October 29, 1990

I have been acquainted with Terri Lee Grell [now T.L. Kelly] for the past two years, mainly through Lower Columbia College's annual Poetry Event, which I organize and promote. As a guest reader at the Event last year, Ms. Grell introduced her audience to collaborative renga poetry, and I was so impressed with her presentation that I subsequently asked her to conduct a renga workshop for my creative writing students at the end of spring quarter. Because renga works as a kind of conversation, and because it traditionally seems to prefer spontaneity over academic preciosity, the students found the workshop to be a refreshingly liberating experience.

As a workshop leader, Ms. Grell drew on her experience as editor of Lynx; a journal devoted to renga, as well as her personal enjoyment as a student of the form. In a two-hour workshop, she shared a remarkable, compressed history of Japanese poetic tradition, presented renga as a suitable form for contemporary poets writing in English, and engaged the group in writing renga cycles. The immediacy of the experience produced many surprises, including the group's enthusiasm for collaborative writing--something that carried over through the summer for at least a couple of students in the class. I am certain that Ms. Grell's renga workshop will be as rewarding for other groups as it was for my students.

Sincerely,

Joseph Green
English Department Chair, 1990
Lower Columbia College
Longview, Washington