This is the second article exploring the Inkwell project and how students, faculty, and alumni can benefit from its influence on Evergreen’s writing culture. The first article of this series introduced the history of Inkwell at Evergreen.

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The Inkwell process begins each fall. Over the course of the school year and countless hours of meetings, Inkwell’s editors and writers—the student tutors at the Writing Center—hone their skills, developing articles from still-forming ideas into the finished versions that appear on paper.

In this interview, Publications Editor Thane Fay ’13 sat down with Inkwell editorial board members Mary Kallem ’14 and Matt Turner ’15 to discuss their experience with the project.

“Inkwell [is] a process that I immediately identified as something that would enrich my experience not only as a student, writer, and tutor, but as a human who values collaborative engagement.” – Matt Turner

Inkwell is a publication born out of Evergreen and the Writing Center’s unique approaches to collaborative learning, student empowerment, and linking theory to practice. The in-depth cooperation between Inkwell’s writers and editors reflects the Writing Center’s value that all writers, no matter their skill level, can benefit from supportive and comprehensive guidance from their peers. With articles centered around the experiences of student writers, Inkwell serves as a fulcrum for conversations about writing at Evergreen.

“Unlike other publications, I don’t think Inkwell’s ‘final result’ is the published artifact that sits on my shelf. The ‘results’ I’m in it for are the benefits the Evergreen community gets from reading it: the circulation of grassroots knowledge gleaned from working with students.” – Mary Kallem

Keep your eyes out for Inkwell 9, coming soon in Fall of 2014. You can read digital copies of past editions of Inkwell on the Writing Center’s website, or find physical copies in the Evergreen Archives.

Thane Fay (TF): Why did you want to join the Inkwell editorial board?

Matt Turner (MT): I wanted to join Inkwell because I saw an opportunity for something not only unique in the Writing Center or at Evergreen, but something that seems relatively rare in the publication world as well. Inkwell does not operate on the model of acceptance/rejection—the editorial board cultivates a relationship with its writers over the full course of the academic season and helps to support, guide, and counsel writers through the process of brainstorming, revision, editing, and publication. It’s a process that I immediately identified as something that would enrich my experience not only as a student, writer and tutor, but as a human who values collaborative engagement.

Mary Kallem (MK): I joined because I saw it as such an honor! Inkwell does a fantastic job creating institutional memory that can be passed down through generations. … Working on the editorial board means helping refine and preserve the wisdom our staff has cultivated through their hard work. When I read past editions of Inkwell, I realize that I’m working within a legacy developed by so many bright minds.

TF: What do you think you’ve learned from being part of the Inkwell editorial board?

MT: The Writing Center at Evergreen attracts some of the kindest, most intelligent and hardworking students at the school, and I learn more from them about how to simply be a good person than anything else. I learn a lot about writing and tutoring, too, of course, but the most valuable lessons tend to come from the collaborative experience itself.

MK: [The] editorial board has … taught me so much about collaborative learning—a form of education that Evergreen prides itself on. [We] have worked hard to develop a common vision that we’re now working hard to create.

TF: What can other writers and editors learn from the way Inkwell is created?

MT: Inkwell begins its process in the brainstorming stage. We ask what writers want to write about, help them develop their ideas, and work to connect them to the overall theme of how writing operates at Evergreen. [It] gives us the opportunity to witness a piece of writing in its naissance. It’s a valuable piece of the writing process that most publications miss out on.

People tend to forget that not writing is an important part of being a writer, and [that] a person’s “style” of writing is shaped by their patterns of thought, habits of feeling, and their naturalized use of language. Brainstorming with writers lets us get a sense of these things before we even look at the writing itself, which in turn informs how we work with our writers moving forward.

MK: We probably have more fun than you do. That’s not very constructive advice, is it?

TF: How does Inkwell‘s editorial process show in its final product, and how do you think Inkwell‘s readers, writers, and the Evergreen community benefit from that?

MK: This is a trick, question, isn’t it? Unlike other publications, I don’t think Inkwell’s “final result” is the published artifact that sits on my shelf. The “result” I’m in it for are the benefits the Evergreen community gets from reading it: the circulation of grassroots knowledge gleaned from working with students. Everything I’ve learned while working at the Writing Center has been taught to me by the students I tutor. Hopefully readers come away recognizing how generative the educational process is.

MT: Inkwell articles have a unique gravity to them. … In some way, the process these writers go through shows up in the final products. I believe part of this is because of how time-intensive our process really is—not only for the editorial board, but for the writers as well. Every college student knows that time is, at this point in our lives, the most valuable form of currency. When a busy [writer] commits to a process like Inkwell‘s, it means that it’s something they really care about and they believe what they have to say is worth the time it takes to say it right.

TF: How does the Inkwell editorial process reflect Evergreen and the Writing Center’s values?

MK: I’ve already touched on a few of Evergreen’s five foci of learning, but I’d underscore Inkwell’s ability to bear witness to the Writing Center’s links between theory and practice. This linkage is forged when we tutor students, a service that is equal parts theory and practice. Inkwell serves as a written testament to this service.

MT: The Writing Center, in some ways, is an enaction of Evergreen’s rhetoric about an ideal pedagogical environment. We work hard to provide writers with what they need in order to produce their best work, and are always looking for ways to improve our practices. As one of many of the Writing Center’s appendages, Inkwell extends these values to our editorial process. We do a lot of talking about what’s working and what’s not working, alternative approaches to what we’re doing, and general meta-cognitive inquiries on top of the more logistical and practical concerns of our job.

Ultimately, Evergreen and the Writing Center represent a space where we can learn how to render our ideals in the crucible of daily life, and Inkwell is certainly a part of that endeavor.

 

About the interviewees:

Mary Kallem graduated in June with an emphasis in science and technology studies and social psychology. She has tutored at the Writing Center since 2011 as well as serving as a student representative on the TESC Press editorial board. In addition to designing this year’s Inkwell, she is the author of “‘I Don’t Know, What Do You Think?’: Performing Gender at the Formica Table,” from Inkwell 8.

Matt Turner is working towards a BA with an emphasis in creative writing and poetics. His Inkwell article exploring hybrid literature, “Construction of a Distance,” will appear in Inkwell 9. He is also the editor of a forthcoming anthology of student work from the program Narrative Strategies. You can listen to his radio show, Underground Impulse, Saturday nights from 10 pm to midnight on KAOS.

About the author: 

Thane Fay graduated from Evergreen in 2013 after studying writing and history. As a student, Thane was a peer writing tutor at the Writing Center and partipated in the Inkwell process as an editor, designer, and writer. Now the Publications Editor at the Writing Center, Thane coordinates the Inkwell publication process.