C.S. Lewis once said, “Literature enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”
Union students certainly demonstrated their appreciation for literary works as they created, competed and won awards at the 22nd annual creative writing workshop hosted by the English department.
The event that took place March 11 consisted of two parts, the literary competition and the workshop. For the competition, students submitted entries for different genres such as poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction.
The workshop was attended by local high school students as well as Union students.
“The creative writing workshop gives us a chance to celebrate the creative writers in our community, not just students at Union but writers throughout the West Tennessee region,” said David Malone, acting chairman of the English department. “It’s heartening to see how many people are passionate about writing and reading, and our hope every year is that we can encourage this love of poetry and fiction and creative non-fiction across our campus and throughout our region.”
Among some of the students who won multiple awards in the college creative writing categories were Austin Gray, senior English and Philosophy major, and Stephanie Traylor, junior English major.
Gray won first place in the “College Fiction” category with his work, “Nobody Here is Dead” and third place for his poem, titled “Ministry” in the poetry category. His poem, “Cold Side” also won an honorable mention.
Gray also recently received a third place award from Sigma Tau Delta, the International Honor Society, for his work on a collection of short poems.
“It’s been a big couple of weeks, and it’s always exciting to know that people are appreciating your writing,” said Gray.
Gray begins his writing process by reading other works of literature and getting inspired by them. After that, he creates an outline of the story or poem that he wants to write before actually typing it up on a computer.
“I read every word aloud as I write, and I always try, whether it’s a one page poem or a 20-page story, to write the first draft in as few sittings as possible,” said Gray. “As I am revising, I like to have at least one person read what I have and tell me how they think it could be improved.”
He added that this is the third year he has competed in Union’s creative writing competition.
Traylor was awarded the first and second place in the “Creative Non-fiction” category for her works “Porcelain” and “Butter and Hunter.” She also won the first place for poetry with her poem titled “Crisis.”
Traylor said she was surprised that she won those awards, adding that she only entered the competition out of pure love for writing and sharing stories with others.