The Creative Writing Club needs YOU!!!

By Brandon Davis

The SUNY Niagara Creative Writing club needs a club president this semester and is looking for anyone who may be interested in the position. Anyone interested should visit student life or contact the club’s advisor, Dr Keaton, for more information. (rkeaton@niagaracc.suny.edu)

At the end of last semester, both the secretary and the president for the creative writing club graduated. This unfortunate timing is what caused the creative writing club to enter this semester without any leadership. Though according to Dr.Keaton, this is not an unusual problem “That’s the biggest struggle for community colleges. Some students are only here for two years. So, there is always a turnover and so that’s the tricky part”. In order for a club to exist it needs a president. This has left the creative writing club in limbo. Currently the club only exists on paper. The club’s advisor, Dr.Keaton, as well as interested students from the English program, are hoping that this situation soon changes. 

According to Dr. Keaton the club typically meets every two weeks and focus on sharing and collaborating on creative writing projects. This usually means writing creatively based on a prompt, sharing your work with other club members, and receiving feedback. The prompts are mostly supplied by the club members, but SUNY Niagara staff members have contributed prompts in the past as well.  The club’s activities are not set though and can change from year to year depending on the individual club members and president.

The club also hosts open readings for non-club members as well. These open readings provide an opportunity for anyone on campus to share their work, whether it be prose or poetry, and hear the work of their peers. These events also typically include snacks for any guests who may attend the reading. For these purposes, the club is allotted $300 dollars to help the club host readings or any other events and procure any necessary materials for normal club activities.

The activities of the creative writing club are strikingly similar to what you could expect from the creative writing course. The course also relies upon writing from prompts, workshopping your pieces, and receiving feedback from professors and peers. Anyone interested in the course is encouraged to attend the creative writing club’s meetings to preview what the course’s process looks and feels like.  Alternatively, those who have already taken the creative writing course, or are currently taking it, can join the club to supplement their classwork and provide more exercise for their creative muscles in a less structured environment.  

Aspiring writes may also have their work published in SUNY Niagara’s very own literary journal “The Writer’s Review”. The journal is published every year in spring. The deadline for submissions for this year’s publication is February 21^st, and any submissions can be sent to the journals email (SNWReview@gmail.com).

Ultimately, the creative writing club provides a unique environment which allows students to collaborate and work almost wholly amongst themselves. This creative independence is not only prized by students but by the club’s advisor as well. “In some years faculty mentors have gone to some of them and they provided prompts, but I always think its best when it’s student generated,” Dr. Keaton added.