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Summer 2003

by Jill Colford Schoeniger ’03

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Student writers will soon be sharing their talents at Franklin & Marshall’s Writers House—the centerpiece of a burgeoning creative writing community on campus.

Squirreled away in attics or cabins, composing with felt-tip pens or tapping softly on laptop computers, writers often work alone, glimpsing the world through a window. A roll call of famous writers includes legions who prospered in solitude: Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, Virginia Woolf. These writers and others like them have helped perpetuate the myth that writing is a solitary act.

But the reality is far different. While the actual work of writing is usually best achieved far from the madding crowd, writers are more apt to flourish in a supportive and collaborative community that embraces and nurtures them and their work. That’s why Franklin & Marshall has committed to establishing just such an environment to transform its pocket of talented creative writing students into an interactive, campuswide community of writers.

In the past year, creative writing has been pushed to the forefront at Franklin & Marshall through several developments. The College approved a new major in English with a concentration in creative writing; of the 56 sophomores who declared as English majors, nine selected creative writing. In addition, the department hired its first tenure-track position in creative writing, and hosted the Second Annual Emerging Writers Festival. This fall, the physical manifestation of this growing writing spirit will come to life at 711–713 College Ave. in the form of a Writers House.

The Time Is Now

“There has always been a wish in the English department that we could do more with, for, and about creative writing,” says Jeff Steinbrink, Alumni Professor of English Literature and Belles Lettres. The English department, he notes, has always had published writers on staff, including Robert Russell, the Charles A. Dana Emeritus Professor of English, and Sanford Pinsker, the Arthur and Katherine Shadek Humanities Professor of English, but writing courses were offered only sporadically.

Slowly that began to change. Steinbrink points to David Small, a writer who served as a visiting professor three times in the mid-’90s as the first person to create a presence on campus as a writer. He was followed by visiting professor Brady Udall, a fiction writer, whose arrival in 1998 ushered in a new era of creative writing.

One milestone was the development of the Introduction to Creative Writing course by Udall and James Hoch, currently visiting assistant professor of English and author of A Parade of Hands, a book of poetry. This course has cast a larger net to reach non-English majors and helped demystify the writing process to make creative writing less intimidating.

“The introduction course works as a much wider funnel,” explains Steinbrink. “The course is a natural draw and has really tapped into that ambient interest in creative writing that a lot of students bring with them.”

The creative writing movement has been gaining momentum ever since. In the fall of 2002, the College hired Nicholas Montemarano as its first tenure-track professor in creative writing. Montemarano, author of A Fine Place: A Novel and a collection of short stories, The Worst Degree of Unforgivable, to come out this fall, is the first professor whose tenure will be primarily based on his creative work and not scholarly publications.

Further tangible evidence of this growing trend comes from a quick look at the spring 2003 class schedule. “Last semester we had six writing classes,” says Patricia O’Hara, associate professor of English and chair of the department. “There’s just tremendous demand.”

Students Fuel the Fire

An influx of exceptional student writers is the real driving force behind this movement. “The students are very bright and very motivated,” says Montemarano. “There’s a core group of creative writing students who are interested in anything to do with creative writing. That interest seems to be spilling out into the students who aren’t even necessarily going into creative writing as a career.”

It’s not simply the quantity of students now actively writing that is driving this momentum, however; it is the quality of their work. “The students have really impressed me,” says Montemarano. “We had three students who were accepted at writers conferences for the summer, which is not a small feat, especially if you are an undergraduate. The talent is definitely there.”

Record numbers of students are showing a desire for more writing experiences, evidenced by the College Dispatch, a biweekly literary paper, and Prolog, F&M’s longtime literary and arts magazine. For the first time in its history, Prolog was published in both the fall and spring semesters last year—including a perfect-bound spring issue that was printed in color.

Emerging Writers Festival

Bringing writers to campus to interact with students is not new to Franklin & Marshall. Since 1982, the Hausman Lecture, endowed by Richard and Edna Hausman, has been attracting prominent authors, including award-winning writers Maya Angelou, William Styron, and, most recently, U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.

Now students have additional opportunities to interact with writers at the Emerging Writers Festival. “The festival came out of our wanting to bring to campus people who were closer in age and experience to our student writers, enabling our student writers to see and identify with people who were just starting out,” explains Steinbrink.

In April, five up-and-coming writers—two fiction, two poetry, and one nonfiction—participated in two days of readings, workshops, craft talks, and informal gatherings. “It gives the students this great opportunity to be close to accomplished young writers,” says Montemarano. “These are people they can relate to because they are not yet superstars. They are soon-to-be superstars, so they are a lot more accessible.”

The festival, run by a planning committee of 10 students and the writing faculty, has given students a chance to bond with authors who are eager to share what they know. “The writers have been really generous,” says Steinbrink. “The student writers are appreciative of their time. The writers have been really good about sitting down one-on-one with students while they are here and even preparing before they get here.” Many students even maintain contact with the writers after the festival.

Wanted: A Round Table for Writers

“The Writers House is in keeping with the College’s vision of creating spaces where intellectual and artistic activities go on outside the classroom,” explains O’Hara. “And it’s important to stress that the Writers House is not the English department’s Writers House. It’s for the whole campus.”

This undertaking will be headed by its new director, Kerry Sherin, who formerly ran the acclaimed Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. Sherin believes the success of the Writers House will be directly tied to the students and how eagerly they embrace it. “The students need to develop a sense of ownership,” emphasizes Sherin. “They need to have a real vision to work together and work against the notion that writers work alone.”

Sherin foresees the Writers House as a place where students will develop their own voices and create a forum where strong opinions and lively debate will bring out the best in their writing—a place to both critique each other’s work and nurture each other’s talent. Its layout and mission will encourage creative interactions and collaborations between faculty and students and also offer opportunities for informal connections between young and established writers.

Sherin’s vision of a successful Writers House is a place that fosters a diverse community where there is a free flow of ideas and support for anyone interested in writing. The biology major who has an interest in writing is just as important as the English major looking for a career in creative writing, she says.

A Community of Writers

“You need a culture that is going to foster these writers because it is so difficult to become a good writer,” says Hoch. “There are so many opportunities to walk away from the writing life. What you need is a culture that foments, that breeds, and that nurtures that environment.”

With exceptional student writers, an active writing faculty, a focused field of study, and a supportive administration, faculty and administrators believe that Franklin & Marshall can become known for its creative writing community and attractive to the best of student writers.

The program already has one convert: “If I were leaving high school now and wanted to go into writing,” says Montemarano, “Franklin & Marshall would seem to me to be a really great place to be.”

English major Jill Colford Schoeniger ’86 wishes there had been a Writers House at Franklin & Marshall when she was a student. A freelance writer and the College’s class notes editor, she has written articles for the magazine on preceptors and on her other passion, basketball.