Central College Publishes Annual Writing Anthology

by Central College

Pella, IA (07/09/2020) — Central College's annual Writing Anthology, a collection of exceptional student work from across the liberal arts curriculum, has been released for the 2019-20 academic year. This marks the 40th year for the Writing Anthology, which has been continuously published at Central since 1981.

Walter Cannon, professor emeritus of English, founded the project with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since then, the anthology has strengthened a college-wide commitment to writing across the curriculum by celebrating exemplary student writing in the liberal arts, STEM and the applied arts. Publications include both traditional and innovative texts that reflect sophistication in a specific academic discipline or masterful integration of several disciplines.

The Writing Anthology can be viewed at www.central.edu/writing-anthology. It includes this year's 10 pieces of work, as well as links to past issues.

Christa Miller, recent graduate of the Class of 2020, and Gabrielle Anderson, Class of 2022, served as student editors this year. Miller is from Buffalo Center, Iowa; Anderson is from Bridgeton, Missouri. Valerie Billing, assistant professor of English, and Mark Thomas, assistant professor of philosophy, served as advisors.

The editors said this about this year's selections: "As we all learned this year, change happens quickly. However, transition tends to go slowly, bringing with it feelings of denial, shock, anger, frustration and stress. Transition can also bring us closer together and give us hope. The pieces chosen for this year's anthology can change our perspective and shed light on uncomfortable topics, causing us to reevaluate our thoughts and beliefs. Now more than ever there seems to be an enthusiasm to learn something new, and a longing to explore new ways of conducting established practices. This year's works put forth new ideas, and work to examine difference from multiple angles. As a whole, our team believes this anthology develops a unique statement in this historical moment about the importance of dealing with change and transitions."

Emma Clodfelter, Class of 2020 from Knoxville, Iowa, was named recipient of the John Allen Award, given to a student whose piece the selection panel deems to have superior rhetorical competence, high levels of readability, originality and insight. Clodfelter's essay is titled "The Function of Stabilimenta in Spider Webs" and is an intriguing scientific exploration into the possible reasons for spiders' web design.

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