An Indiana native and Ball State alumna, Haven Kimmel meant to reach the top when she studied for her bachelor's and master's degrees.
The author of the bestselling memoir "A Girl Named Zippy" and six other books of fiction and creative writing visited her alma mater for the first time since she graduated in 1991.
Directing herself to the crowd Wednesday, Kimmel talked about how lucky she felt to be a Ball State graduate.
"I would like to say you are very, very lucky to be at Ball State," she said. "There's prejudice against the Midwest and it's unacceptable. It's based on nothing and it's unacceptable."
Mark Neely, associate professor of English and director of creative writing, said he thought Kimmel was a source for inspiration for current students.
"I think just in general the lecture series benefits Ball State undergraduates," he said. "It lets the authors talk about their experience and for students to be in contact and meet people. And her being an alumna is specially inspiring for creative writing majors."
Kimmel talked with students during one of their classes. Neely said the casual setting was good for students to ask her more questions and interact with her on a more personal level.
During the lecture, Kimmel talked about a new book she is working on, which will be about the history of Quakers. She read a part of the book and talked about her life in Indiana and Ball State.
Kimmel was not a traditional college student. Shortly after she started her education at Ball State, she moved to Mississippi. She moved back to Ball State in 1987 to give it another try.
"[Living in Ball State] were four of the best years of my life, and not for any of those undergraduate reasons of drinking or mayhem," she said. "I focused, maybe because I had a child. I was a single mother. I focused intently on my education."
Juggling a career and tending to her child was no easy task, but Kimmel said it was her decisiveness that led her to finish her degree.
"Many people helped me," she said. "In the end it's all you, but I had a great deal of help from those people, and I've thanked repeatedly, but also there is a question of how far would you go, what would you not do?"
Kimmel's first book, "A Girl Named Zippy," was the piece that pushed her to learn more about writing novels while she was in graduate school at North Carolina State.
"I [told my professor], ‘Well I can't. I've never written a novel. I don't know how,'" she said. "And she said, ‘Well I guess you'll just figure it out.' So that was that."
Time has changed from when Kimmel started as an author, she said.
"All of the traditional media are gone, so even 10 years ago, it all seemed very vital — newspapers and magazines, prints. The print media in every way seemed vital and it's gone," she said.
Nonetheless new generations of writers will have other media to publish on, she said.
"I think in all of history, anyone that would suggest that because the way they do things isn't being done anymore that means an elimination of hope, that's a product of age," she said.
"Just because things aren't done the way they've been done for me, in my lifetime, doesn't mean there's a diminution. It just means that you have to create it."
Kimmel said her advice for students was to continue reading and to follow through on the goals they set.
"Put everything else down. Just read," she said. "Students that are writing and from other majors need to read. All of everything you ever need in the world is right there. Just read it, and don't quit. Keep at it."
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