When they’re not writing, the Swarthmore Creative Writing Program (CWP) students are dancing.
Or, well, this may have been a one-time occurrence.
On Wednesday, Jan. 29, the CWP started the semester with a Spring 2025 Welcome Back Party and Reading in the Scheuer Room. Five writers and poets – Anoushka Narendra ‘25, Alexandra Carpenter ‘25, Ayla Schultz ‘25, Robert Bonner ‘26, and Devin Freeman-Robinson ‘25 – read their poetry or fiction generated from their Directed Creative Writing Project (DCWP) during the fall semester.
The event started at 6:00 p.m. with a reception offering various refreshments, including juices, chips and salsa, and a cheese board. Attendees were able to mingle, chat, and put their names into a free book raffle for “The Message” by Ta-Nehisi Coates at a table manned by Creative Writing Program Intern Milla Ben-Ezra.
After the reception, the attendees gathered for a rendition of the Electric Slide at the front of the room, which was enthusiastically led by Jeannine Osayande, better known as Mama Jeannine, who is an associate in performance in the Music and Dance Department. She referenced the words of Visiting Assistant Professor Dilruba Ahmed, who asserted that much of what students need to understand about metrical verse is embodied in a repetitive, expressive dance like the Electric Slide.
Professor Ahmed read a quote by Christian Wiman before the reading began: “Let us remember … that in the end we go to poetry and fiction for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them … ”
During the fall semester, three students completed the DCWP in fiction under the guidance of Visiting Assistant Professor Moriel Rothman-Zecher, and three students studied poetry under Professor Ahmed’s guidance. One student is currently abroad, so there were five students presenting.
Students’ work ranged in subject matter, including poetry or fiction reflecting on dirt, bodies, appetite, validation, cats, asbestos, and more. There were over 50 audience members at the reading, with hardly enough chairs for everyone.
Freeman-Robinson, a psychology major and English minor, completed the DCWP with a focus on poetry. He describes his collection as focusing on “human connection on the most basic level” and the ways in which people react to shared situations.
“I’m thinking of the title being ‘Beyond Those Eyes’ or ‘Beyond These Eyes,’” he said. “You don’t really know what’s going on in someone’s head; there are these different perspectives that sort of distort what’s really going on . . . so that’s kind of the recurring theme.”
Freeman-Robinson acknowledged a recent shift in the Creative Writing Program, which he attributed to Professors Ahmed and Rothman-Zecher. He said, “You get more poetry parties, less of the stand-up sterile sort of environment where you read your poetry.” He added, “It’s really cool that there’s, you know, Rihanna playing right now.”
His psychology major influenced the theme of his poetry collection, which focuses on social psychology, and its implications for how people relate. As a current senior, Freeman-Robinson hopes to keep writing in the future, and one day release a chapbook or full collection.
Alexandra Carpenter, an English and math double major, focused on fiction within the DCWP, reading a portion of a short story she completed within a larger collection.
“I think a lot of my writing and thinking [is] about how people are navigating relationships and the social world around them,” she said. “I don’t write that many plot-y stories, I write stories that are more introspective and about people and their relationships and how they’re sorting through things.”
Regarding her experience working with Professor Rothman Zecher, Carpenter commented: “It was great, he’s the best. He is really supportive, he’s very open and non judgemental . . . I think that he treats writing as a very special thing, and as really valuable. It was helpful for me to frame my writing in that way.”
Carpenter “absolutely” recommends the DCWP to anyone considering writing as a career, or anyone who wants to generate a portfolio. “It’s a great experience,” she said.
Also a current senior, Carpenter is considering teaching English or possibly working in editing or publishing before looking to get an MFA someday.
The reading concluded with a raffle for Coates’ book; ten people received a free copy. Coates will conduct a reading and conversation on Monday, Feb. 10 at 5:30 p.m. in LPAC for those who wish to hear him discuss his book and its broader themes related to justice, identity, and history.
