Dear FalWriting, A Message from Sherezade Garcia Rangel, our Outgoing Staff Editor
Fresh of face, wondering if I had stepped out through a wormhole and landed in Russia. Penryn Campus, two years ago. No kidding. Right around the time I was becoming Staff Editor.
Dear all,
If you ask me, the potential of FalWriting is infinite and by understanding it as such, I have had a lot of fun as Staff Editor of this website. This role enabled me to bring together my industry, online literary magazine and creative writing knowledge, and I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished during this time.
When I inherited FalWriting back in the summer of 2018, it was our department’s blog. I knew it could be more and set out, with the support of the previous editor and creator Dr Danielle Barrios-O’Neill, to make the project my own and grow it to what I had envisioned it could become: an online literary magazine, creative lab and sometimes still a blog. I wanted FalWriting to be a window into the kind of community we are and the kind of work that we do so that us (staff and students) could see ourselves represented, and so that the future members of our community would know what we were about and would want to actively join our ranks of creativity and entrepreneurship. After all, FalWriting had helped recruit me, so I knew it could reach potential staff and students.
We have done so much in the past two years; it’s hard to remember it all. Tandem pieces that brought dual perspectives on different topics, so many wonderful interviews, poetry series and graphic novels that make our platform stand out, reviews that keep us tuned in to the market, showcasing our best prose from students and staff, sharing our creative non-fiction, discovering more about Cornish culture, studying abroad and learning about other cultures, our reports into contemporary literary genres, coming together to discuss dissertation experiences, interacting with students’ work from other courses, and writing about the treasures of our community. The wealth of creativity and the range of work we do has always kept me inspired.
Nest is the jewel in the crown for me. As a multimodal, creative collaboration that took a form from the past, letters and serialised literary publishing, and turned it into something brand new – a digital series and a literary podcast where students and staff had to sharpen and deploy their creativity to move the story along one letter at the time, without communicating with each other. The prompt, simple, somebody finds a nest. The result, mindblowing, a 15-letter and –episodes collaboration that has informed the future of FalWriting and my own creative research with On the Hill. That we were writing a pandemic story based in Cornwall, and potentially tapping into what it would be like to be locked up, a whole year before any of what happened, happened… well, that is just the magic of writing.
I love seeing our alumni talking about their projects on the website. I love reading about how Wyl is making a shelter to keep his kids entertained, or how Jen writes, or how Craig is keeping sane in the lockdown. I love reading the best of our students’ writing and projects here. I love how FalWriting can prepare them for what’s out there. I love having access to students across all cohorts because of FalWriting. I will miss nurturing and developing this website, but I am very excited to have more time to focus on other projects at Falmouth. It’s time for a new vision to take it further.
Best of luck to the new team, see you online!
Lots of love,
Shere
by Sherezade Garcia Rangel, Staff Editor of Falwriting from 2018 to 2020.