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Sunday, December 21, 2008

About Aunt Savvy and How Is She Qualified for This Job, Anyway?

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Question, Submitted by Aunt Savvy, The Doubter:
What gives me, Aunt Savvy, the right to dispense advice? Who appointed me as the Advice Goddess of the Internet?

After all, I have no special credentials in psychology or sociology, and I'm no Ann Landers, Emily Post, or Miss Manners; I'm just some middle-aged chick who has decided to set up shop on the internet and pretend to be an expert in affairs of the human condition...

--The Doubter
Answered by Aunt Savvy, The Supreme Confident:
Whoa! If you're going to write an advice column, you must do so with confidence and verve. You should be ready to take the plunge and make a case for why you are a good candidate for this job.

Your alter ego and The Supreme Confident will explain why you, The Doubter, are qualified for this job:
You have been around for a while and pride yourself on having a good head on your shoulders.

You are compassionate.

You have a sense of humor.

You are not easily shocked--which is not to say that you're never shocked.

You are college educated (which is not to claim that non-college advisers are necessarily lacking in common sense).

You write well, which covers at least 50% of your qualifications.
Why is writing well such a major prerequisite?

There are millions of sensible people who are empathetic and who can make you laugh, but they don't always articulate themselves well in writing.

As a professional writer, you, Aunt Savvy (The Doubter), have the power to explain situations in ways that are easily understood.

And consider this: most advice columnists, such as twins Dear Abby and Ann Landers, got their start at daily newspapers. Other than a college education (1939 graduates of Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa) and good common sense, Abby and Ann had no specific qualifications to offer advice to a general newspaper audience.

The advice you offer, my dear doubting alter ego, will be just that: advice to be considered by the recipient as one possible option. Whether or not readers choose to follow your advice is out of your hands.

So go forth and dispense your best advice.

--The Supreme Confident
Aunt Savvy, a Jill-of-all-trades, is an educator, creative and blog writer, and business person.

For more detail, here is Aunt Savvy's actual résumé (sans her real name, though it's no huge secret and not at all difficult to find); readers can then decide for themselves if they accept her qualifications as an advice columnist:


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Aunt Savvy



email



EDUCATION


M.F.A. (Creative Writing), February, 1994, Goddard College, Plainfield, VT. Areas of concentration: fiction and playwriting. Supporting literature field in gender studies.

Graduate study in writing, 1983-84, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
B.A., magna cum laude (English), May, 1982, York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA.


A.S. (Accounting), December, 1980, York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA.

Additional Study

Participant, annual poetry workshops with poet Larry Rubin at the College English Association (CEA) conference, 1987-2004.


Drama Writing: From the Producer’s Viewpoint, continuing education course, 1994, New York University, New York.

Intensive study of Macedonian, 1988-1989, private lessons with faculty member of Institute for Foreign Languages, Skopje, Yugoslavia.

Intensive study of Serbo-Croatian, 1988, Eastern European Summer Language Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

Study in fiction writing under Ann Beattie, 1982, Writing Workshop, Georgetown University, Washington, DC.


EMPLOYMENT


Writing and Literature Instructor, Department of English and Humanities, York College of Pennsylvania (1992-present). Courses taught most recently: African-American Literature, Introduction to Literature, and Creative Writing. Have also taught Journalism, Composition, Advanced Composition, Playwriting, and Interdisciplinary Writing (a course I developed).

Faculty Consultant, Educational Testing Service (ETS), Princeton, NJ (1994-2007). Assess essay portion of ETS tests, including AP, SAT II, and others.

Writing Center Instructor, Department of English and Humanities, York College of Pennsylvania (1987-1994). Consulted with individual students to help them improve their writing abilities and writing quality on specific assignments.

Library Assistant, Schmidt Library, York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA (1984-1987). Performed a wide range of duties in the Circulation and Technical Services departments.

English instructor (graduate assistant), University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (1983-1984). Taught freshman composition.

Newspaper Correspondent, The York Dispatch, York, PA (1980-1981).



PUBLICATIONS



"The Re-feeding Program," excerpt from "The Big Diet" (short story), The Non-Dieting Weblog. 26 February 2006.

"Copyright: Ethics Versus Education in Macedonia," American Writer: Journal of the National Writers Union, UAW/AFL-CIO. Fall 2005. 12. Print and online.

"Persona Grata" (essay), Writer’s Digest Online. 28 April 2005.

Are You EVER Going to be Thin? (and other stories), Infinity Publishing, July 2004.


"You Said It: Worth the $$?" Reader’s Digest. January 2004. 15.

"Résumé" (short story). International Journal for Teachers of English Writing Skills (Special Literary Issue)10.2 (August 2003). 115-117.

"Alan Sillitoe." Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography. GaleNet Online, 1999.

"Charlotte Perkins (Stetson) Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper: Fiction ‘With a Purpose’ and the Need to Know the Real Story." CEA Critic 59.3 (Spring/Summer 1997): 44-57.


