For the first time at Miami University, students and community members will be able to bring out their creative sides at the Oxford Writing Festival.
The festival will take place March 26-29 in Miami University's Shriver Center Multipurpose Room (MPR) according to the Miami Students for the Promotion of Writing.
"I started all of this from an experience that I had in high school," junior Megan Dincher, president of Students for the Promotion of Writing, said. "We had a writer's week, which is kind of what we're trying to do here. In high school we brought in guest writers, faculty and students, and everyone could present their writing. So that's what we want to recreate here at more of a college level."
According to Dincher, Miami faculty, students and guest writers will all be present at the festival. There will be workshops facilitated by students and guest writers as well.
A few of the guest presenters in attendance include South African Poet Laureate Keorapetse Kgositsile and The Cincinnati Enquirer Sports Columnist John Erardi. Lyricist Steven R. Cope, writer, poet and performer Mary Fons, author of Ella Enchanted Gail Carson Levine and Book Back Stories author Terri Spahr Nelson will be attending and presenting alongside Miami University faculty and students according to Dincher.
Nearly every event of the four-day festival will take place in Shriver MPR, although there will be an event in Peabody Hall Monday night and some community members will perform at the Oxford Lane Library Thursday night. The full event schedule is posted at spw.mugroups.org.
Hannah Rust, student presenter at the festival and member of National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), one of the organizations co-sponsoring the event, is also looking forward to the event.
"I submitted three poems and three were picked so I will be reading during presenter hours," Rust said. "I'm also helping with a writing workshop for high school students on Monday. "
Dincher encouraged everyone in the community to come out to the first writing festival.
"This is the first year that we are doing this," Dincher said. "I started the Students for the Promotion of Writing with some friends and we are excited. And the workshops will all be different but most will mainly be about just opportunities to write and write in different mindsets with different prompts, feedback from authors and things like that. The presenters will do readings but will also talk about their own experiences, how they got to where they are now, etc."
The festival is open to the public and events will last throughout the day and attendees can stay for any amount of time.
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"It's totally open to everyone; we encourage lots of the community around Oxford to come as well," Dincher said. "We have a workshop for high school students too and it's free for everyone. We want high schoolers and everyone to come. We sent information to Indiana, Dayton and the Cincinnati areas as well."
According to Dincher, the festival will begin around 12 p.m. each day and the last presentations will be 7 p.m. each night.
"We all are so excited about it, to just get the word out about reading and writing, not just to students but also out into the community," Rust said.
Siobhan Watson, graduate assistant at the Howe Center for Writing Excellence said, "It's a great thing for the Miami campus and is definitely something to drive home. It really will help enrich the writing culture at Miami and there are a wide variety of writers that will be there. There is not just one genre represented; there's poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Hopefully there will be something for everyone and everyone will be excited afterwards."
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