GRANT RECIPIENTS:

Ana Hernandez – English/Communication – Wolfson Campus
ahernand@mdc.edu

This project will create a forum for MDC students and three visiting contemporary published authors representing Latin America, Eastern Europe, and a non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean country to explore contemporary socio-cultural issues through literature. The resulting dialog between students and published writers will provide students with different successful approaches of documenting today’s cultural environment. Exposure to authors’ genuinely innovative works will inspire and prompt an improvement in students’ reading, writing, and communication skills as well as a critical understanding of the writing profession.
Students who are exposed to and interact with writers who are actively chronicling these times, through both fiction and non-fiction literature, will be inspired to think critically as well as develop analytical skills that can be applied to other areas. By seeing, hearing, and identifying with others who share similar backgrounds and who have succeeded, students will be more likely to persevere and continue their college studies. As a result, class attrition will be low and the classroom environment will be stimulating. We have specifically chosen Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean to represent the diversity of the Wolfson Campus and the College as a whole.

In my observation, students began this project in a sort of “awe” of the authors, yet quickly came to see each book as a living instrument.  They came to realize, through the author’s insights, that every piece that is produced is a process, and one doesn’t just sit down one day, say “I’m going to write a book” and magically it appears.  Students were surprised by how many times some manuscripts were rejected, and for several of the authors how many times they were dejected and looked to give up.  As well, the diversity of our authors was something to which the students connected.  Our authors represented the cultures of the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, and Jordan.

I was amazed to see how quickly the students got over their admiration for meeting a published author and became true critics of the works posed to them. They discussed development of characters, sympathy/empathy, writing styles. For some, the impression of the books changed once they had an opportunity to ask questions of the authors. The writers awakened within them poignant questions about characters’ intentions, choice of settings and themes.

Produced for the class were author biographies, a syllabus, and essay topics (examples included). Along with this, I augmented the visiting authors with other immigrant authors that were relevant to the representation of cultures within our Campus (examples included).

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During the original semester of the grant, the authors-in-residence were actually shared with other classes in English Departments of other campuses.  As well, two of the writers took part in the FL Center for the Literary Arts events, including “Spoke Word Café,” and presentations at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida and the African American Research Library. From these big presentations I’m sure we can acquire videos and/or pictures that were produced in order to upload them for the website. I regret that I’m not currently in possession of any of that material.