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Southern Miss to Celebrate Student Writers Oct. 20 on Hattiesburg Campus

Fri, 10/17/2014 - 04:14pm | By: Ashlea Maddox

The University of Southern Mississippi is celebrating student writing during a month-long exhibition known as Eagles Write! and a public reading, an event that coincides with the National Day on Writing. The Department of English will host the reception and reading, which will take place Oct. 20 at 4 p.m. in the Polymer Science Auditorium on the Hattiesburg campus.

The goal of the Eagles Write! event is to recognize and celebrate students' writing and to give them the opportunity to see their work graphically expressed and showcased in an exhibition at the Cook Library Learning Commons.  Composition instructors nominated outstanding student essays from their individual classes, and winners were chosen in five categories: Expanded Composition, ENG 101, ENG 102, Honors Composition, and Digital/Creative. 

Joyce Inman, director of composition in the English department explained the goals of the event: "We want our students to know they are authors, and we want to celebrate their varied experiences with writing during their time at USM."

In addition to first-year composition entries, the Department of English partners with the Department of Art and Design in an effort to illustrate the significance of writing and text in all disciplines.  This year, Dori Griffin's ART 441 students designed posters acknowledging the works of various Mississippi authors.  The posters were judged by a committee of faculty in the Department of Art and Design.

Greg Housley of Purvis, Miss.; Justin Guillot of New Orleans; Armendia Hulsey of Hattiesburg; John Marshall Diffey of Long Beach Miss.; Joma Shelby of Gulfport, Miss.; and Cody Bass are the 2014 winners.

Diffey, winner of the Honors Composition award for his piece “What Children Can Learn From a Male Cinderella,” said Eagles Write! encourages him to continue writing.  “I previously viewed writing as a series of hills that I had to climb, but I now relate the process to my accomplishments that are waiting on the other side of these hills,” Diffey said.

“It's all about writing in different situations and disciplines,” Inman said. “I want students to know that when they find a topic about which they are passionate or curious, their efforts to write about that topic are worth celebrating.  And, at USM, we want to celebrate with them." 

For more information about Eagles Write! or other events in the College of Arts and Letters, visit http://artsandlettersnow.usm.edu.