The woman, the poet, the teacher: Jackalope Magazine talks to departing CWL co-chair Dana Levin about her tenure with the department, as well as the colleagues and students who will miss her.

No writer’s block here! For the month of November, 18 SFUAD students are combating writers’ infamous procrastination by signing on to participate in National Novel Writing Month. More commonly referred to as NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month began in 1999, and has since grown into a nonprofit organization with a global following. Aspiring novelists can sign up on the NaNoWriMo website, track their daily progress and average word counts, and connect with other writers for motivation and communal support. The goal? A 50,000 word novel by 11:59 pm on Nov. 30. “My daily average is about 1,600 words a day,” says freshman creative writing major Charlotte Renken, one of the admins on the SFUAD NaNoWriMo Facebook page. This is her third year participating in the event. “It’s going great so far,” she enthuses, dishing the dirt on her project this year, which involves a vegan surviving the zombie apocalypse, and is her first foray into humor writing. Nicholas Thomas, a fellow scrivener, sees NaNoWriMo as a stepping stone toward working on his larger project, a multi-book exploration of the world of Eldali. “This is just a springboard, I’m gonna keep working on it, but it (NaNoWriMo) is a great way to get shit done!” says Thomas, who, a huge fan of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, has been developing the fantasy world saga and its inhabitants for several years. Opinions on NaNoWriMo’s effectiveness and usefulness are divided, with many proponents saying it’s an effective tool for pumping out a first draft, no matter how bad, while others believe it puts undue stress on writers and therefore undermines the writing process and the work being produced. “NaNoWriMo epitomizes the desires and the impatience of instant culture,” says James Reich, a faculty member in the Creative...

“The road to hell is paved with leeks and potatoes.” —Julie Powell   From sort-of-actress and desk-job employee to author and amateur cook, Julie Powell set a pathway for 21st century bloggers and launched a writing career. From blog, to memoir, to movie—Powell’s ambitious Julie and Julia project, cooking Julia Child’s 524 recipes over 365 days, warranted national attention and her second memoir Cleaving, A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession  (2009) ignited mixed opinions. Unlike some negative criticism from her book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (largely from those who didn’t understand that Powell was a writer rather than a professional cook), Powell’s 2009 novel Cleaving was met with some “eyerolls and raised eyebrows,” Jennie Yabroof from Newsweek writes. Allison McCarthy from GlobalComment.com, however, defends the author’s subject of marriage, sex and the metaphors of meat, writing that “much of the criticism Power has received…relies on all-too-familiar sexist tropes of female authors as mentally unstable and unworthy of serious consideration. Apparently, women aren’t supposed to publicly express the same adulterous desires that prolific male writer often describe, at least not without being savaged by critics.” Despite the conflicting responses to her memoirs, Powell continues in her “engaging and humorous” voice, tackling next the art of fiction writing with her husband. Powell has appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CBS’s “The Early Show,” “The Martha Stewart Show” and “Food Network’s Iron Chef America.” Her writing has been published in Bon Appétit, Food and Wine, Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. In an interview with the Jackalope, Powell describes her writing pleasures, her current projects and her upcoming visit to SFUAD Sept. 15-17 (Powell will read and sign books in O’Shaughnessy Performance Space at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 16).   Jackalope Magazine: What craft of writing do you most enjoy or do...