For the week of April 12-16,
Bucks alumni and faculty will
gather for “Writing for Our
Lives,” a part of theWordsmith
Reading Series, to share the
rewards and challenges of
writing with students and the
community.
Dr. Christopher Bursk,
Bucks literature professor,
hopes that students will be
inspired. “A number of the
people who will be speaking,
the authors, were sitting in
their seats. they got their start
here at Bucks.”
Over the course of the week,
poets, novelists, journalists,
biographers, and others who
have made writing their career
will give talks such as
“Making Sense Out of History:
Poetry as a Way of Healing,”
and “Creating Worlds,
Creating a New American
Literature.”
“We’ll have a wonderful mix
of people speaking,” says Dr.
Bursk. “We’ll have a historian,
we’ll have a tattoo artist.
we’ll have a Hollywood
screenwriter, who has worked
on a project with Jim Carrey.”
Authors speaking have written
books entitled “Offerings from
the Bloody Bucket,” “The
Science of Superman,” and
“Creole Cats Meet Hurricane
Katrina.”
The week is in memory of
Beverly Foss Stoughton, a former
Bucks student who
returned to as an adjunct professor
and became Bucks Poet
Laureate. Professors Stan
Heim and Lou Camp will also
be honored, as well as winner
of the poetry contest in their
name, Laura Eleanor
Holloway, a math major.
Though these authors’ works
have been published, as speakers
they will focus on the craft
itself, honing in on single
pages of their books and getting
into the specific “nuts and
bolts.” Writers of every sort
will find something valuable to
take away from these presentations.
Many resources exist on
campus for those interested in
writing. The Bucks studentrun
newspaper, the Centurion,
is one avenue.
Also available is the Tyler
Literary Society, which will be
hosting a coffee house at 12:30
PM on Tuesday, April 13 in the
Fireside Lounge.
The society is always looking
for members to discuss and
explore writing together.
Finally, Bucks offers
Creative Writing courses. Six
of the “Writing for Our Lives”
alumni speakers took either a
Creative Writing or Poetry
course at Bucks.
Asked for advice he can offer
to fledgling writers, Dr. Bursk
says that they should just
throw themselves into it.
“Write. Just enjoy it, don’t
second guess yourself too
much.” He says the pleasure in
writing is getting caught up in
one’s work and being excited
about it.
“We are a community of
writers, and that includes the
alumni, it includes the faculty,
but also includes the students.”
Dr. Bursk stresses the importance
of support from fellow
writers.
Of the speakers, Dr. Bursk
says that some of them might
not have seen themselves
becoming published authors,
but that is how they ended up.
One of the most important
messages of the event is, “If
they can do it, you can, too!”
A full schedule of presentations
can be found at
http://www.bucks.edu/journali
sm/bursk.htm and in the
“Writing for Our Lives” flyers
around campus. Note that all
events are held at the Newtown
Campus in the Fireside
Lounge, except for those on
Friday, April 16, which take
place at the Lower Bucks
Campus.