Write Club

The Student Activities Fair gathers about four hundred clubs into one spot on the Lawn for one purpose: to impress students and encourage interest in the club. Some of the biggest recruiting happens here, and it's not just for first years. I go every year, and it was there that I ran into an old friend and roommate of mine Jessica Hatch. Along with Anna Kovatcheva (another friend and suite mate who is not pictured), these two formed Write Club.

My favorite product of Write Club is that it fills a much needed niche. Fiction Writing classes at UVa are small and amazingly popular. Snagging a seat in one of those few classes can be tricky, but for this CIO, there isn't a minimum. Anyone with a desire to write is welcome, regardless of talent or experience in writing poetry, novels, or short stories. It's a setting that is informal enough to attract the shier writers but undoubtedly structured enough to be a positive experience for any level of writer.

In their own words:

What We Do: In the fall term, Write Club supports National Novel Writing Month participants through October Boot Camp - meaning that we spend the month of October working up to writing 2,000 words a day - and through a writing buddy system. Like having a gym buddy makes you exercise more often, having a writing buddy helps you get through NaNoWriMo more easily. In the spring term, we host a series of fiction writing workshops to provide an outlet for feedback on short stories, novel excerpts, and the occasional poem. We have also, at various times during the year, organized scavenger hunts, open mic nights, and charitable bake sales.

For those of you a few years off from applying to college, no worries, because an Exec Board has been established. It really is a great group of people running the show, and they do so many activities outside of just writing that Write Club ceases to be simply a writers club and instead turns so much more dynamic.

If any of you have any questions about Write Club, feel free to post them or email me, and I can forward you on to them.


Some other pictures from the Fair: