Michigan State University Associate Professor of English Divya Victor had long noticed that writing students didn’t have a space on campus where they could feel comfortable and centered to fully concentrate on their thoughts and words.
“Writing is a somatic practice, which means it integrates the body, the mind, society, and the environment we live and work within,” Victor said. “Arts practice for our students is a form of labor. As arts and culture workers in training, they deserve spaces where their ‘bodyminds’ are acknowledged and supported.”
Being a poet and director of the MSU Creative Writing Program, Victor understands how a physical environment can affect and encourage the practice of writing, and she led the effort to create the Writers’ Studio in Wells Hall as a way foster students’ writing and creative work.
“The creative arts are an indispensable path to the very core of what makes life worth living – democracy, freedom, dignity for all peoples. The Writers’ Studio is one very small way in which we send students that message,” Victor said.
Access to the Writers’ Studio, in room C704, is available for any emerging writers, their collaborators, and their mentors through an online form. Developed to be a welcoming environment, the space contains comfortable chairs, writing desks, computers, snacks, and a growing library of books and writing prompts to inspire.
In addition to individual use, the Writers’ Studio is available for small groups to use. Tim Conrad, assistant professor of English, has found the space conducive to discussions and work with students in his “Advanced Creative Nonfiction” class this semester.
“Writing is the cause of thought, not the end product,” Conrad said. “A lot of the spaces we’re trying to create for students are open spaces, generative spaces, spaces in which they can study literature deeply, look closely at the decisions other people made, but then also be figuring out what they have to say as they learn the craft of writing.”
Coordinated effort
Victor first brought the idea to create a Writers’ Studio to English Chair and Professor Justus Nieland about a year ago along with a proposal including the design, color palettes, and fabric swatches. Faculty, staff, and students in the MSU Department of English helped make the new space a reality this fall.
“Like many departments, ours experienced the negative effects of the COVID pandemic on students’ sense of community and belonging. The Writers’ Studio will be a vital space for our student writers and artists to connect, collaborate, and create together,” Nieland said. “A thriving creative writing community is an essential part of the power of the arts and humanities to make our campus and world more meaningful, beautiful, and just.”
Isabell Ku, a sophomore majoring in English and French, was one of the volunteers getting the Writers’ Studio ready for the October launch. She said it was beautiful to watch different creatives working together to set up this space for students.
“The space exudes creativity, and it beckons you to sit down to do the same,” Ku said. “It can be difficult meeting other writers in the wild, so knowing that you can walk in and potentially meet someone new is a lovely thing.”
“A thriving creative writing community is an essential part of the power of the arts and humanities to make our campus and world more meaningful, beautiful, and just.”Justus Neiland, professor and chair of the Department of English
For English sophomore Eve Dowding, the Writers’ Studio offers a sense of belonging, as well as a place to write and interact with like-minded people.
“There’s a sort of comfort in knowing that the space is inhabited and kept up by a community that I’m a part of that I don’t really feel in many other places,” Dowding said. “It helps the Creative Writing program feel more accessible and close.”
Creative writing at MSU
The MSU Creative Writing Program offers a range of opportunities for students to learn in class and through author visits, writing sessions, editing and publishing events, and mentorship opportunities. Students majoring in English can choose Creative Writing as one of four concentrations and it’s offered as a minor.
When Victor became Director of the Creative Writing program in 2022, she created the Living/Breathing/Writing vision that’s intertwined with the program and supports holistic student development and engagement through community building, collaboration, and mentorship.
Interest in Creative Writing has been growing in the last few years. In fall 2024, more than 90 of 400 English students chose the Creative Writing concentration, up almost 20% from fall 2023.
Space in class and places like the Writers’ Studio can help frame an experience for Creative Writing students that supports and facilitates writing and sharing work with each other.
“It makes sense to me thinking about space as both a physical thing and sort of a psychological and academic thing,” Conrad said. “Creative writing is deeply experiential, so you’re constantly doing it as you’re learning about it. It’s being comfortable enough and feeling secure enough that you can then take other risks.”
In addition to the new writing space, English and MSU students can participate in Creative Writing-sponsored co-curricular opportunities some of which include the Red Cedar Review literary journal and the MSU Creative Writing Club registered student organization.
The Creative Writing program also leads the Living/Breathing/Writing Series of annual readings and performances open to students and the public. During the fall semester, five authors and artists talked with students and the MSU community about their creative practice and work. Another seven events are planned for the spring semester.
“We host international, national, and regional writers and hyphenated practitioners who are musicians and activists,” Victor said. “The scale of collaboration is larger now and we are hoping to, in the next two years, find conscious and respectful ways of engaging organizations in the greater Lansing community.”
Community building
The MSU Creative Writing Club is another opportunity for students to connect with each other.
“Students take classes for lots of reasons, but you go to a creative writing club, and there’s a fairly reasonable assumption everybody there has chosen this, and they would like to be in community together,” said Conrad, who is also the Faculty Advisor of the club. “You get to nerd out a little.”
The Creative Writing Club is run by MSU students and hosts writing sessions, organizes open mic readings, and encourages a sense of community among writers no matter what their major may be.
“The Creative Writing Club has allowed me to make so many new friends and connections, while also showcasing just how much our campus has to offer in terms of writing and creativity,” said Jordan Ivonen, a junior majoring in English and part of club’s executive board as the events coordinator.
Ivonen added that the Writers’ Studio is a great new creative resource on campus and a consistent place she can work in individually or with a group.
“The studio offers a place of stability and comfort that enables me to sink into my creativity and let my ideas flow more freely,” Ivonen said.
To Victor, the Writers’ Studio represents one way to support building a culture at MSU that dignifies and elevates the creative work of students as essential and important to our collective future.
“We need to send a clear message to our students that when they are part of the people doing this work, we will have their backs — both literally, with comfy chairs, and also spiritually, in how we teach them as whole persons who belong to a body politic, who are actively shaping access to civil rights and freedoms for more of us around the globe,” she said. “Our future depends on the joy, pleasures, communion and well-being of our younger generation.”
To see the original story and photos visit College of Arts and Letters website.
