The Great Bear Writing Project
A Message from the Director:
Often in the summer, I am asked, "Are you teaching a summer course?" When I say yes, the questioner often regards me with an odd sympathy. What they don't understand, and what is often too hard to explain to the uninitiated is that the Great
Bear Writing Project (GBWP) summer institute isn't really teaching in the traditional sense of the word. Yes, it's quite something logistically to pull off between me, Monda, Mike, Jane, Mary and Sophie, but as I've said before, it's really more about facilitating than teaching. Facilitating the energies and talents of a dozen or more highly talented teachers as they share their abundant knowledge and experience in Thompson Hall 104.
Sometimes when I'm standing in front of one of my writing classes at UCA, usually after a successful assignment or workshop that the students have enjoyed, instead of patting myself on the back, I think, "thank goodness for the Writing Project." Because that's where I probably got the idea. In fact, thanks to to my involvement in the Writing Project since 1996, first in Lafayette, Louisiana and now in Conway, Arkansas, I can now say that I both write and teach with a "writing project view of the world," Indeed, result, most of my classroom successes and much of my enthusiasm for teaching can be traced directly back to my experiences with the writing project, and my participation in the Invitational Summer Institute year after year. Yes, the writing project changed my life. It is no exaggeration to say that it made me the teacher and the person I am.
Stephanie Vanderslice, MFA, Ph.D.
Director, Great Bear Writing Project