Literary Zeal
The Smoky Hill Writing Club enlightens students to the importance of literature
November 5, 2022
For the students of this school, there exists a small alcove in the downstairs hall that aims to act as an outlet for thoughts and creativity nurturing writers and all others alike. The Smoky Hill Writing Club meets every Tuesday in room I-118 and Friday in room I-14 and prides itself upon creating a community fostering cerebral minds and aiding in the development of literary prowess.
Creative writing has long been heralded as not only one of the best ways to expand on language-centered skills such as vocabulary and story building but also as a practice that, according to Oxford conducted research and a literary analysis by Kathy G. Short of the University of Arizona, can create gateways to an adroitness in the humanities through the empathy, introspection, and valuable self-expression present in the arts of reading and writing.
“I feel like being able to write and being able to express yourself is a very important thing and if you guys have a space where you can do that together and really formulate ideas and bounce those off each other, I think that’s a fantastic thing,” English teacher and Writing Club co-sponsor Cyle Hirschfeld said.
Public scholastic environments are often rendered unable to foster individual writing ability due to the sheer number of students in a class according to Hirschfeld, with a club like this providing students the opportunity to not only develop their writing skills, but also the freedom to write what they want when they want to.
“I wanted to create a place to actually get writing done and still be in a work mentality.” Club president and creator Evelyn Bragdon said. “So I decided to create writing club, so I could actually like, write here in school. You know, I wanted to write the things that I wanted to write and be creative and school writing doesn’t do that for me,”
While the core focus remains on creating a free and individual writing atmosphere, there is inevitably the creation and evolution of relationships that give way to imperative collaboration within the organization. Vanderbilt University posits in a recent study that collaborative writing can help to “develop a sense of audience” and encourage writers in crafting a unique voice that both appeals to and informs their readers.
“It’s a very friendly and welcoming environment. So I don’t have to, like, worry about it at all. And yeah, we do our personal projects but not all the time and that’s perfectly fine. I have a really good experience with the club,” Club member Alien Nevares said.
Plans to evolve outward to encapsulate a much grander portion of the Smoky Hill community hope to allow all students the chance to express themselves through literature and offer support to all portions of the student body.
“Right now I’m just very focused on trying to get more people involved with it. When we get more people and that sort of thing I definitely want to do more like huge school participation things you know, show off during homecoming parades and things like that,” Bragdon said. “Just like, you know, participating a lot more in further school events, and showing that writing is awesome. Why wouldn’t you want to do it?”