Below is a transcript of our conversation with CMU English Professor Matthew Roberson and author Stephanie Carpenter:
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. CMICH Press is a nonprofit publisher of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction books. Students can get hands on experience into the world of editing and publishing, and with the launch of the Summit Series award, Michigan writers will gain more recognition for their work. I sat down with Stephanie Carpenter, Assistant Professor of creative writing at Michigan Tech and the author of the 2024 winning novel “Moral Treatment” and CMU English Professor Matthew Roberson…
Matthew Roberson:
As time moves on, we'll (we'll) probably expand our focus and maybe gradually at first, maybe we'll start looking at Midwestern writers of fiction, Midwestern writers of poetry.
DN:
Were you pleased with the response?
MR:
Oh, very pleased. It's a, it's kind of a limited (limited) pool. When you say Michigan writer of fiction or poetry, both years we've had several dozen, just unbelievably strong manuscripts come in. We have a publishing class, and the students learn about judging, evaluating, winnowing down, picking a manuscript that we eventually send to a judge. Our first judge was Eric Torgeson, who's a an emeritus faculty here at CMU. Our second judge for the poetry book is Diane Seuss, also a Michigan writer.
DN:
And from that first solicited batch of manuscripts came the book “Moral Treatment” authored by Stephanie Carpenter, Native of Traverse City and currently an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Michigan Technological University. Stephanie, congratulations. And welcome.
Stephanie Carpenter:
Thank you. It's great to be here.
DN:
The inspiration early on for you to become a writer? Was it an author? Was it a book? Was it an experience? Some combination, maybe of all?
SC:
That that's a great question. I think I was interested in writing from a pretty early age. I was kind of a late reader and so a (a) kind of book I really enjoyed were these books that my local library, that were just illustrations, no text, and so you made-up your own stories. So, I remember checking those out over and over and over again, but I always, you know, from a young age I was writing things and (and) not really finishing things until I started taking creative writing classes in college. But you know from there. It didn't stop.
DN:
Not to pigeonhole you by any means, but things that you're drawn to in in terms of themes or types of characters and whatnot.
SC:
A lot of my work is sort of inspired by an encounter with something physical artifact in the world, and so with “Moral Treatment”, the basis, the inspiration for that was former psychiatric hospital in my hometown of Traverse City. What in my childhood was called the Traverse City State Hospital and in the era of the novel is the Michigan Asylum for the Insane. Although the hospital in my book is sort of a fictionalized version of that and has never named. So, being near these buildings and, you know, interested in these spaces
from childhood that you know kind of evolved into the setting for the book, and the and research followed to kind of flesh out, you know what that story would be. So, a lot of times, whether it's a historical project or not, it's something I've encountered in the world that intrigued me in one way or another. That becomes the jumping off point. I was really interested in why such a gigantic. Institution had been built in my hometown at a time when it was pretty, you know, thinly settled corner of the state. 1885 is the year that the hospital was built. And so, in my novel, I'm looking at his fictionalized version of the hospital in the year 1889. So shortly after its founding. And I wanted to look at the beginning of this hospital's history to imagine the beginning of a hospital of the history of a hospital like this, because regardless of where it wound up in the beginning, there was a lot of progressive idealism behind this kind of institution. And so, I wanted to think about what that would have looked like in practice and the ways that from the beginning, there have been kind of cracks in that ideal. And that's why the novel follows two characters, the hospital Superintendent. Who is a doctor in his mid-60s kind of approaching the end of his career and grappling with questions about why his method of treatment isn't producing more cures doesn't seem to be successful. And then a young female patient who's recently been admitted and is sort of bringing a newcomer's eyes to the place and to what the realities of it are for patients.
DN:
So, to you, Stephanie, we say again congratulations. And as the travels take you to characters, take you to new stories to be told and certainly back to your students at Michigan Tech, an extended welcome anytime to the campus of CMU. And thank you very much for having the chance to visit with us. And (and) great success as you head forward from here.
SC:
Thank you.
