Ink's Guests Inspire Young Writers

The College’s Ink program and the English department’s Writing Communities course, all under the direction of English professor Catie Rosemurgy, collaborated this year to present the Visiting Writers Series. Writers in the College community were treated to readings from three critically acclaimed authors that were carefully selected by students in the program. In September, Brenda Shaughnessy, author of the poetry book Interior With Sudden Joy, read an assortment of her poems. In November, author and essayist Amy Hempel visited to read one of her short stories. In December, Nell Freudenberger, author of Lucky Girls, offered a reading from her new book, The Dissident.  

The Visiting Writers Series is a series of literary readings that the Writing Communities course and Ink organize every year, and is a strong example of the accomplishments achieved by faculty-student collaboration. Each fall, members of Ink and the course do research to determine which authors would be most appealing to the writing community on campus the following year. Several aspects are taken into account, such as current events and student feedback. 

Catie Rosemurgy's poetry collection, My Favorite Apocalypse, was published by Graywolf Press in 2001. She received a Rona Jaffe Award for Emerging Female Writers, and most recently her work has appeared in the anthologies Isn't It Romantic: 100 Love Poems by Young American Poets, and Poetry 30, a collection of work by American poets in their thirties. Her accomplishments are widely known and respectedby her colleagues and peers, and her experiences have introduced her to many of the writers she has helped bring to campus.

Last year’s students along with Rosemurgy, who selected this year’s authors, had many options to consider. The authors presented this year were invited because they all offered something different for the contemporary literary landscape which is “constantly changing,” says Monique Reuben, a member of the Writing Communities course.

Nell Freudenberger, Reuben says, provided unique perspective because of her focus on contemporary literature. In research, Ink and the class found that contemporary literature is increasingly incorporating culture so this perspective played a role in the decision to choose her. Additionally, Freudenberger’s success at such a young age (she is 31) was seen as inspiration for young aspiring authors.  The authors also represented a broad range of genres, offering poetry, short stories and novel literature. Student feedback showed interest in these genres of literature. The authors also represented a mix of the well-established and the up-and-coming.  One of the overarching goals of the workshop is to offer the campus writing community inspiration in their writing aspirations.

“Our main purpose is to expose the campus community, especially the students to contemporary literature,” said Reuben. “By giving students the opportunity to listen to authors read their works, we are fostering a community of not only readers, but also writers.”

On top of organizing this year’s events, the students also worked to select authors for next year’s series. These authors will be announced at the beginning of next semester.