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Writing about Zimbabwe
M.F.A. field experience draws Kim Rogers back to Africa.
- After two lengthy stays in the southern African nation of Zimbabwe, Kim Rogers had much to tell, more than what she could include in her poetry.
That's why Rogers, already the holder of an M.A. in creative writing from Iowa State, is pursuing the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Environment - and why she made a third trip to Zimbabwe. She will write at length about the fascinating nation that has left an indelible impression on the Illinois native.
"Poetry as a medium doesn't allow you to convey a complex narrative," said Rogers, who wrote a series of poems about Zimbabwe for her M.A. "I believed the story I needed to write was bigger than that."
ISU's terminal M.F.A., according to Debra Marquart, professor of English and one of the program's directors, "is place-based writing, concentrating on the consciousness of places. The place shapes the writing."
M.F.A. students take a core of English courses, 15 additional credits outside the English department and write a thesis. A required fieldwork, or internship, experience with an organization truly engages the students with their subject matter.
Rogers knew immediately where her fieldwork would take her.
Her initial trip to Zimbabwe was a study abroad semester as an undergraduate in 1998. She spent seven months in the nation formerly known as Rhodesia when it was under British control. She studied at the University of Zimbabwe, and it sparked her interest in transcultural writing.
She wrote about the experience in her poems, fueling her desire to return. A U.S. Student Fulbright grant allowed her to spend 2000 at the Zimbabwe College of Music studying ethnomusicology. She focused on the mbira, a musical instrument often called a finger piano.
"It's a spiritual instrument in Shona culture," said Rogers. For centuries it was played at all-night rites to communicate with ancestral spirits. By playing the small device, she gained access to "all kinds of avenues in their culture."
Meanwhile Zimbabwe was experiencing severe changes from the often-violent redistribution of land formerly held by whites. The economy was in shambles and unemployment soared, spurring an exodus of blacks and whites.
It was against this backdrop that she learned to play the mbira and gained an insight into the daily struggles foreign to most Americans.
"Living in a volatile environment changes your perspective on life," she said.
Rogers came to ISU, wrote her collection of poems as part of her M.A. (with hopes of soon seeing them published) and settled in as an editor on campus.
"I stayed connected to creative writing and with the other writers from the M.A. program," she recalled.
When the new M.F.A. became a reality, she was drawn to its field experience and the requirement to take 15 non-English credits. Rogers will study African politics and globalization in developing nations among other courses. Most of all, pursuing the M.F.A. provides an outlet for all the stories she wants to share.
In fall 2007 Rogers returned to Zimbabwe. She did her M.F.A. fieldwork at the Kufunda Learning Village, a grassroots organization working to improve life in the nation.
"My drive to go back was strong because I paid for the trip myself," she noted.
She taught poetry, nonfiction and business writing workshops for adults. She also helped with a book about local plants and animals and their cultural histories.
"It was a great experience," she said of her third trip to
Africa.
Rogers' M.F.A. writing project will be a book-length narrative of the changes she observed in Zimbabwe, and in herself, during the past 10 years.
The call to return to Zimbabwe still tugs at Rogers, despite the frustrations of a country in political and economic upheaval.
"It's great to be a visitor, but it's difficult to live there full-time."
Kim Rogers
Around LAS
March 10-30, 2008
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