Writing a great story takes more than talent; it requires deft use of the tools of the trade, as English Lecturer Jack Trujillo has taught UNM students since 1998.
Trujillo received his M.F.A. from the University of Michigan. He also holds bachelor’s degrees in history and Spanish.
Trujillo said Charles Baxter, his mentor in graduate school, is “the best writer in America that only writers know about.” Baxter influenced Trujillo’s practical approach to teaching writing. Another influence is Arturo Islas, the first Hispanic author to get published by major publisher. Trujillo said Islas taught how to write minority characters “without making them minstrels.”
In his years as a teacher and student of creative writing programs, Trujillo has noticed a shift in the attitude of teachers toward their profession. He said when he started taking creative writing, teachers tended to be defensive about the idea that creative writing could be taught, whereas now they’re more comfortable with their role, understanding that though creativity can’t be taught, craft can.
In the introductory courses, Trujillo said, students come to understand that writing is work and learn how to read stories as writers. He recommends reading a story twice – once for pleasure and a second time to understand how the writer works.
Trujillo mainly teaches intermediate fiction, which focuses on craft. Part of learning craft is understanding how the elements of fiction shape a story. Early in the course, his students complete re-write assignments focused on craft, such as changing the perspective and seeing how that transforms the narrative. “Revision is about finding the story,” he said.
Another part of learning craft is knowing when to hold back. “There are certain things they can’t do – things I’ve learned over the years tend not to work in student writing,” Trujillo said. As an example, he said students tend to use death as a hasty resolution. Though death has a place in literature, it takes experience to know how to use it effectively.
He has also taught composition courses paired with journalism in the Freshman Learning Community program. These classes incorporate service learning, such as building a house for Habitat for Humanity, crafting legislation, and participating in reading programs at elementary schools.
Trujillo said service learning classes attract the best freshmen. “They were thinking about themselves in terms of where they fit in the larger world.”
He also teaches English 220, a topics course for intermediate expository writing. Topics he’s covered include developments in American identity, food and culture in America, and rhetoric of film and fiction – the last being a favorite. That course explores how you create meaning in different media. For example, Trujillo is interested in how sound adds to rhetoric. He pointed out that “2001: A Space Odyssey” would be a very different movie without the dramatic music.
Trujillo has nearly finished his novel, “Dancing with Pancho Villa,” which he plans to start sending out to publishers this year. The story centers on a family on the verge of falling apart when the elder of two sons returns home after going AWOL during the Vietnam War. “I’m fascinated with being on the cusp of change,” Trujillo said.
For fun, he’s also working on a libretto for “Frieda and Diego in Detroit,” an opera about the period when Diego Rivera was painting “Detroit Industry,” a mural depicting workers at the Ford Motor Company which sparked controversy over elements perceived as blasphemy. Trujillo said the conflict was trumped up as a public relations stunt. He added that Frida Kahlo, then less famous than her husband, may have had a miscarriage while they were there.
Trujillo will read recent work at the creative writing program’s Works-in-Progress at 7 p.m., March 27, Winning Coffee Co., 111 Harvard Dr. SE.
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Story by Sari Krosinsky