daniel prazer

Randall Albers, the Chair of the Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing Department, has left an indelible mark on me as a writer and as a person. Now, I understand through various social media platforms, that his contract as the chair has not been renewed.

As an MFA candidate, I was taking his Advanced Fiction class when I made the longest strides on my thesis, and he helped me craft it into a tight manuscript that’s making the rounds of publishers and agents as I type this. He and I worked closely on two Story Weeks, and I wouldn’t trade any of those meetings and experiences for anything.

Randy, whether you know it or not, you were instrumental in putting me on the career path I’m on now, and I can’t thank you enough. I can’t overstate how much I love my job, and it took me two years after graduation to get here. This is thanks to your call from Prague to speak to my character. I owe you. I owe you a lot. Randy, anything I can do to help you or support you, please let me know. You’ve had my back. I’ll have yours.

The bright side of this is that it seems Randy will be teaching full-time; anything that puts him in front of more students is a good thing for students. Knowing Randy, I’m confident that he will never stop advocating for Fiction Writing students.

Now. That said, the panic and furor over this decision has gotten out of hand. The news is still raw and people are acting on emotion. Rumors are flying. If there’s one thing I learned in my years as a reporter, it is to calm down, divorce yourself of emotion, and see the picture for what it is (it’s worth noting that under Randy’s guidance, I honed that skill).

What this isn’t: The first domino to fall in the dismantling of the Fiction Writing Department; we don’t know that, not yet. Is caution warranted? Sure. But neither is panic. We don’t know much more than we do at this point. Ever heard the phrase, “It moves at the speed of academia?” Massive decisions like about changing departments probably haven’t yet been made, and if they have, they certainly haven’t been announced. Nothing is going away. Or, more accurately, we don’t know that anything is going away.

What this is: A time for cooler heads to prevail. Take some time, take a breath, and make sure you’re calm before you begin spinning like a dervish. This is the time to take the high road, to stand up and support Randy, but to do so in a dignified way that makes him, and the entire Fiction Writing Department, proud. AWP starts in a few short days. Now’s the time to show the rest of the writing world what Randy and the rest of the teachers in the department have helped us become—great writers, great people, ones who may disagree, but do it respectfully. That’s the only way our community is going to see this through.

HYPERTEXTMAG.com’s Valentine’s Day issue just went live, and it’s packed with great writers. I’m thrilled to be part of this issue with a piece of Flash Fiction, “Dutch.” You know. Splitting the cost of a date, or in this case, a morning-after pill. Read it here; it won’t take long. In fact, it made me realize I need to trim my bio.

When I said it was full of great writers, I wasn’t exaggerating. Sheree L. Greer, with whom I’ll share a panel at AWP in a few weeks, Chelsea Laine Wells, Cyn Vargas, my farming buddy Jotham Burrello, Megan Stielstra, who has a new book out, Everyone Remain Calm, and Geoff Hyatt, who wrote a truly heartfelt, funny, sad, and amazing novel that you should buy, Birch Hills at World End.