The Bolton Writing Workshop

by Lisa Beans

Sonnets and flash fiction and memoirs, oh my! Once a month in eight residence halls around campus, West Virginia University students are getting down to the business of creative writing. The Bolton Creative Writing Workshops give MFA students the opportunity to lead undergraduate students in the creation of original writing. The writing focuses around the first year experience at WVU. Topics include the idea of home, the PRT and favorite places around campus. A recent workshop led by second year MFA student, Rebecca Thomas, imagined a Halloween themed WVU: professors, roommates, friends as vampires, zombies and werewolves. Within a span of an hour or two, students created their own work from scratch and had the opportunity to share it with their peers.

Mary Ann Samyn, Creative Writing professor, is the Bolton Professor for Teaching and Mentoring. She started the program in 2008 after being awarded the professorship, a three-year appointment. It was renewed this year, which mean the workshops will continue through 2014. Russel K. Bolton and Ruth Buffington Bolton, WVU alumni, established the Bolton Professorship to improve freshman writing. Samyn’s main goal for the workshops are for the students and leaders to have fun which will in turn lead to improvements in writing. It also gives students perhaps the only opportunity to learn about creative writing as their schedules might not give them the opportunity to enroll in creative writing classes.

This is a great opportunity for the MFA students. The workshops give them the chance to improve their skills of leading workshop and teaching creative writing. Samyn stated of the graduate student workshop leaders, “They’re enthusiastic teachers; they especially want to teach [creative writing].”

Samyn would like to point out that the workshops could not happen without the help of the Resident Hall Advisors and Resident Faculty Leaders in each dorm who promote the workshops, provide food, and often attend and participate in the workshops.

With all the demands on first year students, it’s a great chance for students to take time out of their busy schedule and create art. Also, as many first year classes are large, lecture style classes, students appreciate the one-on-one attention they receive in the workshops. Samyn stated, “More than once, undergrads have told me, at our end-of-semester readings, to continue the workshops, please, because they don’t have any other place where they can write or any other group of people with whom they can share their work. That means a lot.”

Read more about the Bolton Writing Workshop on the Bolton’s blog. Make sure to check the Bolton Blog for information about the end of the semester reading in December. For more information contact Mary Ann Samyn.