For those aspiring writers out there that feel that they have to move to a big city to make it big as a writer—look around. Take a moment to absorb the rich history that our greater Marshall area has for writers. Just in the field of creative fiction and poetry we have some of the most well-known writers of our times, living, teaching, writing right here in our backyard. And on February 10, 2014 we had two fantastic poets come to our Visiting Writers Series.

Saara Raappana and Elena Prieto both live right here in Marshall, Minnesota so even though they didn’t travel far doesn’t mean they weren’t both amazing. After the reading was done I was able to ask both Elena and Saara a few questions.

One of the questions that I thought was both useful for writers but also most college students as a whole was, how do you go about picking your topics? The answers did not disappoint.
Saraa said the biggest way is mostly whatever irritates her brain. That suddenly she could hear a word or see something and it would just pester her until she wrote about it. I think that this is useful advice for many students in a creative program or just for those who are creative. You feel pestered you feel anxious then do something about, use it as a driving force to push you into action.

One question that I asked Elena was, how do other writers inspire you? Again the answer she gave was incredibly useful to everyone wishing to get a job.

Elena said that what she does sometimes, is that she will read work by others that she doesn’t even like, so that she can identify why others like it. She says a key way to becoming a better writer is by analyzing others writing and to identify why it is so good. This advice is amazing because that is how all professionals no matter what field need to do and we as college students need to get into the habit of.

So if you like reading and meeting amazing writers or maybe you need inspiration or amazing advice that works or if you think Marshall and the country area life is boring, then come to SMSU’s Visiting Writers Series. You will not be disappointed.