Students listen for tone and voice in poetry during Professor Barbara Lawhorn’s “Dear Poet” workshop

On Monday, February 5th, Western Illinois University (WIU) hosted the 9th annual Writing Festival. The event took place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.. Attendees included almost 160 students from eight different high schools, as well as their teachers. This year, the festival offered 22 different workshops from 15 WIU professors and four high school teachers.

The workshops were interactive, encouraging students to write on various topics throughout their time at the event. Examples of workshops at this year’s festival were:

• “Dear Poet” with Professor Barbara Lawhorn.
  • Students listened to three poems read aloud by their writers. Students were asked to think about tone and voice within these poems. They were then encouraged to write letters to the poets about their poems. 
• “Dream Notebook” with Dr. Jacque Wilson.
  • Students were asked to write a poem about one of their dreams. Afterward, they shared their work and were asked to interpret their dreams using the Internet and Dream Dictionary.
• “Unexpected Events” with Mr. Daniel Kopping.
  • Students were given note cards depicting a random event and asked to write about it. After a few minutes, they were given another note card, containing another event. They were asked to tie this into their story. The process was repeated one more time. Then students were encouraged to share. 
• “The Secret of Creative Writing” with Dr. Merrill Cole.
  • Students were taught about poetry techniques and then asked to write haikus. They were encouraged to write their haikus on a whiteboard which allowed other students to read their work. 

Throughout the years, the festival has progressed in many ways. According to Dr. Alisha White, the Writing Festival began in 2013 at the Multicultural Center. Since then, the number of students attending has been growing and the event has been moved to the University Union. This year was especially unique, this is because the event expanded its location to the Malpass Library and the Art Gallery. Additionally, several WIU students volunteered to take the high schoolers on campus tours. The number of workshops offered has increased as well, originally having roughly nine, to now over 20. Also this year, the 2024 Writing Festival did not have a writing contest, which is different from past years.

Students that I spoke with expressed interest in returning to the event next year and even attending WIU for college. It was an overall success for WIU’s English Department. Special thanks go to Dr. Rebekah Buchanen and Dr. Alisha White for organizing the event, the professors and teachers who held workshops, and the WIU students who volunteered to provide campus tours.