[Critique Group 1] correspondence with Kevin Brown, our new member. read all.

[Tuchyner5 at aol.com]

____________________________________
 From: Tuchyner5 at aol.com
To: kbpoet1 at gmail.com
CC: tuchyner5 at aol.com,  jaybird at bluegrasspals.com
Sent: 5/18/2017 6:52:36 P.M. Eastern Daylight  Time
Subj: Re: The rest of the story



Hi Kevin, 
I’m taking your reply as an act of enlistment. That’s  great.  I’ll get 
your information  to Jay, and he will be in touch with you.  He’ll send you 
our special decoder  ring. (The group 1 conference telephone number, 
instructions for accessing the  recordings, and the group 1 e-mail address.  He’ll 
also do his  behind-the-wizard-screen magic and get the computers to recognize 
you as a  bona fide, official member. He’ll probably also give you some 
other important  pieces of information that I’ve just forgotten to include 
here.  
Our next meeting is 6/14/17 at 7:30 EST.  The pieces are due for submission 
one  week prior. I hope that works for you. Let me know.  When you have 
access, you might want  to listen to part of our last meeting to get an idea of 
how it goes.  If you’d rather just observe the first  time around, that’s 
okay. Otherwise, I’ll have you go last in each critique so  you’ll have the 
benefit of listening to all the other members do their thing  before it is 
time for you to give your critique of the writing that’s being  considered. 
With your permission, I’ll forward this e-mail and the  mail you sent me to 
the other group1 members. I won’t until I have your  permission. 
I’m looking forward to your participation.  
My wife is a pianist.  She’s mostly retired now. I like to  accompany her 
on my harmonicas, but my playing is very amateurish and nothing  to write 
home about, but we have fun. 
Leonard  


 
In a message dated 5/18/2017 9:26:32 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
kbpoet1 at gmail.com writes:

 
Hello Leonard, The rest of the story has me more convinced that this  
intensive critique group would be of benefit to my writing. 
I grew up as an musician and was a member of a critique/performance  group 
near the beginning of my experience on the very active Philadelphia  poetry 
scene. As a result, I grew both as a person and a performer. I’m not  sure 
that my writing improved. But, I anticipate that the experience with  the 
intensive critique group will be much different in this regard. 
Thank you,
Kevin 
 
 

 
From: _Tuchyner5 at aol.com_ (mailto:Tuchyner5 at aol.com)  
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2017 4:58 PM
To: _kbpoet1 at gmail.com_ (mailto:kbpoet1 at gmail.com)  
Cc: _tuchyner5 at aol.com_ (mailto:tuchyner5 at aol.com)  
Subject: The rest of the story


 

 
 
Hi Kenneth, 
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.  If I could give up sleep, I 
wouldn’t  fall behind.  I’d only be  senile. 
We have two groups. Their technical classification is  ‘Small Intense 
Critique Groups’ there is Group 1 and Group 2. Each one has 5  members. We had 
our first meeting in July of 2016.  We did some experimentation and  ended up 
with what I’ll describe below. 
The reason we started these groups was because we  were dissatisfied with 
the critiques we were getting over the general  PartyLine.  We wanted to go  
further into depth and take more chances with what we said, trying to be  
supportive, but also being liberal with suggestions as to how the submitted  
pieces could be made better. We also try to communicate what we think the  
strong parts of the various submissions are. 
Working out the mechanics was difficult. We have a  special group phone 
line to do our conference critiques. Members can  communicate with each other 
via our own PartyLine or with one another  separately.  Each group has its  
own e-mail address.  Every  member has to be put on the list by Jay. The 
meetings are recorded, and  these recordings can be accessed any time by 
members. 
Members send in their submissions at least one week  before the actual 
meeting. We do this via the special PartyLine mentioned  above. The members then 
write out in-depth critiques for every submission.  For some, this is a few 
lines. For others, it might be more than a  page.  These critiques are not  
sent to the PartyLine until after the critique meeting, so that nobody 
knows  what the critiques say until they are presented at the meeting. 
Each member has their own method of delivering their  critique via the 
teleconference.   Those who have really good Braille skills, simply read 
verbatim off  their critique or use the Braille for notes. Others will transmit 
their  comments via screen readers. It is possible to pre-record a critique and 
 play it back in your own voice. Whatever technique you come up with is 
fine.  While a critique is being delivered, there is no cross talk. After 
everyone  has finished making their comments, the author can make comments, ask  
questions, etc. Explanations are welcome, defensiveness is not. Cross talk  
also happens at this point. It is much more relaxed than what I’ve just  
described. We had to adhere to strict rules when we got started. Now we can  be 
a little more flexible, because we have been habituated. 
As proctor, I try to keep everyone on task.  I am a participating member in 
group  2, but not in group 1 where you would be a member. The present 
members are  Marcia Wicks, Deanna QuietWater, Cleora and Mary Jo 
After the meeting, the written critiques are sent to  the group via the 
PartyLine. All the critiques are sent that way so that we  all can benefit from 
getting a second chance to see how others critique and  what they have to 
say. Since the meetings are recorded, we can also listen  to the recording 
via the party line. I find that going over the comments in  the written form, 
regarding my submission, is very helpful. I certainly  can’t remember many 
of the important comments. 
The order of reading the critiques and the order in  which submissions are 
critiqued is set  
up in advance of every meeting, and I publish the  order to the PartyLine. 
It sounds a lot more complicated than it is.    
Oh, I almost forgot. Any genre is welcome. 
We are meeting now at 7:30 pm Eastern Standard Time.  We tend to meet on 
Tuesdays or Wednesdays. There is some flexibility about  these times. 
I thought of you as a potential member by virtue of  the fact that you were 
asking for critiques of your writing on the general  PartyLine, and I 
really like your writing.  I asked the group members whether  they could 
recommend a potential new member, and your name immediately came  up. 
My telephone number is: (434) 973-7632.  Please feel free to call with any  
questions or comments. 
Leonard 






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