By Erin DeGregorio '16
Through the English Department’s Annual Greyfriar Living Literature Series, Siena students and faculty alike had the chance to meet and speak to Christine Sneed regarding her published works and her process of writing fiction, on Monday, October 19 and Tuesday, October 20.
Sneed is the author of two novels, including her recent publication of Paris, He Said in May 2015, and one collection of short fiction. She has received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in poetry; is the recipient of the 2013 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation; and has received special mentions in the Pushcart Prize anthology for the stories “Quality of Life” and “Beach Vacation.” She also teaches creative writing for the MFA programs at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, and will be on the fiction faculty of the Regis University low-residence MFA program next year.
Hailing from Evanston, Illinois, Sneed was very flattered to be selected as this year’s Greyfriar Writer-in-Residence, and was excited to meet and talk to students on the Siena campus.
“I have a lot of college-aged characters who are trying to figure out [themselves and life],” said Sneed. “They have lots of rites of passages that have to be taken, which is always interesting to me.”
A select group of eight students had the unique opportunity to participate in the two-day “Characterization and Interiority in Fiction” Master Class with Sneed. The Master Class focused on creating and sharing student participant-developed character sketches from the 3rd and 1st person points of views, and reading and analyzing other authors’ character sketches from published pieces of literature.
“Whether it’s sci-fi, fiction, or vampire romance, you still want it to seem like your character is real and relatable to the reader,” said Sneed.
Sneed also delivered the Greyfriar Living Literature Series Reading, where she highlighted three excerpts of Paris, He Said to a large audience in Sarazen Student Union. Following her reading, those in attendance were able to ask Sneed questions regarding her creative writing process and her publications, and could purchase Paris, He Said with a personalized autograph inside.
She connected with many Siena students by visiting various literature and writing classes during her two-day stay (the Short Story literature class led by Mary Fitzgerald-Hoyt, Ph.D., and the Introduction to Creative Writing and Writing Short Fiction classes led by Karin Lin-Greenberg). Students in each class read her work and asked for personal insights into her craft.
“An enormous number of students came out to hear Sneed read on Monday night, and I loved seeing how engaged the students were when asking questions of Sneed after the reading,” said Karin Lin-Greenberg, assistant professor of English and Greyfriar Committee Chairperson. “I'm grateful to Sneed for her generosity with our students and for spending so much time working with them in the Master Class and for answering their questions and discussing writing and the writing life in literature and writing classes.”
Siena students have many opportunities to interact with acclaimed writers and academics. The College aims to provide students with these first hand experiences in order to enhance the work that they’re doing in the classroom.
