MENTOR COMMENTARY

Mentorship recipient:
Today
Recipient reflection:
Stephanie Choi

ON "TODAY" BY STEPHANIE CHOI

by Ali McLain

I selected the poem “Today” by Stephanie Choi for the mentorship position because I was so very taken by the poet’s ability to capture such an intimate moment about memory in so few lines. Writing the short poem can be very challenging because it is a meticulous endeavor. The poet should go after precision and clarity and Choi’s poem showed great promise in these areas. I was interested in working with Choi because she was so close to the mark of precision and clarity. Choi and I worked on line breaks, punctuation, and word choice to assist with clarity. We also reworked the ending of the poem so that it was clearer and more compelling. In just a few email exchanges, Choi demonstrated that she is a poet who is thinking seriously about the gain of revision.
 
Gordon Square Review is very smart to incorporate a mentorship program within its publication. Choi was able to receive feedback, rework her poem, and get published! I strongly believe that any kind of investment in an artist is extremely important. Here is personal testimony: As a poet, I’ve never had a writing mentor. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t count two short-lived mentorship moments I had via email with two literary giants–Nikkey Finney and Terrance Hayes. I emailed both of them when I was seeking advice as a writer. I found myself searching for motivation to keep writing and I was craving for feedback on my work. I wanted someone (in this case two poets I deeply admire) to push me forward and to tell me what I had right and what I had wrong. Finney responded a few times with plain and simple advice: Write every day if you are serious and Don’t ever give up on your dreams or your words. Hayes responded to my work and gave me invaluable feedback. Both authors ignited my drive to continue to work hard as a writer. Undoubtedly, mentorship in writing is vital because writers can often feel lonely and uncertain. A writing mentor can help the writer spark ideas, conquer insecurities and improve the mentee’s overall craft.

Ali McClain

Ali McClain is a poet, educator, consultant and youth advocate.  She directs one of the city's most successful after school and summer program for girls ages 10-18 at West Side Community House.  Ali has been writing and performing poetry for over 15 years.  She has taught and performed at Playhouse Square, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Juvenile Detention Center, various schools throughout Cuyahoga County and elsewhere. She is the co-founder of acerbic, which is an arts collective dedicated to providing a safe and resourceful home to artists of color. She is currently working on her first collection of poetry and is a current graduate student for poetry at Cleveland State University's NEOMFA program. Her work has appeared in A Race Anthology: Dispatches and Artifacts From a Segregated City and she is the recipient of the 2016 Academy of American Poets University & College Poetry Prize for her poem “Kinsman.”