CCS was honored to showcase 50 individuals and activities during our 50th Anniversary in 2017-2018 to share our rich history. Take a look at the amazing people responsible for making our unconventional College possible!   

Carla Harryman '75 (CCS Literature) is Professor of English and Co-Curator, Bath House Reading Series at Eastern Michigan University. Carla credits her experience at CCS to helping her foster a commitment to interdisciplinary creative writing education. CCS is proud of our accomplished alumni and grateful to be able to share Carla’s story with the CCS Community during its 50^th anniversary.

CCS: Why did you choose to come to CCS? How did you find out about the College?

Carla Harryman: A friend, Leslie Wayne, a visual artist living New York these days, went to CCS for a short while. I left UC Irvine and went to Paris, and when I returned, I applied to CCS partly on her encouragement.

CCS: What was your favorite aspect of CCS?

Harryman: The freedom to pursue my interests with excellent professors and to test myself in a variety of pursuits, many of which would have been impossible to follow in other academic settings. I was drawn more to literary studies, art history, and art theory than I was to creative writing practicums. At CCS it was possible to be a writer on my own terms.  Literary studies have undergone a huge sea change since the mid 70s when I graduated, but particularly valuable were studies in Tolstoy and English Renaissance literature with Logan Spiers, art history with Ann Ayers, and an independent study focusing on Cervantes and Rabelais with Spiers. It was almost impossible to read literature in translation in English departments at that time because of disciplinary constraints, but it was possible to do so at CCS. I also enjoyed Marvin Mudrick’s opera course immensely. There were extraordinary opportunities to experience dance, theater, and live performances such as Steve Reich’s Performance for Two Pianos. In addition, I valued being in small courses with others whose primary studies were different from my own. The college was an illumination of the possibility for public education at that time.

At CCS it was possible to be a writer on my own terms.

CCS: Did you attend graduate school? If so, where did you go and what did you study?

CH: The Creative Arts Interdisciplinary program at San Francisco State University was the only graduate program that addressed my particular interdisciplinary interests at that time. Happily, it happened to be in a city I was already committed to moving to for its vibrant poetry scene.   I thrived in the program ’s graduate courses: these focused on process, contemporary art across disciplines, and contemporary art theory and culture.  

CCS: Did your CCS education help you excel as a graduate student? If so, how?

CH: CCS fostered intellectual independence both in and out of the school environment. On my own, I was reading a lot of modernist literature (but not so much Elliott and Pound which one could study at UCSB), contemporary poetry, 19^th century novels, and Marxist theory. This reading outside the classroom complemented what I was doing in school.  I would not have survived CCS/UCSB, or at least not in my early 20s, without the faculty’s support of my curiosity and intellectual fervor. People I know from those days still refer to the “party school” atmosphere, but I was mostly inattentive to the party culture.

Dr. Mudrick fostered in students a sense of autonomy that was profoundly significant for me, as a female student. In the context of my working class and lower middle class family background, the expectations were that I would become an elementary or secondary school teacher, a secretary, or a wife. I thoroughly rebelled against this and felt exceptionally supported by Dr. Mudrick in the decisions I made, not because he told me what to do but because he subtly challenged my self-doubt.  I was well prepared for graduate school because I was able to independently pursue my interests and because I was learning to take myself seriously.

CCS: Describe your job or expertise. Does it relate to what you studied at CCS? If so, how?

CH: At Eastern Michigan University, I am Professor of English. I am currently the head of the interdisciplinary creative writing program that I helped develop over the last ten years. Also, I am on the summer faculty of the Milton Avery School of the Arts MFA program at Bard College, which brings together artists in the disciplines of writing, film, painting, sculpture, photography, and sound and music. CCS helped to foster what has become my commitment to interdisciplinary creative writing education in the public university. In addition, CCS supported my predisposition toward interdisciplinary art practice. Over the years, I have collaborated with musicians, visual artists, dancers, and performing artists while also sustaining a committed text-based writing practice.

CCS: What impact did CCS have on your life/career?

CH: The most profound impact [as a result of CCS] is that I have been able to write and publish without a sense that I would not survive as a literary artist if I followed my curiosity, imagination, and intellect in an uncompromising fashion. My time at CCS contributed to the sense that I would be able to survive because I had a good education and could, therefore, address whatever employment problems would come my way. In addition to academic work, I have had quite a few jobs in and around the arts. 

The most profound impact [as a result of CCS] is that I have been able to write and publish without a sense that I would not survive as a literary artist if I followed my curiosity, imagination, and intellect in an uncompromising fashion.

CCS: Does a memorable moment stand out from your time at CCS? If so, please describe the moment.

CH: Oh yes! When I graduated, I paid a visit to Dr. Mudrick. He had been quietly attempting to persuade me that I should read the poetry, novels, and short stories of D.H. Lawrence. I was not predisposed to Lawrence. I was averse to the author’s views on gender and sexuality.  When I came to say goodbye to Dr. Mudrick, he went to his bookshelf and took down every single paperback volume of Lawrence on that shelf and gave them to me. He told me he hoped I would read all of them. I did. The experience of reading so much Lawrence was a struggle, an astonishment, and a great gift.

CCS: What advice would you give to current and future CCS students?

CH:  I can imagine that any student attending CCS is already inclined to treat his or her education in an exploratory fashion and to not take it for granted. As I do a lot of academic advising, I value the unique circumstances of each student. It is an exceptionally complicated time to be entering adulthood. I think that it is important to acknowledge this reality and use it as a meaningful challenge.

Photo credit: John Saarsgard