CONWAY, Ark. (April 6, 2017) – Hendrix College creative writing students and MFA writing students from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks recently published
Delight
& Surprise
, a collection of placed-based essays.
The students’ essays span the globe from the Susquehanna River to the Wasatch Mountains, from Dandong in North Korea to the Swiss Alps, from the Amazon River to the Mississippi Delta, and from the suburbs of Little Rock, Arkansas, to an outhouse in Fairbanks, Alaska.
"The opportunity to share a personal essay with a stranger made Delight
& Surprise exciting and intellectually stimulating for both Hendrix and Alaska-Fairbanks students,” said Hendrix English professor Dr. Tyrone Jaeger. “I want our creative writing students see that their work exists and has importance beyond the classroom
setting, and I think that was the main objective of the exercise, for students to partake in a literary conversation out in the world."
The project is an extension of UAF writing professor
Daryl Farmer’s 2016 week-long residency at Hendrix. The residency also inspired "Writing the Travel Experience," an Odyssey project that included six students.
The residency and collaborative project were both coordinated by Dr. Jaeger and supported by the
Hendrix-Murphy Foundations Programs in Literature and Language.
Participating
Hendrix students included:
- Amanda Ayers ’17
- Ellie Black ’18
- Meg Boyles ’17
- Anna Conard ’17
- Jackson Fitzgibbon ’17
- Steven Hulsey ’17
- Anushah Jiwani ’17
- Marie Kressin ’17 (copy editor)
- Colin Martell ’18
- Sabre Nester ’18
- Isabelle Pfeffer ’18
- Tori Walters ’17
Students were asked to write about a small moment where they discovered something about the place they live or had once lived, a moment where they were surprised or delighted or both. After writing a first draft, the writers discussed their drafts with students at their home institution.
Later, after another round of revision, the students from Hendrix and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks exchanged work, offering critical feedback of one another’s essays. Students again revised and submitted to their instructors. More revision ensued.
About
the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language
The Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language are designed to enhance and enrich the study and teaching of literature and language at Hendrix College. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu/hendrixmurphy.
About
Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges That Change
Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges and is nationally recognized in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings for academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.