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Eric Worthey is a Graduate student and First-Year-Writing Instructor at Eastern Michigan University. He was a Ronald E. McNair scholar at Southern Oregon University, graduating in 2015.

Ed Battistella: What is your graduate program like?

Eric Worthey: Fun and intense. I am studying children’s literature and working on a creative thesis, so I get to enjoy the imaginative aspects of writing and utilize my artistic skills. Part of the intensity stems from the subject matter and complex themes found in children’s and young adult literatures, but also from the theoretical frameworks that provide a lens in which to analyze these texts. They may be written for kids, but most of the time adults do the writing and present controversial social, ethical, philosophical, religious and often political concepts. The program itself offers cutting-edge and rigorous courses in mythology and folklore, the history of children’s literature, adolescent literature, illustrated texts, as well specialized graduate classes on topics such as multicultural children’s literature and films, global children’s literature, as well as the teaching of children’s and adolescent literatures. The program’s course of study is tailored to prepare master’s level students for careers as educators, librarians, authors, editors, as well as those who desire to obtain a doctoral degree in children’s literature.

EB: How has your experience so far shaped your career goals?

EW: Recently, I received the advice that between Thanksgiving and Christmas may not be the best time to reconsider career goals. One of the reasons I chose EMU was because, like SOU, it originally opened as a Normal school. One way the University retains this heritage is through the motto ‘Education First.’ Combined with the opportunity to teach WRTG 120 and 121 for the First Year Writing Program, I also assist professors in the children’s literature lecture halls. These two positions create opportunities for me to experience diverse teaching environments and work with professors who maintain unique pedagogical approaches. EMU’s student population is much larger than SOU’s, so I have learned that I prefer the teaching and learning environments created with smaller faculty to student ratios. I still aspire to teach writing and literature, as well as produce some writing and literature myself, but I am not sure in what capacity or location these goals will manifest. I have looked into a few Ph.D. programs, but after spending the past eight years devoted to my education I think I would like to take at least a year or two off from being a student. I have learned that a big part of being a graduate student is not knowing for certain how things will unfold or where research will take you, so being open to future possibilities and job opportunities is an important way to reduce the stress associated with being attached to outcomes.

EB: What courses are you taking and what sorts of things were you reading?

EW: This semester, I branched out beyond the children’s literature discipline and signed up for an introductory course on written communication and a teaching of Shakespeare literature course. As part of my graduate assistantship benefits I receive eighteen tuition credits per year, so I am utilizing the extra six credits that I do not need to graduate to meet the qualifications for a post-graduation job opportunity. To have a chance at this job, in addition to a master’s degree in children’s literature and two years’ experience teaching first year writing, I also need at least twelve credits in literature, writing, or English.

In the written communication course, we are mostly reading academic articles which illuminate the history of the field and help us gain a sense of where we would position ourselves academically and professionally since it encompasses many different majors, ranging from technical communication to rhetorics and composition studies.

In the Shakespeare class we are reading an average of one play per week except for a few we discussed during two class periods, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, All’s Well that Ends Well, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and The Tempest. I never knew that there was such a wide spectrum of gender performance and ambivalence toward gender in Shakespeare’s works until this semester. I also came to realize that queer readings of these plays are not very popular, but that they do exist.

I am also taking a multicultural children’s literature course that is cross-referenced as a teaching course, so we are reading a broad range of classic and contemporary books and discussing films that represent numerous types of diversities that students may experience or encounter, including age, race, religion, ability, gender, sexuality, as well geographic location: Snowy Day, Lon Po Po, King & King, American Born Chinese, The Hate You Give, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Brown Girl Dreaming, The Book Thief, George, The Hunger Games, and films such as Disney’s Inside Out and Pixar’s Up. We examine these multicultural texts in terms of their literary, aesthetic, ideological, political contexts. This class is mostly discussion based, so it helps to gain insights not only from the professor but also from my peers who are also teachers or aspiring to teach.

EB: You are also teaching. How do you enjoy that?

EW: I enjoy working with the students. The relationships I develop with my writing students differ than the ones I have with the students in the large lecture hall, but I find them both rewarding in their own ways. All writing is personal, so when teaching introductory writing I like having the freedom to create a community-based classroom that operates like a writing workshop, rather than a traditional lecture-style course. I think that the lecture-style works for larger class sizes. However, when delivering lectures in this environment, I find myself assigning class activities to encourage students to participate in small group discussions. I like being able to try different pedagogical approaches and apply this knowledge to the creation of my teaching philosophy statement.

EB: What is the most rewarding part of your graduate program?

EW: The opportunity to teach and assist in teaching undergraduate students provides one of the most rewarding experiences of being a part of any graduate program in EMU’s Department of English Language and Literatures. This invaluable experience not only covers the cost of tuition, but it also offers a stipend in exchange for twenty hours of work per week during the fall and winter semesters. It is also rewarding to have three months off during the summer, but it is a little odd to have spring break amidst a Michigan winter: February.

