老司机福利社

Many students might see an English course titled Hermit Crabs and Borrowed Forms and immediately wonder what crustaceans have to do with creative writing. But when Eliana Alzate ’26 saw that title, she knew it would be a perfect environment for her to grow as a writer. “I hadn't done much creative writing the previous semester,” she says, “and I wanted to rediscover my sense of play in my craft.”

The central focus of the course was a literary form known as the hermit crab essay. Alzate explains, “Hermit crab essays don't follow the signature introduction, body and conclusion style of an academic essay. You have to borrow an existing form – like a receipt, music playlist or police report – and combine it with your essay's body.”

The course was designed and taught by Samuel Autman, associate professor of English at 老司机福利社. For several years, his fascination with this innovative form had been steadily growing. He’d been reading, studying and even writing hermit crab essays on his own, but he knew the next step was to bring them into the classroom.

“If you want to learn something, teach it,” says Autman. “In the course of reading all these books and learning about hermit crab essays, I knew if I really wanted to embody it, I had to be able to get up and teach it.”

For any professor, however, that’s easier said than done. In addition to the obvious work of developing a syllabus, selecting readings and planning out projects and assessments, there’s also the discomfort that comes with leading students through an educational experience that is completely new to everyone in the room.

“I realized I'm just one step ahead of them,” says Autman. But that vulnerability – a trait he teaches young writers to embrace as a superpower – helped establish a collaborative spirit between himself and his students. “I try to flatten the classroom environment. I'm going to determine the grade, but we're all in this together. Those two things are true at once. I want students to know that they’re all equal in this workshop. I’m trying to demystify and dismantle that us-versus-them dynamic.”

One way Autman reinforced that principle of solidarity was by inviting the students into his own process as a writer. Having recently published his first hermit crab essay, Autman was busy polishing his second attempt at the form and shopping it around to various publications. Along the way, he kept his students up to date on the progress, giving them unique access to the inner workings of the publishing world.

“I probably got 10 or 11 rejections that said, ‘Wow, this is amazing. We don't know what to do with it, because it's so outside the box. But we love it, and good luck getting it published.’ So I knew I was close. But it felt fun to be getting rejections or to be getting feedback while I was in a class with them. It put me in student mode as well.”

Meanwhile, students like Alzate were busy exploring how they could make the hermit crab essay work for them, searching for creative freedom within the unconventional structure of a borrowed form.

“I thought I could create any story with this rule,” she says. “It turns out, your hermit crab ‘shell’ and central story must be woven together seamlessly. Otherwise, it's just glass shards taped together.”

Eventually, Alzate stumbled upon a source of inspiration. While preparing notes for a different class, she found herself reflecting on a traumatic experience that took place on a train in southern California. While there during a summer vacation, she had witnessed an assault involving someone about her age from the Philippines – Alzate’s country of birth.

“Out of everyone who could've initiated the crime, it was someone from my own home,” she says. “I was angry at her. But part of me wondered, how did this girl grow up? What kind of family was she raised in? Did she live in the same reality as I did? I decided to make my final essay in the form of a police report, examining the crime based on my memory. While writing, I learned that pain is worth deciphering. Especially when you find meaning from it. Even if I couldn't find the answers, the attempt to search for them is enough for me.”

When Autman saw what Alzate was working on, he was blown away. “I was amazed,” he recalls. Having previously lived in San Diego, he was familiar with the area and rich Filipino history that shaped it. He encouraged Alzate to lean into those themes and let them permeate the entire piece.

“Professor Autman helped me deconstruct my story so I could piece them into an understandable essay,” says Alzate. “I was braiding a million themes at once – Filipino heritage, criminal justice, journalism and family dynamics. His critical but empathetic eye made me comfortable in my writing voice.”

Autman encouraged Alzate to submit her essay to a literary journal. And within a few months after the course had ended, both she and Autman received some very welcome news. Not only had Alzate’s essay been selected for publication, but Autman’s essay found its home as well.

“It is astonishing for an undergraduate to get in a literary magazine,” notes Autman. “It took me like 40 rejections to get my essay published. So for her to get it in on the first shot, I was like, wow, good for you, right?”

Alzate is quick to turn the spotlight right back around acknowledging the guidance she received along the way. “Professor Autman understood my adjustment to hermit crab essays. It wasn't easy for me, but he was patient with my process. Every writer needs a mentor who understands them as a human being first.”

Although Autman’s interest in the hermit crab essay may have started out from a place of curiosity and a desire to bend the rules of nonfiction, the true impact of his new course transcends those academic interests. As a devoted educator, Autman is eager to invest in students like Alzate who strive for excellence.

“I meet people at their hunger point,” he explains. “If they’ll come to my office hours and meet with me and ask all the questions, that's where I'll meet them. If they want a transformational experience, I’ll do that. I'll meet them at that point.”

No matter what class Autman is teaching, his goal is to prepare students for success beyond his classroom. “I think college teaches people three things: how to write well, how to speak well and how to think for yourself. And those three things are linked. So I hope that the hermit crab essay – and all the classes I'm teaching – will help people to make that link.”