Archival Project:

For my revision project, I have decided to look at the artist’s book I made in my poetry class during the first semester of freshman year. Here it is:

Metacommentary and Revision Plan:

I remember being incredibly proud of this when I first made it. I still see a lot of potential in this work, but I would also redo a handful of things. When I met with the professor who facilitated the project, Jesse Miller, we brainstormed a handful of ways I could incorporate my future goal to be a journalist within the revision process. We ended up deciding that, for my revision project, I will be keeping the original poetry and moving it to a new book. The book will keep some of the original art but will more closely resemble a spiral-bound notebook. Each page will have a fold-out leaflet of all of the edits and commentary I have about each poem. That way, I will be incorporating my experience as Editor-in-Chief of The Bolt into my work. I imagine there will be lots of red ink on the poems. I may even try to make the poems look like art pieces to signify how important they were to me at their initial creation; however, now, they are something I think deserve edits.

For my readings/sources, I will be looking at artist’s books the University has on hand, as well as revisiting some of my favorite poems from my time at college, coming from authors like Hall, Harjo, and Whitman. I will be setting aside two hours every Wednesday to read, annotate, and draft this.

The major question I will be exploring in my work is, how has my overall writing style changed, and have I learned how to edit my own work better? Really, the question is, have my writing, editing, and artistic abilities improved over the last four years?

Peer Review:

After presenting this idea to my capstone class, I partnered up with another student to get their opinion on the revisions I should make. Here is evidence of that peer review:

Finally, after revisiting my old project, going through peer review, and meeting with Jesse Miller, I completed the new version of my artist’s book.

Final Draft:

Here is a slideshow that presents my new and old book side-by-side: Learning To Love Criticism

Framing Statement:

This project was a deep dive into my growing comfortability with editing and criticism. I looked back at a project that I was apprehensive about editing as a freshman from a perspective — as someone who loves the editing process and is now the Editor-in-Chief of the student paper. Instead of focusing on art, like I did in the initial project, I focused my revision on the language and poetry. I allowed the new book to be messy because, although it made me deeply uncomfortable, I wanted to physically manifest the messiness that comes with editing; even a polished ‘finished product,’ such as the first book, is never truly done.