The Daily O’Collegian

Finding a great author of the past is easy but finding one of the future is the hard part.

Taking a look at Oklahoma State Creative Writers’ Association is a place start.

The Creative Writers’ Association is a group of students, predominately graduate students, who want to become published writers and poets.

President Louis Sylvester, a graduate student, views the organization as much more than a group that gets together for poetry readings.

“It is a group of writers getting together to share their craft. We encourage each other to write poetry and fiction,” said Sylvester. “We also encourage each other to get published and start our careers as writers.”

Although the vast majority of the members involved in the Creative Writers’ Association are graduate students, Sylvester is adamant about serious undergraduate writer to join because it is not an organization solely for graduate students.

Next year’s President, Labecca Jones, welcomes all to the group those interested in creative writing.

“It is important to bring together people of different experience,” Jones, a graduate student said.

The Creative Writers’ Association, which has been in existence over a decade according to Sylvester, is a rare environment where writers can grow.

“I like to think it is a very important tool. You can go online and have an online community but this is a great place for students to meet face to face,” Sylvester said. “For me I can’t ask my mom and dad to read my stories, so I need people who are local that can help me out and in turn I helm them out.”

Meeting at various times through the year, the Creative Writers’ Association hosted crowds of about fifty that came to hear published authors and students alike read their fiction and poetry. Even though Sylvester feels the events were successful, he knows that the numbers don’t represent the number of creative writers at Oklahoma State,

“There is a level of laziness [in writers]. Writers have a tendency to dwell by themselves and write,” Sylvester said. “It can be difficult to for us to get out and interact. The problem being in a comfort zone but you get out of the comfort zone [with the Creative Writers’ Association].”

Not only is the Creative Writers’ Association helping its members, Sylvester feels they are helping out the literary world too. The group discusses what is going in the world of fiction and poetry and in a way breaks cycles by encouraging each other to take risks within their writing.

With this school year coming to an end, future president is already looking toward the 2008-09 chapter in the Creative Writers’ Association’s history.

“We should be pretty busy,” Jones said. “We are thinking about trying to get a publication together for our graduate writers among others things.”

Writers interested in joining the Creative Writers’ Association and being apart of ‘Creative Writers’ Association’s readings can contact Sylvester at louis.sylvester@gmail.com.