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Q & A with Leanna James Blackwell

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Learn more about the director of our MFA in Creative Nonfiction, Leanna James Blackwell.

What led you to become the director of the Bay Path University MFA in Creative Nonfiction?

I saw an ad for the position in the Chronicle of Higher Ed and felt a little thrill of excitement. When I feel that way, it is usually a sign to move on something. As a writer, I’ve learned to pay close attention to subtle internal signals. And this practice applies to every other area of my life.

You are primarily working with a faculty of diverse experiences, almost exclusively remotely. How has that worked? Has it been difficult to form personal connections with them?

It has worked beautifully, to my surprise. I am by nature an interpersonal communicator, which is an elaborate way of saying I like to be with people. I didn’t know how it would work and yet I have found that, just as I feel I get to know writers intimately through their writing, I have gotten to know faculty well through collaborating with them on courses. We stay in touch with email, phone calls, and online conferences, sharing ideas, co-creating syllabi, and talking about students. Through all this I’ve come to know many of them, even better, ironically, than some of the faculty based here on campus because I can’t count on running into them in the hall. I have to make it a priority to reach out frequently and they do the same.

In addition to building the program, you are a faculty member. How do you manage to do both?

I can’t pretend that it’s easy. It is a very different mindset. One requires a very fast-paced, organized and administrative mind, with a grasp of the overview. I have to know what everyone is doing all the time. Sometimes it’s like hovering in a helicopter over an entire city. Teaching requires a completely different focus, on one individual at a time. I have to engage fully and deeply, not only with what each student produces, but with the creative process by which they produce the work. Also, because creative nonfiction draws from the personal, I have to be alert and sensitive to the whole person, the mind, the psyche, the artist, and the emotions. That requires space and time for deep thinking. It’s almost like needing two different rooms in my mind. In order to be in one, I have to shut the door to the other. I’m getting much better at it!

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced?

I think a lot of writing teachers have this challenge—how we practice what we preach. I’m always talking about creating an inviolable space for the writer, for honoring the creative impulse and making room for it in one’s busy life. The challenge is doing the same for myself. I think that’s an ongoing balancing act and again, a work in progress. I’m improving day by day. I have found that the better I am at doing it for myself, the better model and teacher I can be.

What part of your job as director do you most enjoy?

The students. Always. Getting to know the students. When a student has a breakthrough I rejoice. When a second draft comes back to me and I can see how the writer is growing, I feel genuinely thrilled. Helping people tell their stories is more than a job for me. It’s a mission. I feel passionately about it.

What is something other than writing that you are passionate about?

Becoming a conscious human being, living an honest and ethical life based on compassion for others and myself. It’s been a long journey but having that foundation informs everything I do, including my writing and teaching. I’ve had a meditation practice for more than 25 years now. I studied with the Peace Theological Seminary based in California, which is essentially about recognizing the good in all people and things. Incredibly hard to do sometimes – the world can give you many good reasons not to – but all the more reason to try.

What would you most like people to know about you? About the Bay Path MFA?

I don’t always like to ring my own bell, but I will say this: I am good at helping people find their true voice, to identify what they’re really trying to say, beneath what they think they’re trying to say. I think I’ve learned to be good at this because I’ve done the same for myself. I can take a piece of writing and, almost always, when sitting with it long enough, penetrate to the essence of it. I can work with a lot of different personalities, a lot of different styles. I wonder if it’s a legacy from my theatre background – I was a performer in a professional theatre company for many years before I became a writer, and part of that experience involved immersing myself in other lives, other characters and perspectives. I’m good at meeting people where they are and helping take them to the next level. It is a two-part process—finding the true voice and then cultivating that voice artistically, so that it stands as a work of literary excellence. That’s what I hope to have everyone accomplish in the MFA. If my current students are any indication, they will do this and more.