Here’s the conclusion of my interview with Katie Flanagan. You can follow her blog at:

http://katieflanagan.wordpress.com

Sarah:   Describe your dream job.

Katie: Right now, I see myself as an editor in a New York publishing house working on women's fiction novels, and publishing my own women's fiction novels on the side. Who knows, though. What I know is that so far, I really love working in publishing, and I love writing, so if I can do the two, I'll be happy. Making money would be a big plus.

Sarah:   What was the Iowa Young Writer’s Studio* like? Were you in the same space as the MFA students? Did you meet anyone interesting there, and what did you learn most from that experience?

Katie: The Iowa Young Writers' Studio was a two-week summer camp at the University of Iowa. We stayed in an undergraduate dorm and ate in the dining hall next door. To be honest, I hardly knew about the MFA program before I went. An English teacher knew I liked to write and strongly encouraged me to apply, so I did. It was only afterward that I started hearing about how awesome and special the experience was. Anyway, it was very cool.

It was my first experience learning creative writing because I went to a small high school that was 70% non-native English speakers, so language arts was always sub-par (that is by no means an official statistic). Our teachers at the workshop were all Iowa MFA grads, if I remember correctly. We were grouped into fiction, poetry, and non-fiction classes (there were several of each genre). My teacher was Justin Kramon, a recent graduate who was a GREAT teacher (go read his debut novel, Finny! It's a humorous, bittersweet, Dickensian coming-of-age novel that you'll absolutely adore!).

In the mornings we would read the greats and discuss them, and every afternoon we workshopped one person's story. All my classmates were outstanding writers. I remember being terrified of my first workshop, but I actually really enjoyed hearing what people had to say and learning about writing that way.

Every other morning instead of the reading class we would have special activities. One morning it was to eavesdrop on a conversation and write a story; another time it was to follow someone around town. While I don't actually remember those activities helping my writing per se, they were a lot of fun and very memorable.

One of my first nights at the camp, a bunch of kids got permission to stay out past the 9 pm curfew to go sit on one of the bridges and have a poetry slam. I went along for the experience. What I remember most is the warmth of the concrete, the burning cigarette across from me, and the feeling that I was totally out of my element. I'm not a poet, and I was not seeking the same kind of adventure these other kids were. I went in soon afterward, but my roommate stayed out with everyone else until around 1 am.

The camp organized activities for us to avoid us getting into trouble. I went to a few readings, although I don't particularly remember them. On the Saturday between the two weeks we had special day-long classes. I chose to be in the journalism one. Our teacher was a reporter at some big newspaper, and our task was to go to the farmers' market to find a story. It was really interesting to interact with the different booth owners, particularly because there was a large minority of Amish people there.

There were also talent shows on both Friday evenings. Some people read poetry, but mostly it was singing, dancing, and comedy – all our non-writing related talents. It's amazing how many different interests a person can have.

The event I remember most from the Studio was the last Thursday. They took us to the cemetery for one reason or another. The first bit of excitement was sneaking in after dark. Then there was the creepiness of walking around a graveyard at night. After a few minutes, there were a few shouts, and suddenly we were all running toward the exit. I saw some guy stumbling around with a bottle and a cigarette, but I didn't really know what was going on. People were shouting and panicking in a rush to get away from him. It was terrifying. But when we got back, we found out that the “hobo” was one of the teachers dressed up, and it was a ruse they do every year to give us some real fuel for writing.

I was not amused, and I'm still not amused. They created a potentially very dangerous situation just to give us some “experience” to write about. However, it was memorable**.

At the end of the program, there was an informal graduation when we all got certificates and an anthology of student work.

Sarah:  Where do you see yourself when you graduate?

Katie:  My general plan is to either get a job right out of college, or do a six-week publishing course in New York and get a job out of that. Either way, I hope right now to get a job at a publishing house. I see myself as an editor. I know I'll have to pay my dues by getting coffee and writing emails and shredding manuscripts first, but I won't mind doing that as long as I'm learning and can work my way up the ladder. I still have a lot to learn about it all, though. 

Also, I hope by the time I've graduated to be querying a novel (I'm writing one now, and I think I'll probably have it in good enough shape to be querying senior year) and in a better scenario, agented, and in the best scenario, have a book contract.

Sarah:  Have you always wanted to write?

Katie:  Always is a stretch. I've always loved to read, and I've always made up stories in my head. I remember going to bed after watching the Little Mermaid or Pocahontas and rewriting the endings or figuring out what happens afterwards while going to sleep (imagine my dismay when the sequels came out!). In first grade we had journals and in the afternoons we would be given time to write. My stories were always the longest. That's about when I fell in love with writing. I attended a writers' camp in fourth grade, and around that time I decided to write my own novel. My dad actually gave me the idea: one of our ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. Is that really an idea? I thought it was enough of one. Anyway, that didn't work out. But in seventh grade I finished a novel. It was my own version of Ella Enchanted. Literally, I would open Ella Enchanted to page 53 when I was on page 53 and see what scene needed to be happening. It results in an un-original story, but I think it was actually a great exercise in structure. After that, I kept writing novels, saying I wanted to be a writer. Then in tenth grade I attended the Iowa Young Writers Studio and I realized I really, really love learning writing just as much as actually writing, so I decided to study it in college. And that is my long answer to your short question.

Sarah:  Who are your favorite authors?

Katie: I do a really bad job of picking favorites, but authors who never let me down are Jodi Piccoult and Meg Cabot. There are many, many, many others I love as well.

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You heard it here first folks. I read some of Katie’s flash fiction on her blog, I see very big things ahead for her. Keep an eye on her, stay in touch, become  a fan early so that when she comes to town hocking her newest award winning book, you can cozy up to her and say you knew her when.

* The Iowa Writer’s Workshop is a big, big deal. Several winners of the Pulitzer Prize and other prestigious awards have attended and/or taught there, and still do. An MFA from this place is equivalent to something like a Law degree from Harvard only way cooler.

** Katie also said she went to bed early instead of staying up late for the poetry slam. I wonder if we would have been friends were we the same age, when I was smoking three packs a day, and never slept at night. I doubt I would have slowed down enough to appreciate someone like her. How cool that I have the opportunity to now.