Creative Writing in the Community

This course puts you and your writing in a poignant and meaningful context as you partner with community members to create and read a collaborative collection of works that is a venue for the voices of children at risk, the aging population, and persons with mental and physical disabilities. Creative Writing in the Community, ENG 409, is an opportunity to go out into the community and meet individuals who have stories to tell but are not often heard and/or whose voices are ignored or misunderstood.

This immersive learning course, which is directed and taught by Sean Lovelace, pairs students with partners via social service agencies in Muncie such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, CrownPointe Communities (a retirement community), Motivate Our Minds (an after-school tutoring program for elementary and middle school students), and Hillcroft Services Inc. (an organization that provides services for persons with mental and physical disabilities).

In this outstanding community-based creative writing program, you work in collaboration with a partner from a social service agency, meeting throughout the semester to write and revise your partner’s stories, forge friendships, and experiment with new content and techniques in writing.

Many students say that the course takes out them of their comfort zones as writers and as citizens of the community and that their performance and skill in both improve.