01/26/2009
English Student Eric Schlich Gives Creative Writing a Home
Students at the University of Kentucky often start their day bending over the well known bins in White Hall Classroom Building to pick up a copy of the popular student newspaper the Kentucky Kernel before barreling into class. Whether it's to get their daily fix of Sudoku or to glaze over the opinion pages, students rely on this daily publication to stay connected. Yet one student, English major Eric Schlich, was not satisfied by the news alone, thus was born The Cat's Figment, a publication focused entirely on the creative endeavors of the academic and local Lexington community.
"When a writer completes a piece of writing, what does he do with it?" asks Schlich. "Writers invest so much time, effort, and talent into the writing itself they become lost in the step that comes after the words are put down on paper."
As a writer, Schlich is aware of the dark void inside computer hard drives most creative writing examples call home when they have nowhere else to go. Disappointed with the lack of creative writing publishing opportunities in the community, and in conjunction with his Gaines Fellow's Jury Project, Schlich began his own publication. "Writers write. Publishing is an entirely different process," he said.
Schlich gained inspiration for The Cat's Figment from Limestone, the literary journal published by graduate students in UK's Department of English, and The Colonel, a satirical newspaper on campus. With some advice from the editors of Limestone and The Colonel, Schlich was able to make his idea tangible. Eventually he collected a staff of enthusiastic English and linguistics majors, many of whom came from the student organization W.O.R.D, or the Writers', Orator's, and Readers' Discussion. Together, Schlich and his staff have established a permanent workspace in the Writing Center on the fifth floor of the William T. Young Library, equipped with donated computers.
The first issue (pdf) of The Cat's Figment, which came out Jan. 14, was sponsored by both the Gaines Center for the Humanities and the UK Department of English, including W.O.R.D, yet the continued success of this new publication depends primarily on support from students and other sponsors.
"Without the continual drive of those students, the lit paper has no future," said Schlich.
Art and creative writing submissions for publication are open to the UK and Lexington community. The Cat's Figment is a monthly publication featuring essays, memoirs, narratives, poetry and artwork.
Whitney Hale - UK Public Relations