On April 25, the Department of Humanities held their 11th annual Creative Writing Festival, hosted by associate professor of creative writing and English literature Kara Candito. Poet Jennifer L. Knox was this year’s visiting writer and one of the judges for the Thomas Hickey Creative Writing Awards.  Knox teaches at Iowa State University and is the author of four collections of poetry, including, “Days of Shame and Failure.”

“As a poet, I aimed to invite a featured reader that would challenge certain assumptions about poetry – for instance, that it needs to be dour and/or confessional in order to be successful,” Candito said.

Knox read several poems and at one point she even had most of the audience laughing uncontrollably.

“We are fortunate to bring distinguished writers to campus who not only read, participate in question and answer sessions and sign copies of their books but who meet with students in writing classes to help [them] with their work and to teach them about the many opportunities in the field of creative writing,” associate English professor Stormy Stipe said.

The winners of this year’s Creative Writing Awards were also invited to read at the festival.  The festival allows students from across the university to submit works in three categories:  fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. The winners gave a variety of answers on their motivation for submitting their pieces, and many said that their inspiration ranged from real life events with doctors or inspiration from struggling friends to show them different things.

“I didn’t have anything to lose by submitting, and the prize was $100, so it was silly not to,” professional writing major Zhenyia Fager said.

Fager won first place in poetry. While some winners, like Fager, had confidence in their pieces, others were a little more hesitant. Psychology major Olivia Sampica won third place in fiction.

“I was wary at first, but I decided to go for it,” Sampica said.

Several winners also credited their submissions to the fact that both Stipe and Candito urged their classes to enter pieces into the contest. Sampica drew inspiration from past relationships and experiences from high school to write her piece.

“I took an Introduction to Creative Writing class last semester, and I struggled finding a topic for my final short story piece. After brainstorming a lot with Stormy Stipe and telling her a lot about myself, she basically said the story wrote itself,” Sampica said.

New this year, a separate contest was included for high school students to submit their pieces of writings. For this part, Candito worked closely with the Platteville High School’s English and creative writing teacher, Sue Kies. Platteville High School junior Anica Graney was the winner of the high school contest with a poem entitled “A Sticky Situation.”

“Next time I direct the festival, I would like to work more closely with Sue Kies to promote the event to high school students and their families,” Candito said.

The festival ended the evening with an open-mic session that welcomed anyone in the audience to read pieces, which several students did.  Submissions for the 2019 Creative Writing Contest will begin in the fall semester.