Two hands arranging flowers inside a surgical mask

Pandemic Stories: A Creative Non-Fiction Presentation

Thu, 05/19/2022 - 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Event
Location:
Instruction & Training 1312
UCSB Library and the Writing Program invite you to join us for a presentation of student-created pandemic stories. 
 
During the 2021-2022 academic year, UCSB's Writing Program led a two-quarter-long creative nonfiction initiative in which a group of students worked with faculty to create multimedia stories about their COVID-19 pandemic experiences. 
 
This event is free and open to the public.
 
“Giving students space, money, and support from faculty to just reflect on what the last two years have meant, and what we’ve lost and what we’ve gained, is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Ellen Whittet, workshop organizer and a lecturer in the Writing Program. Participants are writing about the good and the bad — from finding new communities to mental health struggles and sensory deprivation during isolation.
 
The workshop was proposed by the Writing Program to the Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts and to the Executive Vice Chancellor’s Office, which is supporting the project by allocating funding. 
 
Students will be invited to submit their stories to UCSB Library's COVID-19 Community Archives Project, which the Library launched to gather images, creative writing, social media posts, blog entries, video and audio files, etc., documenting personal experiences of our campus community during this life-altering global pandemic. UCSB Library will store, maintain, and make accessible submissions as a unique University Archives collection.