Vocation | Gail Wilson Kenna

My Habits of Being

Writer:

In 1979 I discovered that writing, because it gives form to disorder, might keep me moderately sane. I mailed my first ever attempt to Redbook for their Young Mother’s column. In return, I received 500 hundred dollars for two hours of work. Never earned that kind of money again! Forget about fame and fortune. Why write? Seven reasons come to mind. To make connections, become a better reader, gain focus in a frenzied, electronic world, engage language more deeply, effect change in oneself, make sense of life, and leave a legacy. An eighth for the aging population: to fight decrepitude!

Editor:

I offer editing services through Crosshill Creek Publications, my new LLC. I’m a better editor than writer. Back in 1979 my editor was not a friend. Too ruthless and critical. A writer needs to be two persons in one. Eventually, my editor, who knows more than the writer, became a friend. Economy, simplicity, clarity: three hallmarks of good prose, which I show writers how to achieve. And I bring to editing a long apprenticeship with the finest of writers, Wayne Johnson, a Stegner fellow, and Iowa Writer's Workshop graduate.

Instructor:

I began teaching English literature and writing in 1967. I’m still doing it. After twelve years as a secondary teacher in California, I moved to the college & university level, and taught in foreign countries, plus the USA. Since 2005 I’ve been an instructor for a Virginia community college’s adult program. Twice a year I have offered literature classes on writers I love. Best of all, I don’t have to give grades. In October 2023, the subject will be The Landscape of Literature, Memory, and Aging. The course will draw on the 31 courses I have taught for RCC-RILL the past eighteen years.

Literary Judge
Soul-Making-Keats:

Now, I say with sadness, this unique thirty-year-old contest has ended. But its memorable theme from John Keats remains: "Some say the world is a vale of tears....I say it is a place of soul-making". I loved the experience and will miss it, along with the director and other judges.