The lights dim, the voices of the audience quiet and the lighting of the room centers on the stage. Two chairs sit parallel to the other; a coffee table with a bookshelf behind in the middle. With the center now illuminated, Dean Nelson, professor of multimedia journalism, stands facing the audience, welcoming them to the 30th Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea.
This was Nelson’s second night hosting the symposium, which is a three-day event, with award-winning author Sandra Cisneros as the guest author on Feb. 27. As he welcomed the audience – which included members of the community and high school, middle school and college students – he completed his introduction by welcoming Cisneros.
As applause filled the room, Cisneros took her seat on the right facing the stage. Before delving into questions regarding her books and journey as an author, Nelson brought up how her first love was drawing instead of writing.
Cisneros gave the audience a picture of what she wrote through her memories, from family to clouds to sunsets, trees and the wind. As Cisneros shared her imagination, the story of her vivid life filled the room despite the subdued lighting.
“Your use of color in your writing is so powerful, especially in ‘Carmelo,’ which I loved more than all of your other books,” Nelson said.
When Cisneros finally figured out she wanted to become an author, she was unable to tell anyone, having a fear of disappointing her family, she said.
“It’s not on the menu when you’re a young girl,” Cisneros said. “No one says, ‘Would you like to write a book?’ It is not even on the menu.”
Cisneros eventually told her father of her dream to become a writer, with his expected disapproval following. Despite this, Cisneros attended The University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop, a prestigious program that did not appeal to Cisneros.
“I was silenced,” Cisneros said. “Like when you go somewhere and when you speak people look at you like you’re out of your mind.”
Cisneros attended the program alongside Joy Harjo, an American poet and musician, who both felt that when they spoke it was not “well received.”
Despite the disheartening Writers’ Workshop, during this time Cisneros began to write her first novel “The House on Mango Street.”
“I found my voice writing about my house,” Cisneros said.
She had not realized the aspect of her life that she felt the most ashamed about had been her house until the topic of houses was presented in a class.
“I realized I’d never seen my house in a piece of fiction or in a film or in any art form written about with love,” Cisneros said. “I felt ashamed. I felt like quitting the program. And something happened over the weekend. I went from being depressed and getting angry, to asking myself, ‘Why have I never seen my community written about with love?’”
Andrew Oates, a second-year psychology major attended the event and was familiar with the novel. Oates had heard about the book being banned, and while being offered extra credit in his Spanish class for attending the event, he also went for cultural engagement.
“The whole point of coming for me was to be engaged with a Latina author, and seeing her point of view, and I really enjoyed it,” Oates said.
Cisneros conveyed her honest viewpoint on minorities not being properly represented, advocating for others to “have their own voice” and to write with love. Additionally, she advocated for mental health during her interview.
“I came very close to suicide and I was just lucky, and I want to share that story, not because I’m trying to be poignant or show off, but because I want to save other people who are going through a depression that maybe comes from a working class background,” Cisneros said.
During this period of her life, Cisneros moved to Little Chico, CA, and began teaching at California State University. Cisneros explained that because she had never felt comfortable in a university setting, her experience as a professor did not go well.
“I almost didn’t make it to December,” Cisneros said. “A friend of mine who recognized how dangerously ill I was forced me to go home.”
The friend helped play a role in saving Cisneros’s life.
When Cisneros returned home, she received a letter from the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC. She was given a $20,000 grant to continue her work.
“I just was reminded at that moment that I was put on the planet to write,” Cisneros said.
When explaining her writing strategy, Cisneros compared this process to fishing; how she can row herself to an area where there are plenty of fish but not a guarantee of a catch. How she is “just the fisherman, not a creator of the fish.”
For one student, another of Cisneros’ writing strategies stuck out as the most memorable part of her interview.
“She said how when she has those times of brain fog when she writes, she just takes a pause and to be in nature,” Cortlynn Sieverts, a first-year liberal studies major, said. “I related to that a lot because when I feel like I’m getting overwhelmed with my studies and school, I like to reconnect into where I feel most inspirational and alive.”
The second most memorable part of Cisneros’ talk for Sieverts was her advice to “listen and read about writers who let you run for your pen.”
Several of Cisneros’s works are unpublished. She went on to explain the freedom of not publishing certain works.
“I felt for a long time that I needed to write poetry, but real poetry was words I couldn’t publish in my lifetime,” Cisneros said. “I had to throw them onto the bed like Emily Dickinson. And it did something wonderful for my writing. It liberated me. It took away the biggest censor – me – and I was able to write as if what I had to say couldn’t be published in my lifetime. And that became key to me to erase the listener and to allow myself to speak from a very pure place.”
The most memorable part of the interview for Oates was a line Cisneros said: “Solitude is sacred; it is time for you to take care of you.”
“That’s something that I feel like I’ve been working on, and I’ve seen the value in that, especially being alone in nature,” he said.
Several PLNU alumni were also in attendance, including Cameron Stokes, who graduated in 2022. She and a couple of her friends had gone to the interview, having read a handful of her books in their book club.
“My favorite part was how candid and open [Cisneros] was,” Stokes said. “I think coming from this school, it’s not necessarily as open to talk about all sorts of topics, and so I think her being in this space doing that was really good to hear, especially coming back after graduating.”
As Cisneros finished her interview, she left the audience with one last piece of advice taken from “Alice in Wonderland.”
“When in doubt, remember this: We are all in a caucus race. There is no start, no finish. Everyone wins.”
Abbey Wicks 
Kailyn Collette