"Feet" (short story). Pennsylvania English 19.2 (1994): 53-63.

"Are You EVER Going to be Thin?" (short story). Sleeping with Dionysus: Women, Ecstasy and Addiction. Ed. Kay Marie Porterfield. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1994. 20-25.

"Alan Sillitoe." British Short-Fiction Writers, 1945-1980. Ed. Dean Baldwin. The Dictionary of Literary Biography. 139. Detroit: Bruccoli Layman Clark, Gale Research Inc., 1994.

"Lady Chatterley’s Evolution from ‘Personality’ to ‘Blood’: The Role of Eight Wild Flowers and the ‘Blood-warmth’ Marriage Ritual." Pennsylvania English 18.2 (1994): 12-27.

"Are You Thin Yet?" (essay). Eating Our Hearts Out: Personal Accounts of Women’s Relationship to Food. Ed. Lesléa Newman. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1993. 204-206.

"Rendezvous" (short story). Yugoslav English Language Teaching Review 12 (November 1989): 76-77.

Related Writing Activities

Completed I, Driven to Cherokee: memoir of a teen's involuntary commitment, currently working on And God Won, Twin Candy Bings, and Mystical Bodies (novels); Growing Light: an Abbreviated Life (play). Thesis novel: What Happens When the Fat Lady Sings; completed The Trash Can of L.A. and The Fat Lady Sings a cappella (full-length plays).

Edited the English portion of Boris Trajkovski, 1999-2004, by Jason Miko. Skopje (Macedonia): The Boris Trajkovski International Foundation, 2004.

Founder and former editor of Onion River Review, an independent publication of the MFA alumni and graduate students at Goddard College, 1993-1996.

Editor and faculty advisor of The York Review, York College of Pennsylvania literary magazine, 1992-1996.

Edited articles for the Macedonian Review, Skopje, Yugoslavia, 1989.



PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES


Administrator/owner of Please? (Please.info), December 2008 - Present.

Administrator/owner of Poets.net forum and blog, March 2008-present.

Administrator/owner, Post Foetry, blog, 2007-present.

Administrator/Moderator at Foetry (now archived), American Poetry Watchdog, 2006-2007.

Reading, "All Along the Campaign Trail" (poem), Fountain of the Muse, 2008 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference, San Antonio, TX.



Organized Larry Rubin’s Poetry Workshop, 2008 College English Association (CEA) conference, St. Louis, MO.



Organized and facilitated a second poetry workshop, 2008 College English Association (CEA) conference, St. Louis, MO.



Reading, Excerpts (Prologue and Chapter One) from I, Driven: memoir of a teen's involuntary commitment (memoir), Fountain of the Muse, 2007 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference, New York, NY.

Organized Larry Rubin’s Poetry Workshop, 2007 College English Association (CEA) conference, New Orleans, LA.

Organized and facilitated a second poetry workshop, 2007 College English Association (CEA) conference, New Orleans, LA.

Black History Month Lecture/Film, February 2007, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The American Corner, Skopje, Macedonia.

Organized Larry Rubin’s Poetry Workshop, 2006 College English Association (CEA) conference, San Antonio, TX.

Organized and facilitated a second poetry workshop, 2006 College English Association (CEA) conference, San Antonio, TX.

Reading, "2001 Ivar Street," excerpt from Driven to Cherokee: a memoir of involuntary commitment, 2006 College English Association (CEA) conference, San Antonio, TX.

Reading, selected excerpts from Driven to Cherokee: a memoir of involuntary commitment, 2006 Pennsylvania College English Association (PCEA) conference, Pittsburgh, PA.

Moderator, 2006 Pennsylvania College English Association (PCEA) conference, Pittsburgh, PA.

Lecture, with question-and-answer session, to prospective college students, "Enrolling in American Colleges," The American Corner, Skopje, Macedonia, January 2006.

Reading, "Horny Women at the Sewing Factory" (poem), Fountain of the Muse, 2005
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference, Pittsburgh, PA.

Reading, "Rudy," excerpt from Driven to Cherokee: a memoir of involuntary commitment, 2005 Advanced Placement (AP) test readings, Daytona Beach. (Have also done readings for the group since 1996). AP Reading, Daytona Beach, FL.

Workshop on Writing Memoir, The American Corner, Skopje, Macedonia, 2005.

Workshop on Writing Fiction, The American Corner, Skopje, Macedonia, 2005.

Workshop on Writing Form Poetry, The American Corner, Skopje, Macedonia, 2005.

Lecture to high school students on writing the SAT and AP essay, Nova School, Skopje, Macedonia, 2004.

Reading, "Our Other Twin," excerpt from Twin Candy Bings, 2004 College English Association (CEA) conference, Richmond, VA.

Moderator, 2004 College English Association (CEA) conference, Richmond, VA.


