In the Fall of 2021, Stephanie Wielkopolan, a professional tutor for the writing center, grouped together with Professor Jill Sunday, chairperson for the English and foreign languages department and writing program administrator, to start a creative writing group stemming from the writing center.

“Jill Sunday and I were talking and we just wanted to create something where people could come in without the pressure of grades or assignments and due dates and just come in and write and have a good time,” Wielkopolan said.

Wielkopolan stated the group had a steady interest in the Fall of 2021 but a rocky start to the virtual meetings in the Spring of 2022.

“[There] was no interest in that and I do think that was a combination of not enough advertisement but also that it was virtual and we are all just kind of fried from being on [Microsoft] Teams and Zoom all the time,” Wielkopolan said. “This year for the Fall 2022, we were like okay, we’ll be able to do it in person.”

The semester did not start as Wielkopolan had planned. For the groups first two meetings, only one student showed interest. The group will, however, continue to meet until the scheduled ending of October 26.

“Well we have it scheduled to end, I believe its October 26. We wanted it to end before things got really crazy towards the end of the semester… but we will do it again after the holidays,” Wielkopolan said. “It would be great if we could get some people interested then and just add a couple weeks.”

Wielkopolan and Sunday, as stated by Wielkopolan, hope this group will be a creative space students can make their own.

“Do we want to, in this 50 minutes, and just write and show our work to each other? Do we want to bring in our old pieces to workshop? Do we just want to sit and talk about writing and do some work toward the end? Just kind of, a group that is up to who attends how they want it to look,” Wielkopolan said. “I really don’t want to dictate what it is. I would love for people to come and bring their ideas [at] all writing levels.”

Wielkopolan hopes the group will be a welcoming place to all students and encourages anyone who is interest to join.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve been writing your entire life or if you’ve just kind of started being interested in it, you know, everybody’s welcome to come,” Wielkopolan said. “It’s not a harsh judgement place, it’s just a place to kind of [to] practice writing, chat about it and talk to other people who also enjoy it.”