Rhett Fest: A play on words…and punctuation

Lesli Cokley

The Signal Staff

FROM LEFT: Lori Arnold, tutor at the Writing Center, and Judy Hatcher, writing lecturer for the School of HSH, play Boggle at one of the many booths.

Thanks to the National Council of Teachers of English, Oct. 20 has been declared the National Day for Writing.

In honor of this first-ever national holiday, the Writing Center held Rhett Fest. Promoted as a “quirky festival,” the goal was to bring literature to life through a variety of events ranging from costumed characters to a giant scrabble board.

“I think we had an excellent turn-out,” said Chloe Diepenbrock, director of the Writing Center.  “We fed over 100 people, gave away some nice prices and, most importantly, celebrated writing with several fun word-related games.”

FROM LEFT: Chloe Diepenbrock, director of the Writing Center, and Alicia Costello, receptionist, show off their costumes – a semi colon and a grammar fool.

The event also featured literary characters such as Miss Havishan from “Great Expectations” who handed out bookmarks with student’s names written in calligraphy, “Sir” John Gorman, professor of literature, judged the poetry slam.

“We were very pleased to have four of the writing faculty, Pat Cuchens (the Diagram Queen), Judy Hatcher (the Diagramming Princess), Hunter Stephenson, (Boggle Player Extraordinaire), and Deborah Griffin (another Boggling Fool), and John Gorman, our distinguished poet-in-residence, all participating,” Diepenbrock said.