Columbia’s Writers House attempts to revise undergraduate literary community

While most Columbians are struggling with housing decisions for next year, the members of Writers House have their community already set.

As an on-campus special interest community, Writers House—previously called 114 Rue de Fleurus—gives residents the opportunity to participate in weekly writing workshops, attend readings with established writers, and host other literary events.

Writers House, which is currently located on the second floor of Wien Hall, was co-founded by Kassandra Lee, CC ’12, and Erica Weaver, CC ’12. After attending the Ugly Fish Salon for poetry readings on Thursdays, Lee and Weaver decided to create their own literary housing community.

“Although Columbia boasts an excellent creative writing department, workshop space is limited, and it is impossible to get your work critiqued every week due to size restrictions,” Weaver said.

Weekly writing workshops are a major component of living in Writers House. Residents submit writing pieces to form a packet for others in order to critique each others’ work, and it is not uncommon for the workshops to last up to three hours. “We also host open workshops every other Thursday, when we encourage members of the Columbia community to join us,” Weaver said. Around three to four non-members come to each of these workshops.

“Our events are largely dictated by member interests. If a house member has a professor or author’s work he is particularly interested in, then we will contact that person and invite them to do a reading,” Weaver said.

This semester, Writers House is planning events with Columbia alumni Paul Auster and Ron Padgett. Bob Holman, founder of the Bowery Poetry Club, has also been invited to speak.

Writers House also hosts literary events for both residents and the Columbia community. Recent events open to the Columbia community include readings and Q-and-A’s with both novelist and SoA professor Ed Park and head of the graduate writing program Binnie Kirshenbaum. Residents participated in a literary criticism night with Lionel Trilling professor in the humanities Edward Mendelson as well as an intimate dinner with Pulitzer-prize winning poet Mark Strand.

The most recent literary event featuring a writer was Kirshenbaum’s Q-and-A session, held on Nov. 23. “I had just read her latest book, ‘The Scenic Route,’ and I loved it. The book cannot be described or reduced just to plot,” Yin Yin Lu, CC ’12 and former Spectator books editor, said. Participants in the discussion received a free copy of the book beforehand, which allowed them to prepare questions. “This led to an intense discussion of the book,” said Lu.

“I was bowled over by the enthusiasm, the energy, the communication, and organizational efforts of the Writers House students…. But what impressed me most was the insightful reading, the sophisticated grasp of the book’s interplay of content and form, and the profundity of the questions asked,” Kirshenbaum said of the event.

In the fall semester, Writers House will be relocated to the second floor of Harmony Hall. “We believe that our increased membership as well as our new suite space will allow us to host better workshops and a wider range of events,” Weaver said. “We also hope to take advantage of our suite kitchen to host many more author dinners next year.”

When asked what she likes best about Writers House, Lu said, “The environment itself. You are surrounded by people as mentally insane as you.”