AROHO Speaks: Writer to Writer, An Interview with Catherine Shubert

Catherine Shubert

In an effort to share the bounty of last summer’s AROHO (A Room of Her Own Foundation) retreat, I will continue the cross-posting of interviews with retreat participants; last month I had the chance to catch up with writer, teacher, study abroad student Catherine Shubert.

We understand you attended Oxford University as a study abroad student—any desire to tell us about that experience and how it translated into your writing? Does your work teaching Spanish in the Teach For America program find its way into your writing as well?

At Oxford, I had 1-2 tutorials for an hour or two each week, which were conducted one-on-one with an advanced literary scholar. I presented an 8-10 essay for each tutorial, and in the days leading up to the tutorial, I was meant to be reading, researching, and crafting my writing. I was on my own in the stacks, making sense of literature and ideas for myself. This was vastly different from the lecture-group discussion experience at universities in the States, so it was a difficult but worthwhile adjustment. All in all, it forced me to tackle the challenge of developing my own voice, thereby making me a better writer. I think as a woman it was an especially strengthening experience for me, since Oxford has historically been a male-dominated institution.         Read more here.