Lindsey J. Cropper Series

Nicole Kuhn | Arts and Culture | USD Vista

Every year the English Department prepares their creative writing students for the annual Lindsay J. Cropper Memorial Writers Series.

The English Department website states: “This series was created to inspire the creative writer in all of us. The Lindsay J. Cropper Memorial Writers series and The Lindsay J. Cropper Center for Creative Writing were established in 2004 by Barrie and Dorothy Cropper in memory of their daughter Lindsay, an alumna of USD, English major and aspiring writer.”

English majors who are completing the emphasis in Creative Writing read a three-minute excerpt of their choice of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction writing.

This year’s readers included Grace McDonald, Bee Carucci, Maddison Nelson, Ben Friedl, Elisabeth Smith, Mary Berset, Cait Imhoff, Chris Koo, Teddy Castro, Larissa Rogers, Quinn Cain, Riley Nork, Erin Behrens, and Dom Shank.

Senior Teddy Castro read a piece called “Live for You” about his grandmother.

“I chose to read that one (“Live for You”) out of all my works because I thought it was one of my only pieces that I could take a section from and have it still make sense,” Castro said. “It’s also about my grandmother, and she’s neat.”

Ending the night, Castro reflected that he was glad to have participated in the Cropper Series.

“It was nice to have the experience of reading a piece of my own work to people — especially with other graduating seniors within the creative writing This was also the first time I worked on creative writing pieces extensively, and I was   able to learn about what worked or didn’t work for me.”

Senior Chris Koo explained that the hardest part was reading the excerpt in front of everyone.

“I was a bit anxious at both how many people were attending to listen to us, and how many students were reading at the Cropper Series,” Koo said. “I had to practice reading my story a ton beforehand so I wouldn’t mess up, and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Overall, I think it was a great experience, and I’m honored to have taken a part in it.”

After graduation Koo will be traveling abroad in Asia and is looking to pursue jobs abroad in teaching.

Senior Ben Friedl read an excerpt from a piece called “Piazza.”

“The piece was my attempt at writing travel literature, as I wrote about my study abroad experience in Florence, Italy,” Friedl said. “More specifically, the story was about my experience of being immersed in Italian culture and the huge impact Italian culture and way of life has had on my daily life.”

Friedl chose the emphasis in Creative Writing because it contributed to his major in English and was the closest thing to a journalistic major at the school.

“While there are definitely aspects of journalism that go into writing long form, nonfiction pieces, I would say that the emphasis was not what I initially expected it to be,” Friedl said. “In journalism, the responsibility to report information is usually at the forefront of the writing. Whereas in nonfiction creative writing, the author is given a lot more authoritative, creative, and artful agency. This freedom from constraint is something I have really enjoyed and believe is something that has contributed to my improvement as a writer.”

Friedl added that the emphasis has been a great attribution to his learning process, especially as a writer.

“To me, the emphasis has been a great opportunity to work with other writers who are all striving to improve their own work,” Friedl said. “I have been unbelievably fortunate to listen and learn from the other students in my creative writing classes. They are all fantastic writers and being able to work collaboratively with people as smart as them has contributed to my own writing abilities immensely.”

The reading ended with an announcement of the  Lindsay J. Cropper Creative Writing Contest Winners. The fiction submissions were judged by Fall 2017 Cropper reader and fiction writer Brit Bennett, and the creative nonfiction submissions were judged by nonfiction writer Nicole Sheets.

The contest included categories of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. The winners and runners-up included: Samantha Strauss (runner-up, fiction), Maddison Nelson (winner, fiction), Ben Friedl (runner-up, nonfiction), Grace McDonald (winner, nonfiction), Larissa Rogers (winner, poetry), and not pictured: Joe Duffy (runner-up, poetry). The winners of each category were selected to feature their work in Fall 2018 issue of The Alcalá Review.

Senior Grace McDonald started off the night by reading a nonfiction piece about her father called “Tell Your Dad the Worst Thing That Has Ever Happened To You.”

“It was an emotional story to write but I felt confident reading it because the Cropper Series and the Creative Writing Emphasis give us a celebratory and welcoming platform to share our stories, whatever they may be,” Mcdonald said.

McDonald will graduate in May and is still deciding what to do after school ends, but will continue to keep writing.

“By nature of what creative writing is, sharing something you’ve worked so hard on with any audience is a very vulnerable place to put yourself in,” McDonald said. “All the students in the Creative Writing Emphasis read such beautiful and honest pieces; I’m glad I read first because I wouldn’t have wanted to follow any one of them.”

The annual writers series ended with a room full of students and faculty cheering on the group of creative writers. Everyone celebrated the students’ successes with desserts at a reception that followed their readings.