Internships
With internships, students can explore careers and gain professional experience that makes them appealing to employers after graduation. The Lindsay-Crane Center works closely with the Career Center to identify writing-related positions, advertise them to students, and help students develop application materials. The Lindsay-Crane Center also offers students several on-campus internship opportunities. Through the Career Center, students can also apply for the Dix Scholarship, which provides funding for writing-related internships. Here are a few places that Hiram students have recently completed internships:
- CAN Journal
- Fathom SEO [digital marketing company]
- Hiram College Writing Center
- Hiram Poetry Review
- University of Akron Press
Conferences and Publications
Conferences and publications are great ways for students to find an audience for their creative and scholarly work. Faculty affiliated with the Lindsay-Crane Center assist students with identifying conferences and publications appropriate for their work and learning about the submission process. Students can also apply for funding to assist in attending conferences through the Vencl-Carr Fund, administered by the Associate Dean’s Office. A selection of recent conference presentations and publications by Hiram College English and Creative Writing students and graduates:
- Sara Shearer (Class of 2017) had her poem “The Cottage at Tondreaus” published in the spring 2016 issue of Botticelli.
- Shelby List’s (Class of 2017) poem “Forgiveness” was published in the spring 2016 issue of Botticelli.
- Kristie Schroll (Class of 2016) presented “Victorian Angels and Monsters: A Deconstructive Reading of Jane Eyre” at was the 6th annual New Critics: Undergraduate Literature and Composition Conference at SUNY Oneonta in April 2015. She also gave her paper “‘We’d Never Have Got Through if I Hadn’t Been So Strong’: Self-Made Women in My Ántonia” at the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Symposium in East Lansing, Michigan in June 2016.
- Taylor Stott (Class of 2016)’s essay “Who’s the New Guy?: How Rickie Fowler is Changing the Style of Golf” was accepted to the Midwest Popular Culture Association Conference in Indianapolis in October 2014. She also presented her paper “The Religion in Jane Eyre: How Defying Control Supports Jane Eyre Being a Proto-Feminist Novel” at the Women’s Empowerment Initiative Conference at Walsh University in April 2015.
Writing Contests
The Lindsay-Crane Center sponsors writing contests for high-school and college students in the genres of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. They are judged by published authors working in that genre.
- The Emerging Writers Nonfiction Contest is open to all 10th and 11th graders. Each year students are asked to submit a nonfiction piece on a new theme. Both cash prizes and scholarships are available.
- The Gillmer Kroehle Contest in Creative Nonfiction is open to Hiram College undergraduates and sponsored by the Gillmer Kroehle Foundation. Recent judges include Jen Hirt ’97, Karen Salyer McElmurray and Brad Ricca.
- The Barbara Thompson Award for Short Fiction is open to Hiram College undergraduates and sponsored by Ruth Thompson and Douglas and Robin Thompson in honor of Hiram alumna Barbara Thompson ’77. Recent judges include Daniel Orozco, Kevin Keating, and Paula McLain.
- The Vachel Lindsay Poetry Contest an opportunity for Hiram College undergraduates is sponsored by the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature. Recent judges include Kevin Prufer, F. Daniel Rzicznek, and Eugene Gloria.
- The Lindsay-Crane Center also sponsors the Echo Regional Literary Competition in which students from six area institutions—Bethany College, Heidelberg University, Hiram College, Marietta College, Muskingum University, and the University of Mount Union—compete in the genres of poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction. Judges are drawn from the Creative Writing and English faculty from each participating institution.