The smell of fresh-baked pies accompanied the clatter of keyboards during Kenyon’s take on National Write-In, a three-hour event on Dec. 7. More than 20 colleges and universities from around the nation participated.
At Kenyon, more than a dozen students took part in the write-in, putting pen to paper and fingers to keyboard in the Bemis Music Room above Peirce Hall. Most students typed away on imminently due papers, a few worked on sketches and some simply read.
“This is the first time Kenyon has done this,” said Jeanne Griggs, director of the writing center. “We had a dozen students for the first and last half hour but reached a high of 16.”
The writing center provided consultants to answer quick questions or to arrange for a more in-depth appointment after the write-in.
Peter Thomson ’18, an undeclared major from Cincinnati, found the write-in to be productive and a pleasant change of scenery from his usual writing milieu. “I was working on my revisions for an essay assigned in Professor [Thomas] Hawks’s metafiction class. I very much enjoy the Bemis Music Room — I’ve always thought the openness of the place alongside its furnishings made for a much more relaxed space than the bowels of Olin.”
By Matthew Eley '15