’s reading.  He shared a short story about a writer and the best friend whom inspired his lauded novel Hard Cash.  It’s hard for me to keep track of a story without the written text in front of me, but Yarbrough’s story was interesting, nonetheless, and even provided some laughs.  At the reading’s end, I was excited to get his signature on my copy of Veneer.

Steve Yarbrough emphasized during his reading that Susquehanna is a very special place for aspiring writers, and though I haven’t been here very long, I’m inclined to agree.  I know Steve Yarbrough is one of many authors I will be able to meet and learn from here in the coming years and one of countless writers I’ll be exposed to through reading in my classes. 

On a related note, I cannot wait until I find time today to sit down and work on my new, third person short story for Intro to Fiction.  It has helped so much to have fellow Creative Writing majors in my dorm to gripe with when the going gets tough, to inspire me, and to celebrate with when I’ve finally found something that’s going well.   I love the community I’ve felt so far in my Creative Writing studies at Susquehanna, and I hope I only experience that more as my education progresses.