The Value of Mentors: ‘Literature on the Lawn’

Flyer for the teen ‘Literature on the Lawn’ reading.

Mentor Through Celebration

As all the work and celebration of the teen issue of the Inlandia: A Literary Journey Journal concludes, I want to reflect one more time on the value of creative work—of the value both of managing to create when doing so seems a burden, and of being an advocate for others’ work as a teacher, mentor, or perhaps simply as a part of the cheering squad.

Inlandia’s June “Literature on the Lawn” event in Riverside featured some of our teen authors, who read their work. I enjoyed speaking with their cheering squads— parents, family and friends—as well as with the teens themselves. Listening to the authors present their work added another layer of enjoyment in experiencing their writing. 

Depth in Teen Writing

Earlier in the process, I was less sanguine. I had worried that the work of our IE writers was being judged by teen editors. Carissa Myung’s poetry is very mature, quite professional—hardly the stuff of Instagram posts that has made it into teen collections. Audrey Vazzana’s creative narrative looks at the the ravages of Alzheimer’s from both the point of view of a great granddaughter as well as from Alzheimer’s Disease itself, describing its progression in destroying personality. Joseph Salvinski’s story takes place across the Atlantic more than two centuries ago. Kiyani Carter’s narrator is wonderfully quirky and isolated. Aubrey Medina Gaines’ work combines horror with the lonesomeness of a child grieving a parent. Would the teen editors enjoy the individualism and the depth of each piece? Happily they did, proving to me it was the right choice to have them make the selections and, other than myself, to leave adults out of it. 

Teens are Taking Up Poetry

As the evening was an opportunity to celebrate emerging writers, I felt it was serendipitous that I had read, on the same day, two encouraging media posts. The first, from the Academy of American Poets: according to new findings by the National Endowment for the Arts, in the past five years the number of poetry readers in the United States has almost doubled to a total of 28 million adults. I have seen a similar increase in teens wanting to read poetry in my school library.

The Value of Mentoring to the Mentor

The second, which speaks both to writing and to being a mentor, I saw in a blog post by editor and writing guru Jane Friedman. She stated that in the most recent Glimmer Train bulletin, Jon Chopan discusses how one of his greatest struggles as a writer and human being is to find purpose in what he does, and to help students find purpose. He writes:

“Despite the notion that we are voiceless, it seems to me that the challenge of a good creative writing instructor is to teach students that they do indeed have a voice and that their voice, that all our voices in concert, have meaning. … We should be struggling with our students as writers, and students of writing, to leave behind something worth protecting, worth defending, something that contributes to the growth of this culture.”

Finally, in what felt like more than a coincidence, I read an essay in Philip Levine’s My Lost Poets that serves as a reminder of why writers need supporters. “In a portion of an essay [poet Larry Levis] tries to define the essential qualities of his most influential teacher, and in so doing he gives us a road map to his own notion of a person’s spiritual and social uses. ‘What still strikes me as amazing, and right, and sane, was his capacity to share all that energy, that fire, with those around him: students and poets and friends. The only discernible principle I gathered from this kind generosity seems to be this: to try to conserve one’s energy for some later use,  to try to teach as if one is not quite there and has more important things to do, is a way to lose that energy completely, a way quite simply of betraying oneself.’ What Levis seems too kind to say is that it’s also a way of betraying one’s friends, one’s fellow poets, and one’s students.”

Further on Levine continues the thought, again quoting Levis’ discussion of his mentor: “‘Because we mattered so much to him, we began to matter to ourselves. And to matter in this way, to feel that what one did and how one wrote actually might make a difference, was a crucial gift … given to each of us.’”

Congratulations to the teens whose work was selected. Congratulations to all writers that keep at it and make a difference. And if you are someone who supports writers, to whom good literary citizenship is a daily practice, and who is giving a crucial gift to society by reminding writers that they matter—well, congratulations to you, too.