On Wednesday December 9th, a crowd gathered to hear three creative writing students read their work. People gathered to celebrate these students who were poised to graduate after completing thesis projects. Reading at the event were Cole Wahab, Stephen Jackson, and Jenna Miller. This event was also to honor the history of the program and authors who have been members of the creative writing faculty program.

Professor Alex Albright began the event by presenting a history of some of the distinguished novelists who have taught in the department.  The first novelist on the writing faculty was Ovid Williams Pierce (1910-1987). Pierce was born in Weldon, NC and educated at Duke and Harvard before joining the ECU creative writing faculty in 1956.  During his career, Pierce published five novels -- The Plantation (1953), On A Lonesome Porch (1960), The Devil's Half (1968), The Wedding Guest (1974), and Judge Buell's Legacy (1985) -- including two which were set in a fictionalized Greenville. Mac Hyman (1923-1963) became the second novelist on the faculty. He was also educated at Duke University and is best known for his comic novel No Time for Sergeants (1954), the only novel published during his short life. Terry Davis (1947-  ) called ECU his home before moving on to Minnesota where he teaches creative writing at Minnesota State University at Mankato. Davis studied at the Iowa Writers Workshop and has so far written three young adult novels -- Vision Quest (1979), Mysterious Ways (1984), and If Rock & Roll Were a Machine (1992).

Current novelists on the faculty included Bill Hallberg, who was raised in Michigan and educated at the University of Michigan and Bowling Green University where he earned his MFA in creative writing. Hallberg is the author of the novel The Rub of the Green (1988), the editor of the short story collection Perfect Lies (1989), and the author of the nonfiction exploration The Soul of Golf (1997). Luke Whisnant, born in Charlotte, received his bachelor's degree at ECU before earning an MFA at Washington University in St. Louis. His novel Watching TV with the Red Chinese (1992) was made into a film in 2009, and his collection of short stories Down in the Flood was published in 2006. Liza Wieland [pictured right] is the most recent novelist to join the ECU faculty. Wieland was educated at Harvard before receiving her PhD from Columbia University. Before joining the ECU faculty in 2007, Wieland was the head of the creative writing faculty at Cal State Fresno. Wieland has thus far published three novels, The Names of the Lost (1992), Bombshell (2001), and A Watch of Nightingales (2008); two collections of short stories,  Discovering America (1994), You Can Sleep While I Drive (1999); and one collection of poetry, Near Alcatraz (2005).

Talent was certainly on display when the newest graduates read their work. Cole Wahab [pictured here left of Jackson, center, and Miller, right] was the first to read his work. Wahab was introduced by Dr. Wieland who praised him as being "skillful at capturing both contemporary and past through beautiful prose." He read the story "Family Time" from his MA thesis titled The Ones Who Grow Up. This story is about going home to be with family during the holidays, and relationships, then and now.

Stephen Jackson read next from his play Spin Cycle. Jackson was born in Nashville, TN but spent most of his young life in Greenville.  Jackson has traveled extensively and attended ten universities before coming back to ECU to complete his master's degree. He spent several years living in New York and writing plays. Fifteen of his plays have been produced in New York City and Jackson has been reviewed by The Village Voice and SOHO News. Spin Cycle is a humorous look into a political campaign struggling to make an unlikable candidate appealing to the voting public

The evening ended with Jenna Miller reading her story "Foodie" from her thesis Between Bitterness and Hope. "Foodie" is a story about the heartache of a tough breakup and a woman's search for solace in the food which she loves. Miller's story was compelling and realistically portrayed the complexity of relationships.

After the reading, a reception was held to honor the students and congratulate them for their accomplishment.

--Sean Aube