2/17/2005

Schlesinger Writer Kelley Eskridge '78 Dissects Writing Process
By: Jana Brown

In a series of visits to humanities classes on February 14, alumna and Schlesinger Writer-in-Residence Kelley Eskridge '78 spoke about the five percent of all writing that is superior, and urged the students she addressed to look for that meaty material in anything they read.

"I encourage you to look for the five percent of good wherever you can find it. This means wherever you find something in fiction or non-fiction that is meaningful to you," said Eskridge, visiting as part of the Writer-in-Residence series from February 13 to 14. She shared her work with the School community on the evening of the 13th, doing a public reading in the Chapel of St. Paul from her novel, Solitaire.

In Berkley Latimer's A block Humanities V class, Eskridge followed up that advice with a lively discussion with students about what makes a piece of writing strong, including a reader's connection with what he or she sees on the written page. "It is certainly why I write," Eskridge told the Fifth Formers. "To continue to understand myself. I read very much the way I did when I was at school; to see if I can relate to it and to figure out what it tells me about myself."

Students talked about their emotional connections to what they read, their relationships to the characters, and how a piece of writing can make them think. Eskridge asserted that writing, no matter what the form, starts with a story and moves along from there. In a short in-class exercise, she put three statements on the board and asked the students to create their own storylines using that material as a starting point.

"Think about the story you created and zoom in," she encouraged. "Come up with the kernel and figure out what happens from there."

Latimer said that he enjoyed Eskridge's visit to his classroom and that he hopes to use the insights she shared about the writing process in future classes.

"Her presentation was thoughtful, and it certainly made me think about the two key elements in making a story believable and gripping; the plot and the characters," said Latimer. "She did an outstanding job of helping us see how detailed descriptions, relationship/behaviors, and metaphors can work to make a character or characters come alive. I also found her idea of the kernel a really interesting perspective on how she goes about the writing process."

In a brief interview after her session in Latimer's class came to a conclusion, Eskridge spoke of her formative years as a student at St. Paul's School, crediting the teaching style and her immersion in a diverse community, in part, for some of her inspiration as a writer.

"All of the instruction I got in the English Department and in creative writing and my experience of being someone from a different culture actively encouraged to try on different perspectives are things that are integral to a writer's soul," she said of her experience as a boarding student from Florida. "St. Paul's widened my world. A writer, by nature, looks at the world on many levels. It was at St. Paul's that I first began to know myself and writing is the way I continue that."

Eskridge's 2002 debut novel, a science fiction work entitled Solitaire is a New York Times Notable Book and a Borders Books Original Voices selection. Her short fiction and essays are published internationally. Her work has won the Astraea Prize and been short-listed for the Nebula, Tiptree, Endeavour and Spectrum Awards, as well as adapted for television. She also works as a staff writer for @U2, the world's top-rated U2 fan website with nearly 400,000 unique visitors per month.

Eskridge came to St. Paul's School as a Third Form student in 1974. She was the varsity girls crew coxswain and secretary of the Student Council in her Sixth Form year. She is currently a full-time writer, a student of American Sign Language and Deaf culture, and occasional organizational development consultant in her hometown of Seattle.

Eskridge said that she was impressed with the curiosity and involvement of the students she met in a trio of Humanities V sections, in a religion and science class, and in a modern satire class, calling the students "wonderful and willing to engage."

Humanities faculty Barbara Talcott '79, who was an acquaintance of Eskridge during their days in Millville, was equally impressed with her fellow alumna's ability to engage her students.

"Kelley was a natural in the classroom, even though she insisted she had never taught high school students before. She had great questions for the students, she led them in an exercise that fascinated them, and the time flew by. She also was able to weave in all the literature that I had told her the students had read and were going to read," said Talcott. "I learned a lot about how to teach creative writing from her."

Kelley’s visit was part of the Schlesinger Writer-in-Residence program for 2004-05, made possible by the generous gift of Sheila and Richard Schlesinger in memory of their son John-Christophe ’92.