{"id":4697,"date":"2015-01-25T16:00:04","date_gmt":"2015-01-25T21:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bsuenglish.wordpress.com\/?p=4697"},"modified":"2018-11-12T13:42:31","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T18:42:31","slug":"cultivating-creative-identities-with-brian-morrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/english\/blog\/2015\/01\/25\/cultivating-creative-identities-with-brian-morrison\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultivating Creative Identities with Brian Morrison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brian<\/a>Brian Morrison<\/span><\/h1>\n

Ball State English Professor.<\/a><\/p>\n

Published writer.<\/a><\/p>\n

Part of Ball State’s Faculty Reading Series<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

On Wednesday the 28th…<\/span><\/h2>\n

Brian Morrison will\u00a0read with Silas Hansen<\/a><\/span>\u00a0as part of Ball State’s Faculty Reading Series.<\/p>\n

The Faculty Reading Series hopes to bring English professors into the spotlight, showcasing their talents and interests outside of class.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Brian is still a relatively new addition to Ball State, taken on as an assistant English professor in 2013. He was also assistant editor of Black Warrior Review<\/a> <\/span>while he received his MFA at The University of Alabama. You can find his\u00a0poetry in Verse Daily<\/a><\/span>, Copper Nickel<\/a><\/span>, Story Magazine<\/a><\/span>, and other literary journals.<\/p>\n

Before his reading on Wednesday, we got to talk to Brian about his role as a teacher<\/strong> <\/span>and a writer<\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

How did you become interested in writing?<\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Early on in college, I took a class similar to Ball State\u2019s English 285, and I was hooked. I thought I was going to be the next Stephen King or Dean Koontz, or some other monumental mainstream fiction writer.<\/p>\n

But not so much.<\/p>\n

As it turned out,\u00a0I was more drawn to the intricacies of language and sound play. So, I declared my major with a specialization in poetry. I haven\u2019t looked back.<\/strong><\/span> A great teacher and poet, Larissa Szporluk, encouraged me to keep writing, so I still do it.<\/p>\n

\n

How did graduate school help shape your creative identity?<\/span><\/h2>\n

This is a tricky one. Honestly, I think what helped was the sheer number of creative writing graduate students at The University of Alabama. During any given academic year, there are nearly fifty exhausted MFA students shambling about. Only five to ten are admitted each year across the genres.<\/p>\n

There were so many voices and so many styles that I couldn\u2019t help but form a unique creative identity.<\/p>\n

In some ways, this identity is a mishmash of a bunch of others\u2019 identities mixed with what I was reading at the time. I never felt pushed to go in any one direction\u2014as far as style and voice are concerned, at least.<\/p>\n

No writer should seek to develop one creative identity. Cultivate a city. Don\u2019t be one writer; be as many as you can.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

How would you describe yourself as a teacher?<\/h2>\n

Energetic and well-organized. But, of course, I\u2019ve never been a student of my own.<\/p>\n

I like to think of myself as\u00a0person who works very hard and expects a great deal from my students. My greatest hope is that they know I wish them only the best.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

What are you working on right now?<\/span><\/h2>\n

I\u2019m writing a series of false histories. I build narratives that describe possible (or impossible) versions of known (or unknown) stories.<\/p>\n

For instance, I recently wrote a history of the game hide and seek. Over the summer, I wrote an alternate version of Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0Hamlet<\/i>\u00a0(or a moment in Hamlet\u2019s life, that is).<\/p>\n

In other words, I\u2019m telling lies and getting away with it.<\/p>\n

\n

Thanks for talking to us, Brian!<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Be sure to visit Bracken Library (<\/strong>Room 104) <\/strong><\/span>at 7:30 – 9:00 PM<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>on January 28th<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>to see Brian Morrison read with Silas Hansen at the \"faculty<\/a>Faculty Reading Series<\/strong>!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Morrison Ball State English Professor. Published writer. Part of Ball State’s Faculty Reading Series. On Wednesday the 28th… Brian Morrison will\u00a0read with Silas Hansen\u00a0as part of Ball State’s Faculty Reading Series. The Faculty Reading Series hopes to bring English professors into the spotlight, showcasing their talents and interests outside of class. Brian is still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1655],"tags":[241,551,1543,1544],"class_list":["post-4697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-community","tag-brian-morrison","tag-faculty-reading-series","tag-university-of-alabama","tag-university-of-alabama-mfa-program"],"yoast_head":"\nCultivating Creative Identities with Brian Morrison - Ball State English Department<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/english\/blog\/2015\/01\/25\/cultivating-creative-identities-with-brian-morrison\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cultivating Creative Identities with Brian Morrison - Ball State English Department\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brian Morrison Ball State English Professor. 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