By Isabelle Callan — Contributor

         Bishop’s University should form a creative writing club. While there is an English literature club, it is focused largely on events such as escape rooms. I believe that the addition of a creative writing club could allow students to focus on their individual projects with the help of their peers. There is a class next semester on creative writing. However, it will likely be focused through the lens of assignments and is not offered every semester.

         Having a club that allows students to work on long-term projects could also increase the number of submissions to The Mitre. Similarly, professors from the English department can be invited to the meetings to help foster growth in students’ creativity.

         This club would not replace the English literature club, since it would be focused on another element of literature and writing. I believe it is important to form clubs that are based around a shared hobby rather than a shared identity. The reason for this is that unless there is an obvious activity to do, the club must constantly come up with new activities that often don’t relate to their theme. Without a strong unifying hobby, clubs can decline in popularity until they have very few members.

         For instance, the skating club is experiencing exponential growth because they have a strong and unique activity for its members. A creative writing club would function similarly since it holds a wide range of types of creativity. The inherent variety that comes with creative writing allows students to connect with the club through many different forms of writing. In addition, the club would require almost no budget at all. With the presence of teachers occasionally joining meetings for talks, the club can offer a high-quality experience at a very low cost.

         I believe this club would be beneficial to campus culture and would produce far more creative writing on the Bishop’s campus. This would increase submissions to The Mitre as well as the Arts and Culture section of The Campus newspaper. Similarly, it could bring about the presence of live readings during events on campus that focus on art and creativity.

         I believe that this club’s finances could eventually focus on publishing collections of creative works by students several times a year, enriching campus culture and sparking the careers of aspiring writers.