Sandy Longhorn, Undergraduate Creative Writing Program Coordinator, speaks during the Sweet 15! event.
In honor of 15 years of the Bachelor of Arts in creative writing, the University of Central Arkansas Programs in Creative Writing hosted a “Sweet 15!” celebration with presentations, an open mic and a reception.
Founded in 2009, the program offers the widest variety of creative writing classes in the state of Arkansas. At its beginning, the creative writing program served about 50 students. Now, 145 students are either majoring or minoring in creative writing.
The Sweet 15! was hosted on Tuesday, Nov. 19.
“I still remember the day when the provost asked me if I would accept the task of creating a creative writing program. I said, ‘Yes,’ and never looked back,” said Terry Wright, retired dean of the former College of Fine Arts and Communication, which is now the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
Stephanie Vanderslice, professor of creative writing, said her greatest accomplishment has been seeing the success of her students after they graduate.
“I’ve stayed in touch with many of them and they’re doing great, living their best lives. It makes me really proud to see that,” Vanderslice said. “The students in this program are remarkable. I feel very fortunate to be teaching them and I always have.”
In addition to fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and script writing, students can take classes in novel writing, writing for children, writing for graphic novels and video games, editing and publishing, teaching creative writing and more.
Tom Williams, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, said the creative writing major at UCA is not only a unique program in Arkansas but high quality.
“Students have the assurance of excellent academic experience in the classroom, but also the variety of experiences external to the classroom, which I defy you to find anywhere inside Arkansas and really in contiguous states and beyond that, to find opportunities to work on literary magazines, with Arkana and Vortex, the opportunity to work with the Arkatext reading series, working with the artist in residence reading series and even more beyond,” Williams said.
Through the various classes offered in the program, Vanderslice said students gain important skills directly applicable to the 21st-century landscape.
“They know how to give feedback and how to work together to make any piece of writing better. They know how to brainstorm and optimize creative solutions to writing problems,” Vanderslice said.
Anna Yanosick, a senior creative writing major, said she has always felt a sense of belonging in her creative writing classes.
“I never feel like an outsider in a creative writing class,” Yanosick said. “The professors work hard to maximize students’ comfort and shape an environment where everyone is welcome as they are, but encouraged to grow to their fullest potential.”
Wright said the creative writing program is his proudest accomplishment.
“Sometimes, when I drink my morning coffee and rock on my porch, I think about a certain look I used to see on students’ faces, often in an Introduction to Creative Writing class. It signaled I did or said something that turned a student’s creativity firehose full on for likely the first time. I called it ‘The Epiphany Look,’” Wright said. “I hope, at this moment, there is a student sitting in a creative writing class at UCA who is wearing that unmistakable look.”
