Former student remembers creative juices flowing here
by by Michele Whitehead, reporter

    From becoming a successful and published poet to planning numerous goals for the future and home-schooling her three children, Rebecca Balcarcel has everything under control.

   The former TCC student and poet returned to NE Campus to give a poetry workshop to creative writing students earlier this month. It was in that creative writing class that Balcarcel experienced her creative roots.

   Balcarcel attended TCC in 1991 and remembers her own creative writing course taught by Cuyler Etheredge.

   That class was one of the first experiences that she had with writing poetry.

   “The examples Cuyler gave us were some of the first I had seen of modern, living poets,” she said.

   “I could see that I had something to write about,” she said.

   Balcarcel went on to earn her master’s degree from Bennington College and would some day like to teach.

   Balcarcel’s first 15-page chat book of poetry is currently being published by Trilabite Press in Denton.

   She has also had over 20 poems published in various works.
The workshop, which was on the first day of National Poetry Month, was an interesting experience for Balcarcel.

   “Creative writing was one of my favorites courses,” she said.

   “Standing in the same classroom as a teacher was kind of a Twilight Zone moment,” she said.

   Balcarcel said the current creative writing students were alert, and she was excited to get the opportunity to work with them.

   “Rebecca entered creative writing thinking of herself as a fiction writer. Then she went on to earn a master’s degree in poetry writing,” Etheredge said.

   “She has published quite a bit, and because of her enthusiasm for poetry, she volunteers to do workshops in our area,” Etheredge added.

   Balcarcel said, “While taking creative writing, I got so excited about poetry. It gives you insight into your own life.”

   Etheredge described Balcarcel as “an excellent writer and enthusiast for poetry.”

   Balcarcel recalled that the classroom discussions of poetry and modern poets would not end in class.

   After class, students continued talking about what they had studied or written and could often be found at a restaurant, hours after class had ended.

   Now Balcarcel has traded the late-night discussions with classmates for a few precious hours of writing around midnight after her children are in bed.

   Balcarcel even takes her notebook to the sandbox and sometimes uses that time to get ideas.

   Then she finds time later to develop the idea further.

   In the future, Balcarcel would like to have a full book of poetry published.

   The poet said she will continue to enter several writing contests.

   Balcarcel is a currently working on an anthology of bi-cultural poets and eventually would like to pursue teaching.

   Balcarcel’s advice to TCC students is to find what they love to do and not be concerned with how to make a living doing something that really is not their dream.

   “Follow your love. Whatever you are interested in, do what you are good at and what you love,” she said.

   Balcarcel read from her chat book last week in the Rare Book room in the University of North Texas library.

   One poet a year is chosen to give a reading.