It was amazing to have Nathaniel Mackey come into class on Tuesday. I have been lucky this semester with having wonderful authors come into my classes and speak with us. I have listened to Steve Almond, Fracine Prose and now Mackey! wow!

Anyways, I agree with Joe about his calm, cool, and collected attitude, it was great. I really appreciated all that he had to tell us about where he has come from, how he got interested in poetry and what his own techniques in the process are. One thing that he said that really stuck with me was when he encouraged us as young writers: "Don't complete a thought. Initiate, but don't complete. What you write invites the reader to complete" (or something along those lines!)

This was really interesting to me, because it is something I often struggle with. How much is too much, or how little is too little? Is less actually more? If we don't give the reader all the details, are we being lazy as writers? It is something I have discussed in a few of my writing classes over the years and I think it is very interesting. Personally, I enjoy reading and writing pieces that do not tell me everything I have to know, but rather they force me to think. I picture it as the difference between a sappy novel (which is always good for the beach of course) and a novel that really makes you think about something you never thought of before. I was encouraged that Mackey said this and reiterated this point a few times while speaking with us. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to his reading but I am so happy he got to come into our class!