Caroline Leavitt

Excellence and Empathy:
Interviews with the Winners of the 2004 Outstanding Instructor of the Year Awards
By Linda Venis and Kristin L. Petersen

In December 2004, the UCLA Extension Department of the Arts honored nine teachers in the areas of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, studio arts, computer graphics, creative writing, and screenwriting as recipients of its Outstanding Instructor of the Year Award. The Writers' Program winners-Janna Gelfand (screenwriting), Judith Prager and Harry Youtt (creative writing), and Caroline Leavitt (online writing)-recently shared their reflections on writing, teaching, and what receiving this award means to them.

Caroline Leavitt
Outstanding Instructor in Online Writing
To acknowledge the special contributions of Writers' Program instructors teaching in our 120-course annual distance learning curriculum, we founded the Outstanding Teaching Award in Online Writing in 2004. Its first recipient, Caroline Leavitt, has taught novel writing nearly every quarter since 2000 from her home in Hoboken, New Jersey. Students converging from all over the world recognize that they are most fortunate to have Caroline as their guide-not only because of her expertise, but also because of the deep empathy and support she offers. As one student put it, "Caroline Leavitt takes the terror out of writing, and knows just how to point us to find our best voice."

Q: In a full page review in The Washington Post Book World of your latest novel Girls in Trouble, Carrie Brown wrote, "The characters are blazingly knowable, and it is Leavitt's sympathy that gives her novel both its page-turning momentum and its dignity." Other reviewers compare your rich and personal work to Jane Hamilton, Anne Tyler, and Sue Miller. If you could create the ideal review of your body of work, what would you say?

A: Ah, an excellent question. I'd want reviewers to write: "She makes me feel. She puts heart and soul and blood on the page and she creates a world so real the characters are breathing on the page."

Q: Your teaching is infused with such a positive "mentoring" quality. Did you have any powerful mentors in the beginning stages of your career and what did they teach you?

A: Actually, I had a few anti-mentors. A college writing professor at Brandeis who held up the edge of a manuscript and told me it was garbage, but we would discuss it anyway. When I published my first novel, I sent it to him and he insisted he had been cruel to get me angry enough to succeed. Ha! Later on, I had wonderful mentors. Other writers. We would pass pages back and forth. Wonderful editors. And because of that first, wounding, college experience, I just vowed that I would always, always give 3000 percent to any writer who needed help. I would give them the things I had wanted when I was starting out, and the things I still want, actually. Full, sympathetic attention. Handholding when needed. Cheerleading. Real, practical help. Sometimes just listening. My model comes from a story an editor told me about Alice Hoffman when she was starting out. She sent her novel to four editors and three said, "This is wonderful! We'll publish it!" One, the late and great Faith Sale, said, "Hmmmm, I want it but it needs work." And that was who Ms. Hoffman went with. I like that attitude. I try to make my students stretch. I don't make it easy for them because then they won't grow as writers. But I am there with them every step of the way.

Q: You have published eight novels and numerous essays, and are a book reviewer-in addition to being a wife and mother. Yet you teach novel writing online every quarter and give your students so much feedback and support. How do you manage to balance your writing, teaching, and home life?

A: I'm very obsessive! Everything has a time zone. My husband, Jeff Tamarkin, is also a work-at-home writer, so we both understand the writing life. Our son is in third grade and off for about 6 hours a day. Those six hours are when I work. We usually put in another two after our son goes to bed, but once it hits ten, the work day is over. We deliberately bought a three story house so we could keep offices on the top floor and leave them at the end of the day. Weekends we spend with our son, but there is always a few hours for work after he's in bed. Part of why it all works is I love all my jobs and I consider myself blessed to be able to do them, so it's not a struggle finding time. It's a joy.

Q: It takes so much tenacity and discipline to write a novel. Do you have any special techniques you use to keep your students focused and inspired throughout this long creative process, particularly in the online environment?

A: I make sure my students know that I'm in the trenches with them. That I know what it's like to be halfway through a novel and not know what it's about or where to go with it. That I know what it feels like to have a bad day writing, to despair about it. And I share my tricks and tips. Give yourself deadlines. Try to write 1,000 words a day and push forward without worrying if it's any good. It will be, but it doesn't have to be right now. Always stop writing when the writing is going well so you'll look forward to going back to it the next day. Try writing out a page in a different font and it may reveal something new to you. Write the novel in sections instead of in linear fashion. Sometimes I'm just there to listen and tell them that I understand what they're going through. And I tell them it passes. I can tell them any glitch in the writing is usually just the subconscious gearing up to produce something brilliant if they can just wait it out. Sometimes, too, I ask questions. It's amazing what a little question can unlock. Things like, what's the story underneath this story? How would this story be different if a minor character were to tell you his or her version? And I'm a big believer in outlining after a draft is done, because then you can see the holes in your story. You can take a deeper look at the character arcs and the pacing.
Q: What have been the most valuable lessons you have learned from your Writers' Program students?

A: Bravery. These students put their hearts and soul on the page and they work stunningly hard. It's terrifying to put your work out there, to take risks, to be in a class where there really are differing levels of students. But they do it, and it's incredible.

I've also made friends of my students. I insist they all keep in touch after the class, and to my absolute joy, two of them now have agents! Jennifer Robinson is writing a young adult novel and Jennifer Gooch, who came to a novel class of mine with one sentence of a novel she wasn't sure of, just got a William Morris agent for the completed book!

But perhaps the main thing I've learned-and the thing I tell my students-is that my being able to look at their work, to figure out what works and why, and how to make it better, richer, more alive, helps me in my own work tremendously. Because of my students, I now see things in my own work I might never have seen before. I feel honored to be allowed into their worlds. I tell them how privileged I am to teach them, and that's exactly the right word.

Q: What does winning the first-ever UCLA Extension Outstanding Teaching Award in Online Writing mean to you?

A: It is amazing! To be recognized and appreciated like this just fills my heart.