Reading, "Detox," 2004 Pennsylvania College English Association (PCEA) conference, Scranton, PA.

Reading, "Résumé" and "Are You EVER Going to Be Thin?" from Are You EVER Going to Be Thin? a short story collection, 2003 College English Association (CEA) conference, St. Petersburg, FL.

Reading, "Résumé" from Are You EVER Going to Be Thin? a short story collection, 2003 Advanced Placement (AP) test readings, Daytona Beach. (Have also done readings for the group since 1996).

Reading, "Psychedelic Bingo" and "How NOT to Send a Poem Out Into Public" (poems), 2003 SAT II test readings, Princeton, NJ.

Reading, excerpts from Twin Candy Bings, novel-in-progress, 2002 Pennsylvania College English Association (PCEA) conference, St. Davids, PA.

Reading, "Psychedelic Bingo," from Are You EVER Going to Be Thin? a short story collection, 2001 Pennsylvania College English Association conference, Punxsutawney, PA.

Conducted workshop, "Predator Editors, Publishers, and Agents: Avoid the Scam!" 2001 Clockhouse Writer’s Conference, Goddard College, Plainfield, VT.

Reading, excerpts from Mystical Bodies, a novel, 1999 College English Association conference, Philadelphia, PA.

Reading, excerpts from Mystical Bodies, a novel, 1998 Pennsylvania College English Association conference, DuBois, PA.

Organized three creative writing sessions, including an Editor’s Roundtable discussion, my own presentation on fiction writing, and Larry Rubin’s poetry workshop, 1996 College English Association conference, New Orleans, LA.

Reading, "Snakes," a short story, 1995 Pennsylvania College English Association conference, State College, PA.

Organized three creative writing sessions, including own presentation of a "Flash Fiction" workshop, Larry Rubin’s poetry workshop, and Penelope Prentice’s comedy connection workshop, 1995 College English Association conference, Cleveland, OH.


Conducted creative writing workshop, "How to Create Interactive Characters from Scratch," 1994 College English Association conference, Orlando, FL.

Organized creative writing panel, "The Teacher as Creative Writer," 1993 College English Association conference, Charlotte, NC. Also presented paper "Hear Our Voices: Back to the Past."

Reading, "Feet," from Are You EVER Going to Be Thin? a short story collection, 1993 Pennsylvania College English Association (PCEA) conference, Bloomsburg, PA.

Reading, "Knowing," "Mafia Lawyer Scum," "Possibilities for Capricious Weather," "Placard on a Honolulu Bus," and "TO JWC: Eulogy for a Stranger" (poems), 1992 College English Association conference, Pittsburgh, PA.

Presented paper "When Freud Steps in..." and read short story "Visitation," 1991 Pennsylvania College English Association conference, York, PA.

Session Respondent, 1990 College English Association conference, Buffalo, NY.
Chaired session and read "Our Lady of Miracles" (short story), 1990 Pennsylvania College English Association conference, Pittsburgh, PA.

Reading, "Rendezvous" (short story), creative writing workshop, 1988 National Lektors’ Conference, Skofja Loka, Yugoslavia.



HONORS AND AWARDS


Honorable mention, "Résumé" (short story), International Journal for Teachers of English Writing Skills (2003).

Honorable mention, "Seppuku" and "Cycles" (poems), Writer’s Digest Writing Competition (1995).

Honorable mention, "In Waiting" (short story), Baltimore Sun Magazine Holiday Fiction Contest (1990).

Honorable mention, "Visitation" (short story), Baltimore Sun Magazine Summer Fiction Contest (1990).

Honorable mention, "Our Lady of Miracles" (short story), Baltimore Sun Magazine Holiday Fiction Contest (1989).

First Prize, "Starlings" (poem), annual poetry competition, Pennsylvania Poets’ Society (1987).

Scholarship, Georgetown University for study at the Georgetown Writing Conference (1982).

Full Scholarship, Edison Foundation to attend National Collegiate Newspaper Conference, Washington, DC. (1981).



OFFICES AND MEMBERSHIPS


Member of the College English Association (CEA) Board, 2007-2010.
Chair, Creative Writing Committee, College English Association (CEA) (1994-1996). Organized multiple creative writing sessions at annual conventions.

Member, Board of Trustees at Goddard College, Plainfield, VT (1992-1993). Served on the Finance/ Personnel and the ad hoc Visioning/Identity, and the ad hoc Presidential Evaluation Committees

Current memberships: College English Association (CEA), Pennsylvania College English Association (PCEA), National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), Modern Language Association (MLA), Associated Writing Programs (AWP).



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This résumé does not reveal the so-called service jobs Aunt Savvy held before and during college: Credit Checker, Janitor, Food Server, Bookkeeper, Library Assistant, and General Clerk.

She is also the mother of one child and stepchild (both grown) and grandmother to two girls.
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