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St. Cloud State University
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SCSU boasts author
By John Behling
Published:
Thursday, May 1, 2003
Media Credit: scott theisen
Cezarija Abartis SCSU Proffessor and author of �Nice Girls and Other Stories,� glances over her new creation.
With the year wrapping up, students and staff are again feeling heightened stress and end of the year anxiety.
This spring, SCSU English professor of 26 years Cezarija Abartis is especially worn from grading papers, meeting with advisees, weathering the last few weeks of teaching and giving readings from her new book.
"Nice Girls and Other Stories," a collection of interconnected short stories of women facing extraordinary circumstances spanning from the 1950s to the 1970s, was released by New River Press earlier this month.
The stories that form her debut (with the exception of two, which are appearing in print for the first time) have appeared in publications ranging from "Twilight Zone Magazine" to "Lady's Circle." The stories chronicle Abartis' published career from "Nice Girls," published in 1987, to "Last Week," published in 2000. Her shorts "One Heart" and "Last Week," have been broadcast on National Public Radio and "Susan's Week," received the first prize fiction award in the Nov. 9, 1994 edition of "City Pages."
During an e-mail interview, Abartis discussed "Nice Girls and Other Stories," and her experiences as a writer and professor.
University Chronicle: How long have you been trying to get it ("Nice Girls and other Stories") published?
Abartis: I submitted an early version of this collection to New Rivers Press in 1999, and it was supposed to be published in April 2001 as part of the Minnesota Voices Project. In January, after I'd checked the gallerys, admired the cover, seen the ISBN number listed in Books in Print and on Amazon.com, I got a phone call that, because of financial reasons, the Press was closing. It's a sad story, but every author has that kind of story, so I'm not going to get much sympathy. What I was happy about was that Minnesota State University at Moorhead took on New Rivers Press, and now, exactly two years later, the book has been published. I even got to do a little more revising during that wait.
University Chronicle: How has your experience as an English teacher (and as a creative writing teacher) influenced your approach towards writing?
Abartis: It's uplifting and inspiring to read and teach the profound writers, but it can also be exhausting and discouraging to deal with greatness every day and have only your own puniness to offer. I think it was Lawrence Block who said that sometimes you need to read a mediocre book to make it possible to write. I suppose we've all had that feeling - "Gee, I �bet I could write something that bad."
University Chronicle: Do you have any advice for aspiring young writers (and for those in the SCSU creative writing major/minor)?
Abartis: Read and enjoy the great classics-Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Anton Chekhov. It goes without saying that you should, of course, be enjoying the modern writers - Karen Blixen, Jamaica Kincaid, Grace Paley and Thom Jones. Study a foreign language - it's a wonderful way of becoming better acquainted with your own mother tongue. I sound just like an English teacher, don't I? Well, beginning writers should imitate the writers they love to read, and after a while, maybe a long while, they should write only for themselves - but for their best selves, their most educated, imaginative, understanding, compassionate selves. Along the way, would-be writers have to develop strategies for persisting in writing through rejection and through the Slough of Despond - maybe joining a writers' group or making a habit of writing or taking a writing or literature class. Really, that's all there is to the process - reading and writing and persevering. And that's hard enough.
"Nice Girls and Other Stories" is available at the Husky Bookstore, Barnes and Noble, Boarders and Amazon.com
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