EB: What’s been your academic focus? Has it changed at all since you began?

EW: Focus. Focus. Focus. That was Dr. Alvarez’s advice before booting me off to grad school. Initially, I had wanted to continue my research of mythology and religion representations in contemporary young adult literature. However, during my first semester several events on campus inspired me to focus my independent study on learning about the dimensions of racism. I quickly realized that I had not diverged from my original focus, but I was still attempting to answer the research question that I had first proposed as an undergraduate in a world religions class: Why has the bible been used to usurp the power of women, children, people of color, and gender and sexuality diverse people for the past two thousand years when Jesus’ and Paul’s words create oppositions? The professor’s response to my proposal to pursue this research question for my final paper will always be a cornerstone moment for me in my educational path. Also, I will never forget that it was in this class I first heard the words mythology, non-duality, and Joseph Campbell, and learning their meanings helped shape my academic focus. I did not understand what the professor meant when he identified his religious/spiritual beliefs as being ‘non-dual,’ but I do now and am trying to find ways to encourage others to consider this worldview. Two years hardly feels like enough time to try to focus on one thing that I would like to specialize in for the rest of my academic career.

Last semester, an assignment for one of my children’s literature classes involved creating something. It could be anything if we developed a rationale for the creation. I was reluctant at first, but I took one of my old University Seminar style guides and used its pages to create a postmodern version of the Grimm’s animal fable “The Bremen Town Musicians.” I incorporated drawings and collage materials to draw attention to how the contemporary American political climate seems a lot like the early days of Nazis Germany. I decided instead of writing a traditional thesis, I was going to finally create a children’s book that incorporated mythological elements and symbolism to break down binary perceptions, going back to much of the research I conducted as a McNair Scholar.

It is funny how I am still researching the same question, but at the same time I am learning new ways to look at the trouble with duality. I finally discovered that one of the difficulties of this arises because the place where oppositional forces break down remains indescribable by our languages. Thus, I am back to square one and trying to draw pictures that are highly symbolic and open to interpretation to create a graphic novel that challenges binary perceptions and socially constructed identity markers.

EB: Any advice for students considering going on for more school?

EW: If I were to offer advice to prospective graduate students, I would draw their attention to the amount of time, or lack thereof, that is required to succeed in graduate school. The sheer volume of the reading lists is enough to overwhelm the most avid readers, especially if they desire to have a social existence (not really a reality for a graduate student). Also, don’t invest your own money. Find programs that offer graduate assistantships or scholarships that include the tuition and stipend to cover living costs while you work on your degree. There are plenty of opportunities, but keep in mind that the applications deadlines usually come earlier for these than the program of study applications. Don’t rack up a lot of student debt going to graduate school because another degree does not necessarily translate into post-graduation job opportunities.

Before applying to a graduate program, conduct preliminary research about the availability of jobs on the market by joining your discipline’s organizations, listservs, or by reading or subscribing to higher education publications. Also, when seeking a potential program and a faculty member to work with on major academic projects it helps to discover which scholars or professionals are already working in that area. What institution are they from? What is their academic discipline? What organization sponsored the journal their article appears in? Was there a co-author, an editor(s), or an academic advisor? This will help gain a sense of potential institutions and/or faculty that will support your research goals.

EB: What’s next for you?

EW: I began my postsecondary educational career when my life hinged on the space between my twenties and thirties. I lingered there and wondered what had I done with my life. Nearly eight years later, and following two degrees, I currently anticipate graduating with a Master’s degree in Children’s Literature in April, so I have began reflecting about my experiences and future possibilities. I do plan to take a year or two off before pursuing a Ph.D. program because I would like to gain some teaching experience before I hit the forty mark. While on the Oregon coast this past summer, I spoke with the dean of a community college about a potential post-graduation job opportunity. I plan to apply for this position, as well as for teaching positions at few other community colleges along the Northern California and/or the Oregon coast, and see what happens. Additionally, since I am completing the first issue of a graphic novel for my master’s thesis project, I hope to submit a copy of it along with a book proposal, like the one I created when I participated in your history of publishing course, in hopes of continuing to develop the story line into a middle-grade reader series.

EB: Thanks for talking with us.

EW: It was my pleasure, and thank you!

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ROBERT ARELLANO is the award-winning author of six novels including Curse the Names, Fast Eddie, King of the Bees, and Don Dimaio of La Plata. His latest novel, Havana Libre, is the standalone sequel to his Edgar-nominated Havana Lunar. His nonfiction title Friki: Rock and Rebellion in the Cuban Revolution, will be released in 2018.

Ed Battistella: Back in 2009 you published Havana Lunar, which introduced us to the young doctor Mano Rodriguez, who was trying to practice medicine in the “special period” when the Cuba was no longer supported by the Soviets.

Can you give us a quick recap of the first book?

