In a year that brought such literary driven movies as “Wonderboys” and “Finding Forrester,” the craft of writing is easy to glamorize and remove from real society. But the University offers a program for students with the same drive as those whose scripts we see on the big screen, minus the Hollywood glam and big-name stars such as Sean Connery and Michael Douglas.
The Kidd Tutorial Program has been a part of the creative writing department since its foundation in 1991. Formerly the Walter and Nancy Kidd Tutorial Program, it was founded with a large fund bequeathed by the couple to the University. The year-long course is open to all students at the University wishing to develop their creative writing skills in any discipline.
The program is in constant flux bringing up to 35 new undergraduates a year together with graduate students to create a core group. The graduate students are the tutors of individual sections, each containing no more than six students. Head tutor Rebecca Barniskis does not tutor a section but oversees the program as a whole by meeting with all the individual tutors. She said each tutor develops a line of study for his or her students, which includes certain core texts read by all students fall term. From there, students begin to go in their own directions, developing a “line of inquiry,” which they will follow for the rest of the year.
“We want students to figure out: What are their obsessions in writing,” Barniskis said. “What they’re expected to do by the end of spring term is to have some substantial project equivalent to an undergraduate thesis.”
Britta Ameel, a student in the program, is pursuing the relationship between the mind and body in writing for her line of inquiry.
“I’ve always been interested in the philosophical idea that the mind can be separate from the body,” she said. “Historically, everyone has said that women can’t do it.”
Ameel said she is not trying to achieve that separation but is playing with what happens in the attempt as well as whether there should even be an attempt. The line of inquiry is a broad thing that allows Kidd students to explore their writing in many different directions.
Ameel is focusing almost exclusively on poetry, but fellow student Luke Houck has decided to mix his poetic development with his increasing interest in fiction. Houck said that the program has been his most challenging course at the University, but in a good way.
“I want to be a writer,” he said. “But instead of just finishing one piece, I want to accomplish something bigger.”
Having to stick with his line of inquiry is motivation to keep going for that larger goal. Ameel said that all the students being in the same boat together helps them deal with the daunting task. In each small section, the students become intimately familiar with others’ inquiries, which allows them to help each other. Not only do they look at each other’s work through the different lenses, but they become able to see their own work differently.
Houck said that having a graduate student — in his case, a master of fine arts — as a tutor is very helpful to the idea exchange in groups.
“He’s still a student like we are, and that keeps everything on the same level,” he said.
Ameel has a different experience because her tutor is this year’s program director, Shelly Withrow, who has returned to the program after helping coordinate its original incarnation in 1991. Working with Withrow, also a poet, has been a challenging experience for Ameel but one she believes has helped her grow.
“It’s been really amazing but really challenging and at times disheartening,” she said. “Shelly is so smart, and she expects the same of us.”
The level of expectation is high in the Kidd Tutorial, and it is no secret to those who apply. Barniskis said the quality of applicants as writers is not as important as their quality as students. The class is 400 level and a big commitment, Ameel said. Because the intensity breeds closeness, both Ameel and Houck believe the group is seen by some as elite. But in reality, the Kidd Tutorial is open to everyone, and not only through the program but also with the events that it sponsors.
Each term, the tutorial has a lecture series, which, although geared toward the material Kidd students are studying, are open to the public. Speakers are usually members of the University faculty, promoting the richness of the campus.
Perhaps more enticing than the lecture series are the annual Kidd prizes. The endowment fund that sustains the program also allows for cash prizes to be awarded to submitted works of fiction and poetry by undergraduate students. Prizes are awarded in both fiction and poetry by esteemed judges. More information about the Kidd program and Kidd prizes can be found through the creative writing department or at www.uoregon.edu/~crwrweb/kiddfrm.htm.