Candice Blake

Hey, Candice here. I’m studying languages, specifically Spanish and French though I wish I could have also taken Arabic and Italian. And Japanese... And Chinese… Basically I would have taken all of the language classes if I had the time. I like languages because I’ve always had a knack for picking them up, and I think their cool. A foreign language is like a secret code waiting to be cracked; it’s mysterious and beautiful, and as soon as you get it the secret finally reveals itself to you and it clicks. It’s a pretty awesome feeling I think, the moment a foreign language is no longer foreign to you. I’m majoring in Spanish because I’ve taken it forrrrreeeeevvvverrrr, I wasn’t getting any better at it I felt, but I didn’t want to give up on it. I went abroad to Spain my junior year and it was there that my Spanish got the kick-in-the-ass it needed to go from alright to really good. I’m minoring in French because I’ve always wanted to learn the language and visit France, and after a few intro classes here and studying abroad in France sophomore year, I had enough credits to minor in it, so it kinda just happened.

I like to say I’m from nowhere and everywhere. I was born in Queens, New York but lived there for about 3 years when I was young and never really got to know the area, so I’m not from there from there. My family moved around a lot when I was little: I’ve lived in Philadelphia, Hawaii, Miami, NYC again, Long Island, and the list goes on… My family’s currently living in a town called Fayetteville in the not-so-great state of Georgia. It’s a small town/suburb and it’s boring. And hot. Oh, and I guess the trees are nice… …yeah, that’s about it.

Besides languages and writing (fiction, non-fiction, and really bad poetry), I like to dance (all styles, from ballet to plain ol’ getting down), I like to read, sleep, watch movies not TV, travel, knit, and eat.

Regarding feedback on my work, I’d say it’s been positive, I guess. I’ve never received negative or really harsh criticism, but I sometimes thought that people didn’t always get what I was writing about because of my subject matter. Not too many people in my last writing class, creative non-fiction, could relate to the experiences I wrote about. I kind of felt guilty writing about something no one else could relate to. I felt uncomfortable sharing most of the time because I was worried my subject matter would make everyone else uncomfortable. The feedback I received wasn’t bad just very vague, and I realized that perhaps that’s the outcome of writing to an audience that can’t identify with the subject matter.

Some of the poets I really like are Gwendolyn Brooks, E.E. Cummings, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Ruben Dario. I love the word choice in their poetry and the way it flows. I love their poetry because they can exactly describe what and how I’m feeling and they do it so beautifully. It’s because of them that I got into poetry. I don’t know what constitutes “good” poetry, but I know that I like poems that create strong images, poems that invoke strong emotions, poems I can relate to, poems that have descriptions and diction that are so good it’s delicious.

I decided to take this class because I wanted to read more poetry. I haven’t heard of that many poets; I know the four I love and a few other big names like Dickinson, Whitman and Frost, and that’s it. I want to branch out and get to know the writing style of other poets and see what else I like. Needless to say, I’m really excited about the Norton anthology book.