Authors Anonymous, a new club on campus, is collaborating with Sigma Tau Delta and The Hortense Parrish Writing Center to host a week of activities for Banned Books Week, which runs through Sept. 23-28. Harry Potter has been chosen as the theme for this year’s activities.
Authors Anonymous was started by Aly Rusciano, a junior English major, Haley Slaughter, a senior English major, and Shannon Merrell, a junior English major for writers to share their works in a judgement-free zone.
“We created it so that we could get people together interested in writing,” said Merrell. “We wanted a group that would expand outside of just English majors and a group where people could feel free to share writing of any kind to get feedback, or even just ideas.”
Many students are involved in multiple clubs and organizations on campus, which often leads to an overlap of events.
“Several of our Sigma Tau Delta members work at the Writing Center, so that’s how the partnership came about,” Slaughter said. “Dr. Huse (advisor for Sigma Tau Delta) initially came up with the idea of doing activities for Banned Books Week, and Shannon and I talked to Dr. Alden about doing an event with the Writing Center.”
The week of activities concluded with a Banned Books Roundtable in the Writing Center on Sept. 26 at 3 p.m., where students were encouraged to participate in a discussion of popular banned books. Several students read from their favorite books to prompt discussion.
Following the Roundtable, Spanish author Antonio Teijeiro hosted a talk focusing on his work and recited some of his poetry.
For more information about Authors Anonymous, contact Slaughter at haieslau@ut.utm.edu.
