Creative Writer Series features WSU Vancouver vice chancellor of Academic Affairs, Renny Christopher
The Creative Writers Series at WSU Vancouver offers an opportunity for students and the community who enjoy literature and storytelling to experience enriching tales from professionals who have a passion for writing and storytelling. This year’s series, organized by Associate Professor Pavithra Narayanan, features six award winning scholarly authors from different fields of writing, each having a unique personal history intertwined in their writing.
Renny Christopher, WSU Vancouver vice chancellor of Academic Affairs and the first speaker of the series, weighed in on the purpose of the semester long events.
“This series is held in conjunction with the creative writing class. It’s required attendance for the class members, but then it’s also open to the campus community and to the larger community.”
Christopher will be the first to share her piece, titled “Crossing Boundaries, Crossing Genres: Using History, Family History, and Historical Research to Tell Uncommonly Told Stories” a fictional story based on her mother’s experiences living around the time of World War II.
The main characters are based on Christopher and her mother living in different timelines that occur side by side in the story. The character based on Christopher’s mother lives in the World War II period. This character’s daughter (based on Christopher) is a documentary filmmaker who attempts to figure out what happened in her mother’s past, years later.
“That character [the daughter] is a closeted lesbian, so there is a parallel drawn between the interracial relationship which was illegal and the same sex relationship which was fairly stigmatized around that time.”
The series kicks off at 6 p.m. Wednesday night, Jan. 16 and ends on April 10. Tomorrow’s event will be held in the Dengerink Administration building, Room 110.
Emily is a senior studying integrated strategic communication at WSU Vancouver.