If the first year of the Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan was about building new programs from within, Year Two has focused on expanding their impact outward.
Having spent 2023 building up their reputations on Washington University’s campus, representatives from two of the Strategic Plan’s strategic initiatives visited the 2024 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference and Bookfair this February to expand their networking circle.
The Center for the Literary Arts and Program in Public Scholarship each had a presence at the event, which serves as a premier gathering place for authors, publishers, and educators.
As relative newcomers on the scene, both CLA and PPS staff were looking to put their names on the map – CLA as a hub for exciting literary ideas, and PPS as a resource for academics seeking to reach broader public audiences. Both programs made valuable connections at the conference.
“I was also able to spread the word about our program to dozens of editors, who were excited to know we exist and to learn more about our work,” said Liz Wolfson, the Program in Public Scholarship’s media specialist. “It was encouraging that nearly everyone I spoke with recognized the value of our program for scholars and editors alike, and that they recognized WashU as setting a new standard for institutionalized support of public-facing scholarship.”
In addition to its presence at the conference, the Center for the Literary Arts hosted an offsite reading event for graduate students in the WashU creative writing MFA program and in the International Writers Track PhD program, aiming to spur connections and collaborations between the two groups. The event attracted several dozen attendees, evenly split between the two programs.
“I loved seeing students from the two different programs listening to one another’s work and talking to one another afterwards,” said Ashley Colley, CLA postdoctoral fellow. “This is really what the CLA is about – bringing literary arts communities together. We have so many amazing writers, translators, and creatives at WashU and in St. Louis – getting them talking to one another is one of our major goals.”
