You can order print copies of the 2024 Spring~Summer edition of Teach. Write. at Lulu.com. Here is the link. If you are interested in submitting to the journal for the 2025 Fall~Winter edition, please go to teachwritejournal.com to see the submission guidelines.
The publication of the print copy is always great, but one more exciting thing is coming up that some of you might be interested in, especially if you live in North Carolina. I’m going to be a guest editor at the North Carolina Writers’ Network spring conference. I will be one of the “Slush Pile LIve” panelist. I was honored that they asked me, and you can be sure that I will take copies of this most recent edition!
March came and went without me posting, but it wasn’t like I was just sitting around! No, I was spending every waking moment working on the new edition of Teach. Write. And taking walks with friends and playing with my not so little kitten. Going to Alabama to help take care of my mother. Working on my play as a Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellow And spending ten glorious days in Germany to celebrate our 35th anniversary and my brother’s retirement.
Yes, Katie’s been busy NOT teaching. Without the pressures of preparing lessons and grading essays, I was actually able to take my time and truly enjoy the editing process. I’m happy with the results; hope you will be, also.
Poor college!!! Seems like every Tom, Dick, and Henrietta is taking a pot shot at you these days. I know, I know, you can be expensive, especially if people get sweet-talked into taking on college loans (Don’t do it unless you absolutely have to!). Also, some classes and professors will be really sucky at your place. People can be downright mean, too. Plus, students can get in a lot of trouble given the kind of freedom that you bring. Don’t forget, you forced me to question my core beliefs. Yes, I didn’t abandon those beliefs, but admit it, I did question them, loudly and a lot.
Is it just me, or did you, along with a supportive family and friends, help me find my way through my late teens and early twenties? Did you help me forge positive, meaningful relationships with people from other cultures and countries with varying backgrounds and values? I think it was you who qualified me for a fulfilling career as an English and German teacher at the high school and college level. During my working years, you helped me provide a strong high school education for my child and made it possible for me and my husband to pay for her now debt-free education (two degrees). You allowed me to contribute to a pension plan that means I can enjoy a financially secure retirement.
Because of you, in undergraduate school at a Christian university, I traveled to Europe for six weeks, studying German and history. I visited West Berlin when it was still trapped within a wall, but somehow still free because of what my country, along with England and France, did for that city. I laid hands on the graffiti-laden free side of that wall and was thankful to be a citizen of a nation that saw the value in maintaining the democracy of a country with which it had so recently been at war.
Because of you, I visited Christians in East Berlin who were trapped outside the wall by an oppressive communist regime that would not let them worship freely. Yes, older people could go to church, but their every movement was monitored by the Stasi, the East German secret police, and younger people were prevented, by law, from attending church. And yet, in those few hours in the East, I witnessed the bravery of those who longed for freedom–an old woman who shook the hands of every student and said in broken English, “Tell them we have no freedom here. Tell them we have no freedom here. Tell them we have no freedom here.” The young people in their teens and twenties who traveled two-by-two just to meet, in secret, a group of American Christians, tell them their stories, and fellowship with them.
Because of you, I was able to spend the second half of my German trip in Tübingen to visit my brother who was studying theology there. I lived in the international dorm and traveled into the city, learning the mass transit system (new to me), eating at the Mensa (student cafeteria), visiting the old castle where my brother preached his first sermon to an intimidating crowd of professors, and sitting in on lectures about biblical archeology, some of which I could actually understand! We punted flat boats on the Neckar River, took walks into the forests, and had picnics with my brother’s friends. We took a train to Munich to hear The Rolling Stones at the Olympic Stadium and hitchhiked the way back (not recommended these days but safe back then).
Only because of you could I have afforded this trip. You didn’t pay for it outright, but you supplemented it, enriched it with quality faculty members who had the knowledge to plan our trip in order to give us the best educational and personal experiences possible. I also learned how to work for what I wanted, taking on two jobs and saving to raise the funds.
I had so many other wonderful experiences during my college years because of the support you offered, and I have gotten so much more out of my experiences since then because of you, but you also gave me a chance to make a living doing what I love to do–teach. The data shows that you give many people that opportunity–people with a bachelor’s, master’s, professional, or doctoral degree still make more on average AND have lower unemployment than those with a two-year degree or less, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics using 2022 data. You give so many of us so many opportunities we wouldn’t have without you.
I know you’re not perfect. Far from it. You have so many problems that more and more people are saying you’re not worth it. But you are!! Even though I realize you are not right for everybody–my own husband went to trade school to study x-ray and ultrasound technology, which has led to a great career for him. But for me, you made the difference despite the drawbacks. College, you have enriched my life more than I can say in one brief post. I can keep writing about you and the lessons you taught for at least the length of one book.
