University
of Nevada, Reno
Department
of English
ARTIST'S STATEMENT: GAILMARIE PAHMEIER
I think I became a writer because you don't have to be pretty, and you don't have to be interesting--you just have to write something pretty and interesting. ---Dorothy Allison . That's what I try to do. I chose Dorothy Allison to introduce this statement because we have a little something in common--I think we both celebrate, to use Nevada author (and fellow English department colleague) Ann Ronald's words, the world of the waitress, the often unsung lives of the pink collar workers. I think Id say that my recent work (my book,The House on Breakaheart Road, and various singly published pieces) and what I'm doing presently is crafted gossip, but gossip informed by compassion and forgiveness. I use the word gossip in its original sense of God's sibling because I believe that talking about others is often an honest expression of concern for their lives and, perhaps primarily, a recognition of the vulnerability of our own. Poet Marianne Moore once said that poets should write poems that dogs and cats can understand, and I try in my work to be as accessible as possible while also respecting the traditions of my craft. (I think it would be wonderful to find my book in Costco one day--that someone might pick up a book of my poetry and a flat of dog food at the same time!) I've recently completely a new manuscript of poems, Shake It and It Snows, in which various character voices explore the concept of home--both concretely and metaphorically. My hope, in all I do, is that the reader will take an associational leap from the poems and into his or her own life, carrying away some small truth. Long range goals include getting closer to my own truths. I've been teaching and studying the currently popular genre of memoir, and I've been rather surreptitiously interviewing my own family and researching the certainly unsung lives of our dead. I can't tell yet, but there may be a memoir born out of this work, and if not that, there are always stories to tell and poems to make.
About Gailmarie Pahmeier
Gailmarie Pahmeier teaches creative writing and literature courses at the University of Nevada where she has been honored with the Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award and the University Distinguished Teacher Award. Her literary awards include the Chambers Memorial Award, the Paumonok Poetry Award, a Witter Bynner Foundation Poetry Fellowship, two Artists Fellowships from the Nevada Arts Council, and the Silver Pen Award from the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. Her work has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies, and her most recent book is The House on Breakaheart Road (University of Nevada Press, 1998).
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I'm often asked if creative writing can actually be taught. It's a tiresome question, and I have a rather banal answer--yes and no. A teacher can impart a working knowledge of and respect for the tradition and craft of her genre, but the compassionate ability to see the world with both pervasive irony and a brutally honest heart can't be taught. A teacher can, however, save a student writer years by simply telling her what not to waste time on (pleasing others, desperately attempting to will originality, remaining true to the facts--But that's the way it happened!). I try to teach my students to lie their way to the truth--to become ruthless enough to create, to make art. Artists have no moral obligation to reality, and often student writers cling to truth because they fear themselves and their inner lives. That's what we try to unlock in the workshop communities. I'm also trying to teach these students to trust their responses. Just because a response cant automatically be defended intellectually doesn't mean it lacks validity. I don't want my students to become the sort of people who, upon leaving a movie and being asked what they thought of it, say I'm going to have to go home and think about it. What this sort of person is really saying is that he'll have to see if he can defend his response. If he can't, he'll hide his feelings or lie about them. I want my students to own themselves. I suppose what I'm getting at is that I hope to teach my students that they have rights to their lives. I know that sounds simple, but I've never met anyone who knows this so well that she doesn't need it confirmed.
