Author: csummerfield

Change is Inevitable

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I have never been a strong proponent of change.  In fact, I have gone to extremes to not have to change.  Nothing frightens me more.  However, being a writer is one place that I must accept change because without it, I lessen my chances of writing a masterpiece.  This isn’t an easy thing to do especially after I’ve poured my heart out on 50 pages of prose only to be suggested my mentor to scratch it all.  In my past writing semester, this is exactly what happened.  However, I didn’t realize until later into the semester that mentor was struggling as much as I in the process.  I felt supported. The project I’m working on is a spiritual memoir.  My original idea was to write my traumatic experiences growing up in a home that eventually created PTSD in me.  Then I was going to explain how I found a God that I could relate to.  The more we talked, the more my mentor felt that my dog’s story was the story that needed to  be …

The Writer’s Life

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Image: Bruce Guenter All the writing books I have read say the same thing.Writing is a solitary activity. I’ve written a lot in the past and recognize that, yes, it can be a lonely way to go. However, when I entered the MFA program, I thought with it being an educational program, I would be able to connect with others and, maybe, take a few friends with me. Unfortunately, this was not the case. When attempting to connect with people in my group, I felt shunned. This only made my attitude bad, which affected my relationship with others. I had forgotten the main reason I had entered the program. I have learned that sometimes making friends is not easily accessible and  when attending an academic program that requires aloneness and solitude to “get the job done,” it is sometimes impossible. In most MFA programs, I notice that they talk about a writing community. In my case, I have not found this to be true.  I have found the opposite. However, this isn’t a bad thing. …

Cara Summerfield Introduction (Regis University ’17)

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Image credit: Prayitno I am a Southerner. I was born in New Orleans and raised by two strong Southern women who loved the letters I wrote to them from the time I was 5 years old. When living with my birth family, I experienced a high level of trauma. Life’s experiences have directed me down paths that I had never thought I would travel. For instance, in my early teens, 20s and 30s, I was strung out on drugs and alcohol. Who would have thought the tears that fell most nights would turn into the ink that dripped out of the fountain pen I used to write down my thoughts in my composition journal. I have two pens now.  One was not enough to hold all my tears. The words that scrawled across the paper would follow one another until a memoir had been written.  I have discovered that my favorite genre for writing and reading is nonfiction. Or my grandmother standing on the front porch watching me as I played with the neighborhood children, …