WRITERS' COMMUNITY
​
​
The Writers’ Community is a quirky, comedic, dramatic, hidden gem of a University of Michigan campus student organization. From having a walrus named Smallrus as our mascot (he wears a top hat!) to a wooden gavel and real top hat we pass down as club torches; Writers’ is a place for all those in need of a shared creative space to come and well, write. We foster literary works through peer critiques and games.
Club rumors abound that Writers’ was started by Arthur Miller in the ’30s and membership was so secret it grew to be as big as seventy and as small as two throughout the generations. Until recently, it was open to the wider campus community with a presence at Festifall. In reality, Manisha Chakravarthy, an ‘08 alumni put an enormous amount of love and work into creating Writers’ and to whom we owe many good memories and stories that have come out of this niche space she created. And we quote Manisha on her response to the Arthur Miller rumor, as she laughingly said, “Having your work attributed to a dead old white guy is the highest honor, right?”
Writers’ started as an idea to have a low-key club where both advanced and beginning writers could come and share work weekly, have fun icebreaker prompts to ensure new members could always make inner circle jokes and be welcomed, and give those who have never written a space beside those who have been working on epics for years. It continues to be a relaxed space, with many laughs and fabulous pieces—there was even a wedding that happened because of the Community!
For most of us, we’ve been writing together and competing separately for spaces in magazines, reviews, and anthologies. But we were absolutely delighted when we serendipitously discovered that we may not have to compete against each other at all if we were featured together in our own writers’ anthology. Published together after years of critiques, writerly games, growing as writers together...this chance to have our work side by side as it has been for these years...is beyond words. From our overflowing creative folders the stories, poems, and essays we believe represent our unique voices, backgrounds, and insights have found a home in Bring Your Words: a Writers' Community Anthology. We hope there is a little something for everyone contained within the pages.
Some of us will be here in Ann Arbor a little longer. Some of us will move on soon. But all of us had this moment, this exact period of time together in this city where out of all the people alive right now we met and connected through writing and Writers’ Community. How truly magical is that? We thank Fifth Avenue Press for the opportunity to submit and be published together in the city we have loved, grown so much in, and called home. We thank Manisha for starting this club. And we thank you, reader, for supporting our imaginations, musings, and dreams. And if you are a University of Michigan student interested in joining Writers' please visit our Mazie pages here! We'd love to have you.
Sincerely,
The University of Michigan Writers’ Community
​
​