You don’t have to be an English student to be a writer

Andrew Westoll sharing with creative writing group at U of T Scarborough. (Photo by Ken Jones)
The writing community at U of T Scarborough continues to blossom through the campus' creative writing club, says Assistant Professor Andrew Westoll. (Photo by Ken Jones)

Raquel A. Russell

The creative writing club at the University of Toronto Scarborough – also known as COW – is a gem for more than just English students.

“Beyond anything they might learn about writing, COW is about students from all walks of study coming together, looking across the room and seeing someone else who’s just as interested in learning how to express themselves,” says Andrew Westoll, assistant professor, Teaching Stream, in English at U of T Scarborough.

Founded in 2009, the creative writing club is led by Westoll and Daniel Tysdal, an associate professor, Teaching Stream, in English at U of T Scarborough.  

“We have science students, computer science students, English students, history, French,” says Westoll.  “People from all over campus joining us.”

“We have science students, computer science students, English students, history, French,” says Westoll.  “People from all over campus joining us.”

The club meets weekly in Westoll and Tysdal’s offices. In the first half of the meeting students are assigned one or two writing prompts. Prompts are designed to explore a specific part of the craft of writing, says Westoll, allowing students to hone their skills and share finished products with each other. Students also discuss the challenges involved in the writing prompt.

David Tysdal speaking with students at writing event. (Photo by Ken Jones)
Associate Professor Daniel Tysdal meets with students focusing on poetry during U of T Scarborough's creative writing club.  (Photo by Ken Jones)

“Just the other day, everyone was piled in and sitting on any available surface in my office,” says Westoll. “Students in COW are the most energetic, excitable group and they show up completely voluntarily.”

In 2009, James Nielson, a soon-to-be U of T Scarborough graduate and student in one of Tysdal’s large academic classes loved to write, and “loved the sound of the creative writing classes,” Tysdal recalls. But his program made it difficult to take one.

“One day,” says Tysdal, “he approached me after our academic class and asked if there was a creative writing group on campus. I said, ‘no,’ but asked if he wanted to start one.”

So that’s what Nielson did. Soon after speaking with Tysdal, Nielson – along with two of his friends, Safa Minhas and Alice Stancu, who were also creative writers – met with the professor for the first meeting of the U of T Scarborough Creative Writing group.

“We started spreading the word and it grew from there,” says Tysdal. Today the group has grown so large, they’ve had to split in two –  students focusing on prose meet with Westoll and poetry writers meet with Tysdal.

The name was coined by Neilson and Minhas — COW originally half-heartedly stood for Creative Organization of Writers, but quickly became a “malleable acronym,” a sign of the group’s creativity and openness, says Tysdal.

“My personal favourites include Cascade of Wombats, Cloying Opera Wisdom, and Cunning Order of Witches,” says Tysdal.

While COW provides community for students at U of T Scarborough who are interested in writing, it also serves as a way for Tysdal and Westoll to connect with a broader U of T Scarborough writing community.

While COW provides community for students at U of T Scarborough who are interested in writing, it also serves as a way for Tysdal and Westoll to connect with a broader U of T Scarborough writing community.

“Professor Tysdal and I get to reach people who aren’t taking our classes specifically,” says Westoll. “We often have students show up who we’ve never met, but have heard about COW through the grapevine.”

COW also meets outside campus walls. Recently Tysdal took one of his writing classes to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and invited COW participants to tag along. There, students were given a prompt to write about exhibits they saw in the gallery.

Westoll took COW on a similar field trip to the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre during the 2015 Pan Am games. Finished written works were gathered together in an anthology. For many of the participants, this was their first published work, an opportunity that Westoll hopes to recreate in the future.

To learn more about the creative writing club at U of T Scarborough, please contact Andrew Westoll at awestoll@utsc.utoronto.ca or Daniel Tysdal at dtysdal@utsc.utoronto.ca.