April was National Poetry Month, and to celebrate, the library sponsored Creative Compilations: A Celebration of the Spoken and Written Word. The event featured members of the Full Sail student body sharing poetry, short fiction, and lyrics in a performance style reading at The Treehouse. Online students were encouraged to submit print and video pieces, which were then exhibited alongside their campus counterparts. Audience members were able to vote on their favorite pieces, with winners in three categories taking home prizes at the end of the night.
“The idea to host this competition stemmed from a brainstorming session among library staff,” said Director of Library services Stephanie Maatta. “We were thinking about how we could celebrate our students and what they do, and we thought this would be a really nice tie-in to National Poetry Month. We wanted to do a complete celebration of the very creative environment that we’re in.”
Online student and Creative Writing MFA candidate Robert Rolon drove up from Miami for the event. He read a piece of flash fiction titled “To See Again,” which was inspired by something he experienced in class.
“I had just finished giving feedback to another student online, and in my feedback I told them I think compelling characters have some kind of duality to them, or a conflict that is intrinsically, emotionally charged. I posted some examples, and one of them was a painter who has gone blind. That was on my mind when I heard about the competition, so that’s what I wrote about,” he said.
Over 40 students submitted work to the competition. Based on the success of the reading, Stephanie said the library plans to host more events in the future, including a game tournament later this month and a comic books seminar in August.
“We’re very excited to provide a creative space for both campus and online students,” she said.