National Day on Writing

The National Day on Writing event, sponsored by the Madonna Library, the Writing Center, and Madonna Pen, is our excuse for a Halloween party. It's certainly a festive event, complete with Halloween candy, mostly Dollar Store prizes, a cheesehead, frequent readings, dismembered fingers, round-robin stories, and other nonsense. But there is an academic purpose: Librarian Carol Vandenburg and Writing Center Coordinator Frances FitzGerald want to reach out to students in a comfortable and light-hearted environment. And, in fact, we do get a number of students who need some guidance in both research and writing.

Naturally, the following several entries (up until Matthew Tochman's poetry) are hardly academic discourse. But if students enjoyed writing them, then their academic assignments might become a little less daunting. A few may even discover the joy of writing and research.