On Thursday, March 2, Union University’s English Department hosted its 30th annual Creative Writing Workshop at the Carl Grant Events Center.
The Creative Writing Workshop is a unique event that gives local high schoolers the opportunity to experience creative writing at the college level with Union English majors as their mentors, as well as hear from a distinguished writer as a guest speaker.
This year, over 50 high schoolers representing various academic backgrounds attended the workshop. The students participated in hands-on creative writing in the categories of creative fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. Union English majors led the tables as they worked with the high schoolers through writing activities and group critiques.
“It makes everyone a better writer,” Bobby Rogers, professor of English and Writer in Residence, said. “It gives our college students teaching experience. They get to lead workshops and practice the skills they are learning in their own classes. The high school students come in and get to produce new writing, get to be exposed to a visiting writer and hear that writing.”
Following the writing workshop, an awards ceremony was held for the best submissions in the categories of fiction, nonfiction and poetry for the high school and college divisions. Among the high school winners were students from Augustine School, Faith Tutorial and Madison Academic.
Students were then invited to a reading and book signing by this year’s guest speaker, Graham Hillard, a Union alum. A creative writing teacher, editor and author, Hillard read excerpts from his newly released book “Wolf Intervals: Poems” and ended the session with Q&A.
Hillard said when asked about his preference for poetry over other writing forms, “There is just something about the compression of meaning in a poem, something about the reliance on the concrete image, the freedom to be a little mysterious. I just can’t get away from it. It’s just exciting in a different way.”
