By Sarah Gittleman

The English Club is proud to announce its first collaboration with Shoofly magazine.  Together the pair will be reaching out to local high schools by hosting a poetry contest and encouraging young students to get involved and interested in KU, explained Lauren Sobczak, the English Club secretary.  Three works will be selected by the club and published in the 2015 edition of Shoofly magazine as prize.  

The group also aims to help students by holding writing workshops once or twice a semester, usually around midterms and finals.  Sobczak said the workshop is similar to the Writing Center which is located in Old Main.  Students were encouraged to bring their papers to the English Club to be reviewed during the final weeks of the school year.

Soon, the club will be setting out boxes for the organization Better World Books, a foundation where books are collected and donated to local schools.  Collection boxes can be found in Lytle or at the library.

Another objective of the club is to bring an author or poet to KU each semester and to help promote guest speakers invited by other groups. The club ensures the speaker’s books are available at the KU bookstore and hold open discussions of the material prior to the event.

Currently, the English Club is beginning to gain the support and funding to bring a world literature author to KU for fall of 2015.  This task is a bit trickier than past guests since the speaker will be international.

To find out more, visit the club’s Facebook page titled English-Club Kutztown or visit its bulletin board outside of Lytle 206.  The club is also responsible for the table of literature below the board with the most current editions of school publications like Essence, Shoofly and the Keystone.

“If anyone in any other area of English has something to advertise, we are always happy to help them do so,” Sobczak said.

To get involved with this group, stop by one of its meetings held every other Tuesday in Lytle 206 at 11 a.m. or contact Sobczak at lsobc335@live.kutztown.edu.  Students can join the club at any time during the school year, and it is open to all majors.