Matt Rotman, 2006 RLC grad, utilizing writing skills to help others

INA, Ill. - Many students see Rend Lake College as a gateway to greater opportunities, while others take advantage of the locality and low cost of classes. For alum Matt Rotman, it was both benefits that drew him before he put his English education to use by helping others break into the writing industry.

The Mt. Vernon native started on his Associate of Arts Degree at RLC in 2004, focusing on English and improving his writing. Rotman says he attended Rend Lake for the same reason as many, because it costs less than a four-year university.

“Plus, I needed two extra years to mature before going off into the real world,” added Rotman.

"I was amazed at how better prepared I was as a student compared to all the other students at a junior level who had not gone to a two-year school first. While my peers struggled with the very basics, things such as academic writing and critical thinking, I was able to focus more intently on the subject matter, form my own opinions. I recommend to anyone who will listen that, dollar for dollar, community college is the way to go."
 - Matt Rotman, Class of 2004

While attending RLC, Rotman recalls two instructors who were particularly beneficial to his post-secondary education: current English Professor Rob Little and the late Mike Mullen.

“I still reference Rob Little’s literary ‘-ism’ sheet when discussing literature, it’s like a pocket SparkNotes for the literary inept. And I tutored with Mike when I was in eighth grade. He gave an ignorant Southern Illinois boy his first taste of literature, and it has all worked out pretty well since,” said Rotman.

Rotman enjoys a little self-deprecating humor about his literary endeavors, but he is far from unsuccessful professionally. Before his current job, he was a public affairs consultant and speechwriter for the Department of Defense in Mannheim, Germany; a job he took after a brief stint as a standup comedian.

Now, Rotman works during the day as a project manager and paralegal for a water and sewer pipeline supplier called Underground Solutions, Inc. in San Diego. On the side, he continues to publish short stories and poetry in a number of journals and is working on a novel called “Micropolitan,” a satiric horror story about the oil industry in 1950’s Mt. Vernon. He is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Crooked/Shift, an online literary journal.

In the past, one could find Rotman’s work in Diabolique Magazine, Aberration Labyrinth, and Euphemism, the literary journal at Illinois State University where Rotman graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in 2008. More recently, he’s published a poem in Twelve Winters Press’ [Ex]tinguished & [Ex]tinct: An Anthology of Things That No Longer [E]xist, which was then reprinted in RLC’s literary journal, Lake.

Rotman also had a poem published in Puff Puff Prose Poetry and a Play, Volume III in May with all profits going to help women with disabilities. He also had a short story appear in Marathon Literary Review in February.

“More than anything now, my writing focus has been not on my own publications, but giving aspiring writers an outlet to get started,” said Rotman. “That’s why I started Crooked/Shift. It’s certainly easier to get published now than when I started out about a decade ago, because of the Internet, but the initial challenge remains the same: until you sell that first piece, you feel pretty worthless and that your stuff sucks, and it’s a hurdle that all successful writers must overcome.”

Rotman added his anthology also allows him to focus on and promote pulp and horror genres of writing, two subjects that he feels are sometimes ignored in the industry. With the help of others such as Little who is an occasional contributor, Crooked/Shift is published semi-quarterly, having seen its second installment last year. Information about the anthology can be found on the Facebook page.

In the future, Rotman said he’s working on a television pilot for a science fiction show called “Sleepwalker;” a project he’s hoping will help him broaden his writing technique. Without a doubt, he says his education at RLC put him in a great place to start on his writing career.

“RLC put me in a great position, academically, once I started going onto the university level,” said Rotman. “I was amazed at how better prepared I was as a student compared to all the other students at a junior level who had not gone to a two-year school first. While my peers struggled with the very basics, things such as academic writing and critical thinking, I was able to focus more intently on the subject matter, form my own opinions, and become well-regarded in the English Department at ISU. I recommend to anyone who will listen that, dollar for dollar, community college is the way to go.”

For more information about Rend Lake College, visit www.rlc.edu.