Last weeks event, “Coffee and Creative Writing” was the first in an ongoing series of club programming being put on by the Sherrod Library and hosted by both Sarah Bull and Lydia Gwyn, student engagement and instruction librarians. The group is open to the entire ETSU student body, faculty and staff. Currently, the group meets on the second Thursday of every month. More information about this series will be announced, but, depending on participants preferences and demands, they are considering adding a second meeting a month.

To prep, Bull explained, “We set up twenty-four seats in a square. … We met in Sherrod 309 for this meeting and will continue to use 309 for the foreseeable future.” Throughout the meeting they kept the door open and a sign outside, so people were able to poke their heads in and get involved if they wanted. Twenty-two participants attended. Both Bull and Gwyn were very pleased with the turnout and were blown away by the enthusiasm the students brought.

“The amount of talent in the room our first night was tremendous, and it felt great to not only listen to students read their flash fictions but to hear how passionately they spoke about their writing and the type of things they love to read,” stated Gwyn.

The twenty-two students who attended represented a diverse array of writing styles, genres and interests. There were students who wrote fantasy, some of whom came prepared and had already completed a draft of a novel. There were horror writers, poets and nonfiction writers also in attendance. Not only are writers are welcomed, students who love to read and enjoy English came and also learned from their peers.

“For treats, we served some autumnal cookies and pastries with hot coffee and a variety of teas,” said Bull. Students were able to meet new people, snack on the yummy treats and brainstorm creative writing topics with other creative writers.

Bull stated, “After going over a few housekeeping items—there was a planned schedule, an icebreaker and some ground rules for giving constructive criticism—we read a few examples of flash fiction and then wrote some.”

Everyone who was comfortable to share what they wrote was given the opportunity. Attendees wrote with a prompt, so it was fun to see how everyone took their writing in a different direction. Even with a prompt, nobody wrote about the same thing.

Lastly, Bull wanted to add, “I think this club brought an opportunity for the ETSU community to come together and share in art. Creative writing is one of the best forms of expression out there (in my opinion, anyway!), and this was a great chance for a lot of students to not only practice that form, but to find a community based in it.”

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This group already feels like a safe, welcoming and supportive space for writers of all forms and genres to go and share their works-in-progress. Both Bull and Gwyn are looking forward to the next meeting in October.

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