Creative Writing Committee Meeting

March 20, 2025

3pm, Room C317 (with remote access)

In Attendance: Robert Cowan; Amy Karp; John Keller; Maxine Krenzel; Jennifer Oliveri; Frank Percaccio; Andie Sheridan; Julie Turley; Eben Wood

Agenda

1. Greetings, Announcements
2. Spring Activities
   1. Kimiko Hahn Reading in April: Updates, Publicity, etc. (Rob Cowan)

Rob Cowan presented a reminder of the reading co-sponsored by the Lit. Committee, of which Rob is chair, and the CWP. Queens College poets Kimiko Hahn and Nicole Cooley will be reading on Thursday 4/22 at 3pm (Rob will confirm the room). As CUNY faculty the readers cannot be given an honorarium, but Rob offered to provide car fare for each to campus. Eben Wood noted that those who wished and are able could help defray the out-of-pocket cost of that car fare. Helen Nasser has been able to purchase 4 copies of books by the readers to raffle to students who attend.

• Open Mic?

In our last fall term 2024 meeting, there was some interest in sponsoring a student open mic during the spring term. Anyone interested in organizing this event should contact Eben Wood (see item below on CW Club advisor).

• Creative Writing Club Advisor and Student Life Information

Student Life and student clubs are slowly being revived post-pandemic. The Creative Writing Club, sometimes known as the Poetry Club, has been dormant since that time. In the past, junior faculty members have generally taken on this role out of interest and for the service to college credit on their c.v. Amy Karp currently has a student who is a former youth poet laureate of NYC and has expressed interest in re-starting the club. Since our meeting yesterday, adjunct faculty member Andie Sheridan, a recent hire, has expressed interest. Eben Wood will contact the Office of Student Life to get pertinent information on requirements to re-start the club and provide that info. to Andie.

• Antheon

Tony Iantosca is continuing as English Dept. faculty advisor to KCC’s literary and arts journal, Antheon. He will provide updates on the journal’s rolling deadline and submission link.

• Department Display Case Updates

Per the item below on the Liberal Arts CW Concentration, we are finishing the concentration maps for LA use with a QR code to the CW page on the KCC website. With that information we can move forward to finalize design or layout for the CW-designated display case outside the department office, to be completed in the next few weeks.

• Pathways development updates for ENG 58: Creative Writing Non-Fiction

Work to revise the Pathways proposal for ENG 58 is ongoing; anyone interested in assisting Eben Wood with this revision process, with help from non-CW faculty with expertise in the Pathways process, should contact him. This work will be completed by the end of Spring 2025 term.

• Liberal Arts Concentration updates for CWP

With the help of our department admin. assistant Madeline Trice, who has completed 3 sample designs, we are finishing the concentration maps for LA use with a QR code to the CW page on the KCC website. As program director, Eben Wood will be meeting with other LA Concentration directors (including Rob Cowan as Lit. director) and LA chair Jacob Segal on 4/4 to discuss next steps.

• CWP Governance Format and CWC Participation

Robert Cowan informed us that the Lit. Committee has adopted a 3-year leadership term and committee election cycle. We agreed in discussion that finalizing a similar cycle, to coincide with that of the Lit. Committee, was a good idea to encourage new leadership and provide leadership experience to active CWC participants. Members were reminded to sign up for service on the committee during the committee enrollment period at the start of the academic year if they’ve not done so. We will finalize this leadership and governance format in our next meeting, which will be scheduled for shortly after Spring Break.

• Enrollment and Course Offerings

We continue to face challenges with enrollment in our limited course offerings. Rob Cowan has initiated discussion with KCC staff to develop short video and other publicity materials for display on the large screen monitors throughout campus and elsewhere, following the advice given to him and Eben Wood in a Fall 2024 meeting of area directors with Advisement staff. Info on courses as well as the concentration map and QR code will shortly be displayed in the vitrine outside the department office. Amy Karp raised the issue of modality with courses and the sense that there is pressure within the college for in-person modality, but that students clearly seem to continue to prefer online modalities. Rob Cowan noted that in a recent College Council meeting, there was clear support for continued return to in-person courses. We agreed generally that this is an important issue and one that requires transparency and shared governance, as well as touching on issues of academic freedom. English Dept. chair Annie Del Principe has agreed to attend our next meeting, if schedules permit, to provide insight and participate in a discussion of this issue.

• Faculty Updates, Activities, Publications, etc.

Several faculty members shared updates on recent publications, including Frank Percaccio.

• Closing Remarks

The meeting ended at 4pm with Eben Wood’s reminder that the next CWC meeting will be scheduled for shortly after Spring Break, TBD.