Robert Arellano : Manolo Rodriguez is stuck in every way: in a grueling and unrewarding job for Cuba’s socialist healthcare system, in a cycle of dead-end relationships, and in Periodo Especial 1992 Havana. Then he meets Julia, a young woman trapped in Cuba’s black-market underworld, and while trying to help her he becomes a straw dog in the police investigation to find a pimp’s killer. Like every unlikely noir hero, Mano is also an insomniac. That’s half the story of the “lunar” in the title.

EB: And the lunar is also a condition you invented? Why?

RA: It fell into place thanks to a Spanish double-entendre: lunar means both “of the moon” and “birthmark”. The lunar on Mano’s face conceals a story that’s at the heart of his predicament, and which also might hold the key to his liberty.

EB: Havana Libre, named after a hotel, is billed as a stand alone sequel. What exactly is that?

RA: It means you can read either book first without needing the other’s context. Although there are one or two cues in Havana Libre hinting at how Mano and Detective Emilio Pérez have met before, today it may actually be most rewarding to start with the sequel and, if you enjoy it, work your way backwards. I think most mystery authors try to configure their series in this way (after all, the way media works, the “new” gets a lot more attention than a book published just five or seven years ago). I’m currently reading through Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series beginning with book two, and the characters and scenarios are jumping to first light for me such that I’ll probably hopscotch through the other titles with impugnity.

EB: In Havana Libre, Mano falls for Mercedes, who had been connected with the frikis. It’s a minor mention but I know you’ve done some research on that movement. What can you share?

RA: Los frikis are rock-music fans who were targeted by the Castro government early in the Special Period for their long hair, ripped jeans, and “social dangerousness” (an actual law on the books in Cuba). They have been fined, beaten, and jailed simply for looking and behaving like rockers, and in response as many as 200 frikis took upon themselves one of the most extreme acts of resistance conceivable. For people who want to learn more, I love to this Radiolab podcast that Jad Abumrad and Luis Trelles produced with the help of my own archive and interviews.

EB: Mano is a character trying to good the right thing in a system that doesn’t encourage that. As a writer, how did you try to instill this humanity in him?

RA: This characteristic—human virtue in the face of systemic depravity—was actually one of the first things to rise from the notes that started my Cuban noir series. During trips to Cuba 25 years ago, it seemed like corruption was everywhere, the result of a black-market economy fueled by the ongoing U.S. embargo. But there were also so many very good people. The trick for me, upon meeting each new person, was figuring out what end of the exploitation-integrity spectrum they were on. Sometimes it took months, and sometimes it was a moving target, and this is where the stories arose. For instance, my friend Yorki would spend all day chasing after some frozen cutlets to feed his family, only to fry them that night and discover they were actually breaded dishtowels instead of beef.

EB: I am starting to warm to Pérez as well. Have you changed his role?

RA: I think this time we’re discovering that Pérez, too, is aware of being something of a puppet in an absurd system. He is subjugated by his own capricious controller (Daniel Caballero, the head of Cuban State Security), but he will find ways to resist the strings, if only briefly, creating moments of agency for himself and dignity, perhaps even beauty, for others around him.

EB: Were the bombing based on real events and attempts to destabilize the country?

RA: Yes. My story is mapped so closely (dates, places, perpetrators) to the actual bombings of ‘97 that to set the wheels of Havana Libre in motion all I had to do was insert Mano and one other fictional character (Mendoza) on the side of the bad guys. Anyone who would like the nonfiction account can pick up Brazilian journalist Fernando Morais’s riveting book The Last Soldiers of the Cold War: The Story of the Cuban Five, which was recently published in English translation by Verso.

EB: Another question about craft: you do a certain amount of code switching in the novel—bits of Spanish which adds to the atmosphere—how do you decide how much is too much?

We all have our ideal reader, and mine is actually a two-headed beast: Johnny Temple, publisher and editor-in-chief of Akashic Books, and associate editor Aaron Petrovich. They helped immensely with the language balance. And just this morning I’m emboldened by a quote from our Rogue Valley friend and neighbor in this New York Times article, How Pixar Made Sure ‘Coco’ Was Culturally Conscious:

“The original idea was to have the characters speak only in English with the understanding that they were really speaking in Spanish,” said Octavio Solis, a Mexican-American playwright who was a consultant on the film. “But for us, language is binary, and we code-switch from English to Spanish seamlessly.”

EB: Havana Libre and Havana Lunar seem to be not quite so magical realism as some of your other work? More noirish. How do you see yourself as a writer?

RA: I like this catchphrase that Johnny came up with 16 years ago when he published the first of my five books in the Akashic catalog: “urban surreal.” Besides that, I still cop to the genre created in part by my greatest teacher, Robert Coover (along with Angela Carter, William Gass, Donald Barthelme, and other fine writers): postmodernism.

EB: Can we expect a third Havana book?

RA: You must.

EB: I know you have a lot of other projects in the works. What are you working on this week?

RA: Friki: Rock and Rebellion in the Cuban Revolution, the nonfiction project that has obsessed me for a quarter-century.

EB: Thanks for talking with us.

RA: You’re welcome. And thank you for reading me.