Seven Northwestern creative writing majors were selected by the English Department to participate in the Poetry and Poetics Colloquium and Workshop’s new student mentor program, which launched Thursday at Evanston Township High School.
The concept behind the program, dubbed Poetry in the Schools, originated with the idea that creative writing majors could collaborate with the creative writing faculty at Northwestern to engage in a service project benefitting the local community, said program leader and NU English Prof. Mary Kinzie.
Poetry in the Schools will hopefully “engage a range of high school students, both those who excel and those who are struggling, in the liberating experience of reading and writing poetry,” Kinzie said.
The PPCW will hold hour-long workshops on Thursdays for three weeks. Prior to the first workshop, the high school students were given a packet of poems to be discussed.
“Some of the creative writing faculty is going to be lecturing at the beginning and then we will break off into groups to work with the kids,” said Mia Warren, Weinberg senior and mentor.
Warren said she hopes the program will inspire students to continue studying poetry at higher levels, but she also said the writing skills they learn will be beneficial even if they choose to pursue a different discipline.
“We mainly want to have them start generating work of their own,” Warren said. “It’s not really about analyzing poetry, but looking at it as a writer instead of a reader. That’s the ultimate purpose of this.”
Kinzie added that understanding poetry is essential to becoming a strong writer.
“Literary language and rhetoric begin with poetry; all the arts of language stem from it,” Kinzie said. “Reading and writing poetry prepares students to read and write prose as well.”
Communication senior and mentor Jonathan Ayala said he hopes the biggest lesson the students learn is the importance of writing on a daily basis.
“Even if it’s only 10 minutes a day, just make sure it’s a habit,” Ayala said. “Writing needs to occur every day.”
The mentors will be working with ETHS students to produce poetry that will be presented at Northwestern’s annual Spring Writer’s Festival in April. When the workshops end, the mentors will remain in touch with the students to revise and finalize the poems.
