By Diedra Eby
On Oct. 7, PCC’s Creative Writing Club had its first meeting. Faculty advisors M Bennet and Harmony Sedgwick lead the meeting. Approximately 35 students attended. Snacks were provided, as were copies of the exquisite “SandScript Art & Literature 2025”.
“SandScript” is Pima Community College’s student-run publication, published since 1990 – making it one of the longest-running community college publications in the country. For five years in a row, “SandScript Art & Literature” has won the annual national contest for Collegiate Magazine’s Community College Humanities Association’s “Best Magazine” award. The magazine contributors also have consistently won awards in various categories including visual arts, poetry and prose.
“SandScript” is created in the “Literary Magazine Production” (WRT 162) course.
After introductions, ideas were exchanged about what grounds the Creative Writing Club would cover. Some ideas that were discussed included:
- Meet every week
- Share writing
- Create prompts
- Possibly have open mics
- Invite guest speakers to share their professional writing experiences
- Critique/Feedback on work
- Provide incentive to write
- Help in improving writing structure
After ideas were exchanged, students shared what their needs and desires were in joining a writing group, most of which were reiterated from above. Following this discussion, prompts were put up by most of the attendees on the whiteboards around the room, including personality, place, conflict and more. Then, students picked one item from each prompt to put together into a storyline. People took turns reading their stories; one even got into character to read a parody of President Trump. Because everyone had contributed to the prompts, and writers could select from any of the choices without following the prompts of one particular individual, the stories created were often disjointed and sometimes quite silly. All were highly creative.
The Creative Writing Club meets again on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. at PCC Downtown Campus (1255 North Stone Avenue) in Library Room 153 (That’s the big one.) If you’re going to join us, be sure to bring something to write with, whether it’s an old-fashioned pen or pencil and paper, or a computer/tablet, and turn on your creativity.