Oh, I think I will.
How about that for a segue? I hope to finish the rough draft of my educational memoir “Lessons” by the end of the year. I will keep you updated about the progress and maybe spin some more tales as I’m working on the book.
Also, the journal I edit and publish, Teach. Write., is open for submissions until March 1. The 2023 Spring/Summer edition is to be published on April 1. See the submission guidelines at teachwritejournal.com.
Teach. Write.: A Writing Teachers’ Literary Journal is now available in print. If you are interested in purchasing a copy, click here. The online version is available now at my sister site, teachwritejournal.com. I am now open to submissions for the spring/summer 2024 edition. If you are interested in submitting, please see my submission guidelines.
Katie Winkler on Roosevelt Island–photo by Hannah Winkler
I haven’t written much since I’ve been busy with the journal, writing my teaching memoir, traveling to New York City for the first time, spending time with family, and welcoming a new fuzzy family member into our home, but I have much to write about, so I will be back soon with more musings and mutterings about education in the South.
Since the fall of 2017, I have edited and published a literary journal designed specifically for composition teachers. Although I am open for submissions that follow the guidelines from anyone, anywhere, my emphasis has always been on writing that explores the art of teaching. I love to have the opportunity to build up teacher/writers like me, who have had limited time to write and market their own work because they are so busy helping their students learn how to write.
The 2023 fall~winter edition of Teach. Write. comes out tomorrow, continuing the tradition of showcasing the work of teachers and the art of teaching, along with other work that I hope simply inspires all to enjoy well-crafted and timely stories and poems. This edition, however, now that I have more time to work on improving the journal, has resulted in some changes:
Membership in the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses. See the journal’s page at clmp.org
New website–teachwritejournal.com–where you will be able to access the new edition tomorrow, October 1.
Largest edition ever, representing almost 50 regular and new contributors from around the country and the world.
More editing time has, I hope, resulted in a more polished and professional edition.
Photo by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto on Pexels.com
When I first started Teach. Write., the journal was primarily an escape from the pressures of teaching composition and literature at a small community college in an increasingly contentious bureaucratic environment where I was experiencing the slow erosion of the autonomy I had at first enjoyed. I’m not escaping anymore. I’m fighting.
Teach. Write. is my Sting.
It’s only a rusty dagger gripped by a little old warrior, but she is inspired and empowered by those, represented in her journal, who love words and stories, rhyme and rhythm, form and style. She is dedicated to those who care about sharing that love with others, especially students, in a world that is strangely hostile to their profession at times but one that needs those who practice the art of teaching more than ever.
I am writing a book about teaching. It’s non-fiction, but other than that, I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s part memoir and part teaching methods to begin with. In many ways, it is also like my blog–musings and mutterings about my life’s work.
I don’t mind telling you, I’m struggling. It’s not writer’s block. Oh, no. I’m not sure I believe in writer’s block anymore anyway. The only way I’ve ever written anything of any length is to write six days out of seven. The biggest excuse for not turning in work I heard over my years of teaching was some form of “I’ve got writer’s block, Mrs. Winkler.” It’s hogwash, I would tell them. Well, no, I wouldn’t say it that way. After 40 years of teaching, one learns how to spin. I would dress it up with the appropriate metaphor, analogy, etc., but in the end my student was more than likely procrastinating and not even trying to write.
You can’t write anything, if you don’t write something. Hmmm, that’s pretty good. I wonder if I ever used that one in class.
So, again, no. It’s not writer’s block. The first day of my official retirement, August 1, I set a daily average quota for the book in order to finish a rough, rough draft by the end of the year. I’m well ahead of schedule in that regard; I haven’t had trouble writing pages and pages and pages. Because I’m not plotting (I’m a terrible plotter), the words, stories, feelings, and ragings about my life in teaching just pour out.
Frankly, my struggle is having a point. But, no, it’s not that either–I have so many points, so many things I want to say about teaching, that the book is just a hodge podge of memories interspersed with my concerns (aka fears) about what is happening in education, especially higher education in America, especially here in North Carolina.
Sometimes, I think I’m writing two books, but if I want to keep the memoir part intact, the part that reflects who I was as a teacher, how I changed, and why teaching was more than a career, if I want to do that, then maybe this mishmash of a book is exactly what I want to write.
However, I still feel that the book needs to have a central theme, something on which to hang all the dangly pieces, and entice the reader to hear what I have to say. Also, even though it faces the truth about the educational perils of our time, I want the book to be, overall, positive in its outlook as it promotes the intrinsic value of education.
