Tell a story in six words. Write a poem based on a photograph. Create graffiti to match images from the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. These and other creative writing opportunities will be available during the “Word Up, Wesleyan!” writing festival on Thursday, April 14, at Iowa Wesleyan College.
The writing festival will run from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. in the Atrium of the Howe Student Activity Center and on the campus lawn, weather permitting.
Booths will encourage a variety of writing forms, with several categories offering contests and prizes.
“We designed this event to correspond to Poetry Month, and to expand on the program by Iowa Poet Laureate, Mary Swander, that morning on campus,” said Dr. Maryellen Potts of the English faculty.
Swander will present a free program at 11 a.m. in the Chapel as part of the College’s Forum series.
Student organizations and college classes are sponsoring the booths. Other creative writing options include writing to sports paraphernalia, sponsored by the IWC football team; creating captions for the Belle Babb Mansfield Statue, sponsored by the Philosophy Club, and videos, slam poetry and haiku, sponsored by the Dante Club at Southeastern Community College. The creative writing class will sponsor a contest for the worst love poem, while another booth will use a group to write a story, one sentence at a time. The IWC library will challenge participants to match the title of censored books to passages pulled from those books.
There will be an open microphone session for students to read their own work, or that of another. Four scholarships prizes will be awarded for the best performances/readings from the Dr. Edward Wright Scholarship and Theatre Endowment.
“The writing festival is an opportunity for students, faculty, staff and the community to celebrate the written word and enjoy the fun of self-expression,” said Potts.
The event is open to the public at no charge.
