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Published on 07/31/1995 All articles from this issue

Foothill teacher inspires students to publish anthology

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By Rita Jamison

Special to the Town Crier

The students in Burghild Nina Holzer's autobiography classes at Foothill College between 1983-1993 discovered she has a gift for teaching them to write well and truthfully. "Anyone," she says, "who can tell his or her story can also learn to write it."

She believes that personal experiences are often more interesting than fiction. "I encourage my students to honor their life experiences - painful or joyous, momentous or seemingly banal ..."

Just off the press, "Autobiography: The Wealth of Our Experience," is a 225-page collection of 44 episodes from the lives of her students. They represent a gleaning of the most powerful stories class members have written over the years.

Under Holzer's tutelage, persons of conflicting convictions and different social backgrounds learned to listen to each other's texts with care. As they themselves gained skill at the writing craft, they offered constructive suggestions.

The instructor holds an master's degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. in literature from University of California at San Diego. She is the author of "A Walk Between Heaven and Earth."

"The students produced stories of such high quality," she said. "I knew they would make a collection that could stand up in the publishing world."

In the introduction, she answers a question often asked of her: "How do you teach autobiography?"

Holzer acted as the general editor of the anthology. Dedicated class members did the rest. For this she gives special credit to Ed Scoles, Jane Auchter, Gloria Wall, Tom McPherson and Joseph Dela Fuente, all of whom worked without pay.

"As I read these stories over again," Holzer said, "I am very moved to have been touched by the lives of all these people. May the book give joy to all who read it."

Life Press sells the anthology for $15. For more information, call 964-5738.