I think I’ve got it now–at least the germ of an idea.
Education begins and ends with relationships–between student and teacher, yes, but it doesn’t end there–also between student and family, family and teacher, teacher and other teachers, teachers and administrators, administrators and staff, staff and students, staff and teachers, and civic leaders, business owners, the community at large, and, okay, you get it. Success in education depends on the health of all these relationships. I think my book already reflects that, but I want to strengthen that theme in revision.
One of the spires of Lincoln’s Inn, London, October 2015 photo by Katie Winkler
So far, my book not only reflects some of these personal relationships, but also the relationships between events of my life and teaching. A large chapter in the book, for example, is showing how my travels in America and Europe reflected themselves in my teaching. I also want to talk about the relationship between socio/cultural shifts and the classroom, how I had to adapt my lessons to new trends (after I got over being furious about them).
I’m not sure. I’m still struggling, but I’m not blocked. I’m not discouraged. I am practicing what I preached all of those years: “Just get started. Vomit.” Yes, I said vomit–always got their attention. “Vomit it all out on the paper and then start cleaning up through revision and editing.” That’s where the heart of good writing lies.
More about that later.
Other than writing the book, I have also been putting together the fall/winter 2023 edition of Teach. Write.: A Writing Teachers’ Literary Journal, which will publish Oct. 1. As I mentioned in my last post, the journal has its own website now! The spring/summer edition is there as well as submission guidelines and some other information. Why not take a look? Just go to teachwritejournal.com.
Mrs. Winkler photo by Scott Treadway at Treadshots.com
So, it’s true. Retirement after almost 40 years of teaching English composition is, number 1, freaking awesome! Not having the constant class planning and paper grading has been true freedom for me. I guess I didn’t realize what a huge chunk of my life was wrapped up in doing those two things. Even in the summer when I wasn’t teaching, I was still spending on average a couple of hours each day tweaking old assignments, writing new ones, and updating online material (necessary but oh so tedious), among other college-related things I would just as soon forget.
The second true thing is that I have planned way too much for the first few months. So many people told me that I would be busier than ever when I retired, but I didn’t believe it could be true.
It is.
Here are a few of things I’m working on:
A teaching memoir–this is highest on my list because my 87-year-old mother suggested it, and I love the idea. I am ahead of schedule, even though I’m not writing at least six days a week as I promised myself I would. That said, when I do write, the words just flow out, and I’m averaging over my quota per day.
Writing blogposts more often. My goal is to write a post, on average, once a week. I am quickly learning that I won’t be able to write on the same day every week. My schedule is too unpredictable, but if I write four posts a month, I’m going to feel pretty darn good about myself.
The first step in being approved for membership in CLMP is developing an independent website for Teach. Write. I have already launched the new site, but there isn’t much content yet, so I am taking some time several days a week to work on that project.
Launching the next edition of Teach. Write. on October 1. Still on schedule to launch the new edition on the new site!!
Writing and submitting new short fiction. I’ve written and submitted one new story for a contest already and submitted one other story that I love but still hasn’t found a home. I think it is important to keep submitting my shorter works while I’m working on this long non-fiction project.
Thinking about my next play project–just thinking about it. I have two plays in mind–one is an adaptation and the other is original. At this point, I’m just re-reading the novel I’m thinking of adapting and doing some minor research on the original play idea.
These are only my writing and teaching-related activities. Despite all I’m doing as a writer/teacher, I don’t feel as stressed because I know I don’t have to do them. Also, because those two huge responsibilities–planning classes and grading papers–are no longer looming, I have time to do all the things I’ve been able to barely do and do them better. At least, I’m trying to do them better.
Just finished reading one of the gift books (pictured above) that a dear friend and former colleague gave me my last day at work. It is simply charming and a perfect choice for a woman who has retired from teaching English but will always love grammar.
That’s right. I said it. I love grammar, always have. I remember when I was in high school VOLUNTEERING to take an advanced grammar class because even then I felt drawn to grammar for some strange reason. Side note: Isn’t amazing that a high school in Jenks, Oklahoma, outside of Tulsa, would be able to fill an advanced grammar class?
With its in-depth discussion of parts of speech and detailed diagrams of complex sentences like the Preamble to the Constitution, that grammar class cemented my love and affinity for all aspects of language, including what I used to think most people found uninteresting and mundane. However, Ellen Jovin’s social experiment offers proof that many people find grammar not only interesting but often worth debating–seriously.
