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| directory of teaching artists: Judy Sobelloff |
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Judy Sobeloff is recipient of the 2007 Idaho Literature Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction and the founder of the Moscow Community Creative Writing Workshop. She has also received the PEN Northwest Fellowship, a writing fellowship from the Edward Albee Foundation, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Washington, where she was awarded the Milliman Scholarship.
Judy Sobeloff has led writing activities for people of all ages, ranging from preschoolers to senior citizens, and in a variety of settings, including schools and colleges and sidewalks, a Jewish Community Center, and a center for forensic psychiatry. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in American Short Fiction, Controlled Burn, Zone 3, Phoebe, Response, The Detroit Jewish News, and The South Carolina Review and she is coauthor of The Co-op Cookbook. Describe a transformative process that has occurred in your own practice as an artist or in a past residency as a teaching artist. During a workshop series for adults, I saw that a participant who had expressed a desire beforehand to write about a personal tragedy was not doing so. In talking together we realized that she would need special conditions in place to feel safe enough, and we began a process of working together which allowed her to feel trust that her work would meet with acceptance. Despite having never written creatively before, she was then able to delve into her experience and write several pieces, sharing drafts with other participants with whom she felt particularly comfortable, each of whom offered genuine encouragement and support. When her work was read aloud by others at our public reading, the audience of over 100 people shifted from appreciative laughter to stunned and respectful silence. This participant reported that being able to write these pieces diminished the loathing in her grief and left her feeling lighter. I was moved by her report that it was the climate of inspiration and acceptance in the workshop that helped her feel she had the necessary support to write these pieces. When have you been able to recognize learning taking place? I recognize learning taking place when I see students writing longer pieces, beginning more new pieces, and when I see them taking risks either in subject matter or in their willingness to share their work with others. I often see initially reticent students lose their shyness in the process of their writing and leave all shyness behind; I also see students who might at first seem to have a hard time settling down becoming completely engaged. I see students’ stories taking on more complex characterizations, and in the case of very young students, building off themes used in the stories of their peers as they develop a common language. I see learning in the students’ growing excitement and willingness to participate, in the hush that falls over the room as they are absorbed in worlds of their own creation. In using a variety of exercises—verbal and physical in addition to written ones—I am able to see every individual student have an opportunity to shine. I am constantly reminded how people can do way more than others think possible as I see students of all ages and abilities burst through any limitations I might unwittingly imagine for them. What excites your imagination and in turn how does your work excite imagination for your audience? To maximize creativity, I try not to know where my work is going before I start writing, so that I can let the characters guide the action rather than vice versa. I tend to be excited by work that is more image-driven or character-driven than plot-driven, by writing that takes an odd or unexpected turn. Audience members have commented that they appreciate the vivid and surprising imagery in my work. What characteristics mark a successful collaboration for you? For me successful collaboration occurs when students begin participating eagerly, when they take on leadership roles to the fullest extent possible, and when I see that the skills and methods I'm teaching can continue to be used regularly by teachers and students after the residency. How do you foster creativity, both in your own work and as a teaching artist? I try to be responsive to students’ needs when I’m teaching, allowing for spontaneity and keeping myself and the students open to discovery as much as possible. Both in my own work and when teaching, I foster creativity by creating an atmosphere of trust and acceptance and improvisation, where early drafts do not have to be “good” or make sense and where students can’t do an exercise “wrong.” I handwrite early drafts, using a computer only when a piece is just about done, and I try to keep the writing process fun and playful both for myself and for students. Three key understandings of this discipline are:
Three Idaho Humanities Content Standards that correlate
with each of the core concepts identified above:
Freewriting, draft, imagery, conflict, point of view, scene vs. summary, characters, plot, dialogue, narrator, exposition, description, figurative language, sensory details, metaphor, narration. Subject areas outside of the fine arts that relate to potential residency work include: Creative writing can be used in conjunction with many areas of the curriculum. For example, if the class is studying folktales or mythology, students could write their own myth or folktale. For social studies, students could write pieces from the perspective of someone living in a particular historical time or geographical location. For science, students could write from the point of view of any element of a system or cyclical process being studied: for example, a story from the perspective of the nucleus or mitochondria living in a cell, or a story from the perspective of a water droplet as the cloud it’s part of begins releasing moisture as rain. References
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 Discipline: Writing Phone: Email: freewriting@turbonet.com Website: Special Populations I work with: all ages from preschoolers through senior citizens; juvenile offenders; families at risk ICA Artists by Disciplines Music Ken Harris Dance Wendy de la Harpe Joy Esplin LiAnne Hunt Norma Pintar Rachel Swenson Theater/Storytelling Joy Steiner Teresa Clark Language Arts Malia Collins Judy Sobeloff Visual Arts Deana Attebery Tom Bennick Judith Brand Sue Rooke Lizette Fife Helen Grainger Wilson Terrie Kralik Jeanne Leffingwell Benjamin Love Linda Wolfe Video/Media Arts Peppershock Media |
 Phone: 208/334-2119 or 800/278-3863 Fax: 208/334-2488 Mailing address: P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720-0008 Street address: 2410 North Old Penitentiary Rd., Boise, ID 83712 |