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By Amy Barry

You may be puzzled by the whimsical drawing of a cow staring out at you from the cover of a new book by Central English professor Mary Collins. You also may be mystified by the title, “A Play Book: Creating Writers, Creating Citizens. But don’t let that stop you from picking it up because you won’t be able to put it down.

Packed into this compact mix of memoir, essays, and life lessons are messages about our need to reclaim our creative and playful natures for the health and future not only of our schools, but our democracy.

“No one has time to float and make decisions in flow,” she says.” I used to try to reawaken a sense of free association and whimsy in my classes, but I find, particularly over the past five years, there is nothing to tap into because in their [technology driven] childhoods they haven’t learned to do this.”

For example, she says, “We all used to spend a lot more time outdoors, especially as children, which research shows is vital to mental health and lowering stress levels for all ages.”

“Kids under 16 are still spending about two hours outside but they’re sitting on a bench engaging with a phone or video game, rarely moving through and into nature, and almost always supervised,” she continues. “And two hours outdoors is not the same as two hours each day in nature.”

Unexpected pandemic gifts 

“A Play Book” was conceived when seemingly random elements came together in Collins’s life during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

For starters, her son Donald— with whom she co-authored the award-winning “At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up the Pieces” — Zoomed in from California to teach her Central students how to create a zine (or mini print magazine); a creative art form going back decades. Using only paper, a stapler, and an idea, the students, who she says do most of their reading on screen, enthusiastically connected with Donald to create a hands-on project with physical materials.

“My own child reawakened in me a desire to reclaim joy and whimsy in my creative work,” she says. “During COVID, I had all this time to myself, but I was burning-out as a writer, my spirits were low, I had no inspiration.”

She found the supplies from a three-day Japanese watercolor class she took years ago — her only formal art training — and began painting.

“I stopped worrying about being good at it and focused on my need to get back in touch with what gave me joy in such a difficult time, I started painting things from my childhood, which got me in the flow and rejuvenated my spirit.”

Which leads back to the cow painting on the cover. Collins decided she only wanted to paint things that made her happy, and a cow named Daydream, who “produces the best milk for caramels” at Thorncrest Milk and Chocolate House in Goshen, fit the bill.

“When I was painting, I wasn’t thinking about all of these connections, she says, “but when I started putting the essays together, I could see the whole book.”

Creating writers, creating citizens

It may not be obvious why the book’s subtitle, “Creating Writers, Creating Citizens,” would go together until Collins explains it. Then it makes perfect sense.

“Connection is the capacity for reflection,” she says. “As you create writers, they have to process their lives to create depth. If we lose capacity for reflection and processing, then we lose the capacity to govern ourselves.”

Collins says most of her students won’t go on to publish their work, but she believes that teaching them to have an inner life and reflect on it makes them more compassionate, thoughtful citizens.

She says she plans to pitch the book to creative writing programs to use as a class text, but she’s also now thinking it’s a book that would be beneficial for parents as well.

“I think it’s going to surprise me who is going to read it,” she says, “and that includes anyone who wants to improve public discourse.”

If it weren’t for her fully tenured position ������Ƶ, Collins is certain that she wouldn’t have been able to publish this rather unorthodox book, for which she is grateful.

“I needed to feel completely free to create this space, take this gamble — tenure gave me this chance.”

“A Play Book: Creating Writers, Creating Citizens” (Entasis Press, 2023) is available on Amazon and at local bookstores.