Robyn Carter Writer Educator Storyteller

West Branch: You often rely on first or second person, sometimes even switching perspectives in the story. How do you choose which perspective to use and who is the "you" you address in your second person stories?
Robyn Carter: I think I gravitate toward first or second person because the story seeds I start with are always real events, something I witnessed or experienced, so as I write, at least in the early drafts, I'm recording a moment as I remember it, but usually in present tense, which tends to amplify the sensory elements of the memory, make the colors more vivid or garish, textures, weather, corporeal stuff like that more palpable, which for me, is more "writeable." At least I think that's why I go for present tense. It's not something I do very consciously— tense or POV. I don't really make any narrative choice at that stage.

When it comes to creative classroom experiences, one would be hard-pressed to find a teacher who delivers that better than Robyn Carter, a writer and prolific innovator who has her fifth graders producing graphic novels and videos. I am in awe of the results—an explosion of imaginative ideas, sights and sounds.

I have been wanting to write about the abysmal pay schedules for teachers, whose compensation is primarily based on classroom time, without regard to the many hours spent at home writing