Jovin indicates in her introduction that she left her New York City home in the fall of 2018 armed with a folding table, a sign that reads “Grammar Table,” several English language handbooks, and a husband–to record each grammar session for a documentary that is now in post-production. By the time the book was published in 2022, the duo had visited 47 states, missing only Alaska, Hawaii, and Connecticut. I know what you’re thinking, why Connecticut? I mean, it’s right there! In the witty style that suffuses the book, Jovin explains that they were hungry for pizza, got caught up enjoying it, and called it a day without setting up the table. Then came Covid.
Jovin went ahead and wrote the book. Good for her! Each chapter discusses “hot” grammar topics at the table, beginning with one that scorches, the Oxford comma. You know the one–“eats, shoots, and leaves” or “eats, shoots and leaves?” Her measured response to even those who feel most strongly pro or con, mainly pro, is another hallmark of the book. I love the way that Jovin finds a way to smooth the ruffled feathers of even the staidest visitors to her table.
Some of my favorite topics include participles, gerunds, punctuation of all sorts, homophones, and possessive apostrophes. Foremost, I found validation as I was in agreement with this grammar expert in almost every case and can remember explaining concepts in a similar way to my students over the years. Jovin uses example sentences and draws little diagrams and simple drawings as aids, just like I did, and they work! Just like they did for me. To use a southernism–It just tickles me.
Her style and organization have inspired me as I continue to work on my own writing project, a memoir of my career as an educator. Like her I don’t want to write in chronological order but topically, showing how my life experiences have impacted the classroom. I also want to infuse humor and introduce interesting, quirky characters into the work as she does. I want it to be entertaining as well as informative. I want to teach and write, just like I ask others to do.
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Speaking of Teach. Write., if you have anything you would like to submit for this edition, then the deadline is fast approaching–September 1. The fall/winter edition will publish on Oct. 1, and I will reopen for submissions at that time. I have some great pieces to share with you in this new edition, so stay tuned for more information.
My father always said, in his loveably corny way, that he wasn’t ever going to retire, but refire! I think I will take his mantra as I embark on this new phase of my life. I have taken a few days to just re-evaluate things and decide what I want to spend my time doing.
So much of my time the last 55 years and more has been about getting an education or being an educator that it is going to take time to learn how to focus on other things, but I’m eager to try. I am already loving the freedom to order my life according to what is important to me, not my teachers or my employers.
Where to begin? Sheesh, now that it comes down to it, I’m having trouble even putting anything down. I know I want to spend more time with my family without annoying them, and I want to do things for them without hovering or being bossy.
But when it comes to the non-essentials, I guess the first thing I want is to write. I know that! Of course, I will continue writing this blog—my goal is to write a post once a week. But more than that, I want to start marketing the blog more and learn more about the business side of blogging and up my game a bit in that department. So, I guess I will be going back to school in that sense, but again, I want to do it. Nobody can make me anymore. Or voluntell me!!
It’s been a year since I worked on my podel (podcasted novel) Campus: A Novel That Wants to Be a Musical, so I want to pick that back up. I think I will shoot for one episode a month and try to increase that gradually. I want to improve the quality of the productions as well, which I am looking forward to doing.
My podcasting set up thanks to husband and daughter
I have already started working on the book that my mother suggested I write—a memoir of my teaching career. My goal is to finish by the end of the year, which means averaging about 600 words a day, so I’m on track. I am pleased with the format I’ve chosen and the writing is coming so much easier now that I am not spending so much of my summer vacation days planning my classes for the fall semester.
Spending more time with each edition of Teach. Write., the literary journal I founded, edit, and publish, is also something I want to do. I feel like I have made small improvements since the first edition in 2017, but I have always felt rushed to get each edition out. I am glad that retirement will afford me more time to work on this passion project.
First edition of Teach. Write.
So many other things I want to do, but I never want to forget that I also want to leave room in my life to be less busy, to listen more, read more, and have times like today to just sit on a porch in Alabama with a cup of coffee on a cool summer morning before the day heats up, listen to the collared Eurasian doves coo, pet a soft German shepherd puppy, and talk about life with my baby brother.
It’s a good life.
Me several years ago before seeing a play at the Peace Center in Greenville, SC.
The print version of the 2023 spring~summer edition of Teach. Write.: A Writing Teachers” Literary Journal is available for purchase. Go to this link if you want to order a copy.
Also, an updated online version is also now available here.
I am currently seeking submissions for my first post-retirement edition of Teach. Write. Submissions will close on September 1, 2023. Click here for submission guidelines. I would love to see your work, especially if you are, or were, a writing teacher.
Hey, Mrs. Winkler! 