Creative Writing Club is making a comeback and has big plans for this year.
Creative Writing Club’s goal is to create a safe space for anyone to come and share their writing, receive advice, and to take their first steps into publishing. Club president, Autumn Laws, said that this year she wants to emphasize getting new members involved, especially those that are not English majors.
Laws sees Creative Writing Club as a valuable resource to Capital, because it not only gives English majors a chance to improve their creative writing skills, but also it gives those who do not normally get to take creative writing classes a chance to share their work.
“If you love to read, love to write, come to creative writing club, because that’s the place for you,” Laws said.
Beyond the basic work-shopping skills the Creative Writing Club is known for, they are also hoping to get more involved on campus this year. Working with other groups is a way that they hope to ground themselves here at Capital, especially by working with more established groups to organize panels and service opportunities.
For future ideas, the Creative Writing Club is hoping to work with Pride and Students for the Advancement of Afrikan-American Culture (SAAAC) to host panels on both queer and black writers, and how their experiences compare to the traditional writing and publishing process.
These panels are something that the entire campus could potentially benefit from because, as Laws said, “it is so important to talk about these other voices that are usually silenced in ‘cannon’ writing.”
Along with this, the Creative Writing Club is also hoping to be involved in various service opportunities at Capital and throughout Columbus. This is aided by the revamping of their executive board for the club, that includes a president, vice president, secretary, and web admin, who will work closely together to find and participate in any events they can. This is an important issue for the club, considering there was only one person on the executive board at the end of last year. This is one of the reasons why Laws is looking for new blood in the organization.
Between finding new members and working with other organizations, Laws said “This year is a formative year for us.”
Throughout the club’s various events, Laws also hope to work with ReCap, the school’s literary magazine, and Sigma Tau Delta, the school’s English honors society fraternity, because Laws sees them as natural allies to the Creative Writing Club’s mission. This mission was only strengthened this year by the addition of a constitution that includes the rules and requirements for the club.
Much of the constitution is just based on making sure members give constructive criticism and in doing so helping others to grow in their writing. It also ensures that each individual will grow in their writing abilities by ensuring that they must submit at least one story to ReCap and once a semester to the club itself. Laws believes, it is important for writers to experience the process of submitting and publishing work in a safe environment with their peers there to help them through the process.
“Everybody can write, everybody has creativity that they can share, everybody has the ability to write creatively, whether they think they can or not, and I think its important that we get voices from all different walks of life and corners of our camps,” Laws said.
With all of these new events, goals, and requirements, Creative Writing Club is making a real effort to become a more established group on campus and to avoid the loss of leadership and purpose, as has happened in years past. This means encouraging anyone to come at 9 p.m. to library on Mondays for the weekly meeting and to submit their work in person or online.
For more information, contact Laws at alaws@capital.edu.
