GEM-C Writers of Columbus State Carry on a Legacy
GEM-C Writers of Columbus State Carry on a Legacy
By: claycormany in Writing
In my 16 years of service as a tutor and instructor at Columbus State Community College, I have had the honor of working with many outstanding individuals. The late Karen D’Arbanville was one such individual. Karen was one of the most innovative people I have ever met. She was the driving force behind Columbus State’s annual writers conference and the organizer of the Saturday Writers Workshop, a critique group that met on the college’s main campus. Together, she and I administered a visiting authors program from 2005-2007, an initiative made possible by a grant Karen applied for and won.
Under Karen’s leadership, the Saturday Writers Workshop completed a chapbook in the summer of 2004. It included writings from nearly all the workshop’s active members as well as several CSCC faculty. The chapbook wasn’t put up for sale. Instead, we donated copies to coffee shops, doctors’ waiting rooms, and similar places.
Karen suffered from heart and lung ailments that ultimately took her life in the winter of 2008. Before she died, I promised to bring back the Saturday Writers Workshop, which by then had stopped meeting. I made good on that promise in the summer of 2009 with a gathering in the basement of Nestor Hall that drew about 15 participants. There were one or two students among them, but most were local residents. Since then, meeting attendance has fluctuated with some writers dropping out or moving, and new ones coming aboard. Our meeting location has also bounced around some, but the group now seems to have found a home in the Communication Department’s Conference Room on the lower level of Union Hall.
The biggest change has been in the group’s name. Although it still meets one Saturday a month, the workshop is now known as the GEM-C Writers of Columbus State. The four letters summarize what we do:
Greet
Eat
Meet
Critique
A typical meeting starts around 12:30 pm on the third or fourth Saturday of the month. Cookies, crackers, chicken wings, chicken salad, veggies, fruit, and other snacks are shared, and each member updates the others on his or her recent writing adventures. While we eat (or after we’re finished), the critiquing starts. Longer submissions that were distributed the previous month or via e-mail are tackled first. Then the focus shifts to shorter pieces brought in on the day of the meeting. Lately, GEM-C Writers’ meetings have included a discussion about publishing a second chapbook or anthology that would include works from all current members. A theme of “Lost and Found” was selected for the anthology and, as of today, 16 poems, essays, short stories, and memoirs have been offered for inclusion.
I have enjoyed facilitating the GEM-C Writers and becoming better acquainted with the six or seven people who form the group’s core. Professor Rita Bova has been a great help in providing leadership to our members while Communication Department Chair Doug Gray deserves much credit for making his department’s conference room available to us. I’m not sure what the future holds for the GEM-C Writers, but I think Karen would be pleased with how far we have come since she left us.
Tags: anthology, critique, GEM-C, Karen, Saturday
The critiquing is honest and presented in a respectful manner in this group. A great gathering that provides the opportunity for writers to interact with others of like mind.