CREATIVITY LIVES AT WRITERS' HOUSE

The Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House magazine explodes into a multimedia project with a staff of 11 within two short weeks.

By Lauren Brown, TERP

When students in the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House announced in the fall that they wanted to create a community newsletter, Director Johnna Schmidt expected a “little zine” that would get distributed in bathroom stalls in Dorchester Hall.

Within two weeks, however, the staff numbered 11 and had built a website and a Facebook page, both featuring a variety of lively, timely stories about House events.

That’s the kind of creativity regularly pumped out by the Writers’ House, now celebrating its 10th anniversary. It offers the Writers Here and Now visiting author series, Terpoets open mic nights, the literary journal Stylus, a study abroad program in Chile and outreach activities.

“The Writers’ House creates this dynamic, hot molten core of student activity,” says Schmidt. “It’s like a group of literary activists who are continually redefining what it means to be a student of creative writing.”

The house, one of the university’s living and learning programs, is named for two writers with Maryland ties: Juan Ramón Jiménez, a Nobel Prize-winning former professor, and Katherine Anne Porter, who left a portion of her papers to the university.

Students across campus participate in its activities; Terpoets this year has attracted an Orthodox Jewish beat boxer, a dreadlock-wearing spoken word poet and a ukelele player.

Jihan Asher, a senior majoring in history, expects to volunteer again for Postcards from My Country, a Writers’ House program at nearby Northwestern High School. Maryland poetry students mentor newly emigrated teens who are learning English as a second language and want to write about their home countries.

“It was a little awkward and intimidating,” Asher says of her initial experience last year. “But the kids warmed up to us really quickly. Now they’re seasoned pros.”