April 3-6, six Union English majors traveled to St. Louis, Mo. to present their original critical and creative papers at the centennial Sigma Tau Delta International English Honors Convention.
A total of ten Union students were invited to present their papers. Of these, Nayelli McDowell, Abbey Orwig, Emily Rowland, Eunice Tan, Katherine Anne Thierfelder and Laura Ashley Thompson made the trip to Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark to represent Union University at the conference.
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the honors society, the conference featured prestigious speakers including Pulitzer-prize winning poet Carl Phillips whose 2023 collection “Then the War” was selected as the convention’s Common Reader, recent Missouri poet laureate Maryfrances Wagner and special guest and alum Donika Kelly.
Students were also invited to attend workshops in pedagogical training, writing craft, publishing and editing and other professional development fields. Senior English major and President of Union’s chapter, Eunice Tan, also participated in society board meetings and contributed to leading events such as the Student Leadership Workshop and Literary Trivia as Student Representative of the southern region.
In addition, Tan read her poetry collection “Malayan Chorus, Our Voices Arise” which won the E. Nelson James Poetry Award, one of two undergraduate poetry awards given out each year, as part of the published 2024 issue of “The Sigma Tau Delta Rectangle.”
Tan’s creative-nonfiction piece “Ah-Gong Pancake” won second place and top creative piece for the Common Reader Award, while senior double-major in English and computer science, Emily Rowland’s collection “I Will Slowly Turn to Face the Sun” won an honorable mention for Original Poetry. Other Union students also received much acclaim for their papers from moderators and audiences who acknowledged the high quality of their critical and creative works.
When asked for her reaction to her honorable mention, Rowland said, “Um — wow — I don’t know! I was surprised just because there are so many entries, and mine was one of the six mentioned. I was pretty shocked! . . . Super excited and super honored.”
Junior English major Laura Ashley Thompson also shared about her experience at the convention.
“I think the challenge for me was that I was around so many amazing confident writers,” Thompson said, “. . . But I got to have a one-on-one conversation with Carl Phillips, and something he said was, ‘When you’re writing, maybe you’re not making a mistake. Maybe you’re just doing something original.’ So, it’s okay to be original, and everyone at the convention was being original, and that was uplifting . . . Also, going to roundtables and being given different resources made me feel that maybe my dream will be successful, that I can become a writer.”
Lastly, Rowland encouraged students who are interested in participating in honors conventions:
“Do it,” Rowland said. “I know there are deadlines, and they slip by you and it’s easy to say ‘oh I’ll do it next year.’ But no, just do it. It kind of ends up being a break from school and also directly pertains to the area you are interested in. So, do it!”
The 2025 Sigma Tau Delta Convention will be held March 19-22 in Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pa., where several Union students hope to attend and present their papers come next year.
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