The Department of Writing is excited to announce a showcase of student work. Our goal? To highlight the impressive writing and storytelling skills students develop in writing classes at Grand Valley. Our theme this year is "Amplified and Unplugged: Student Voices Shaping the Future of Writing." This theme encourages participants to critically and reflectively examine their writing choices and explore how digital tools shape our research and writing processes. We wish to highlight student voices that exemplify creative expression, critical thinking, and a behind-the-scenes look at their writing process.

We are eager to collect your writing projects and behind-the-scenes reflections, which we will showcase in a digital gallery. If you submit, you will also be invited to participate in an in-person roundtable discussion with students and faculty next fall, which is a great opportunity to share your work and add a presentation to your resume!

We'd love to see work that you created in any Writing class this year. That could include:

• First-Year Writing (WRT 120/130/150)
• Multimodal and digital projects
• Creative work (e.g., poetry, fiction, nonfiction essays)
• Business Communication and Professional Writing
• Senior capstone
• Extra-curricular writing projects

Once you have decided the piece of writing you would like to submit, you should prepare a short reflection that explores one of the following prompts.

1. What does being a writer mean to you? 
2. How did your vision for the project change during the writing process?
3. What made this project meaningful for you? How will you apply what you learned from the process in other contexts?

Your reflection should be a 2-5 minute long “behind-the-scenes” video or audio recording where you narrate your reflection.

If you'd like to submit your work to the showcase, please prepare the following items:

• A digital file of your work
• A short, 3-5 minute front-facing video or voice recording where you respond to one of the following questions:
  • "What does being a writer mean to you?"
  • "How did your vision for the project change during the writing process?"
  • "What made this project meaningful for you? How will you apply what you learned from the process in other contexts?"

We will be accepting work until May 15, 2026.

Please contact Professor Amy Ferdinandt Stolley if you have questions about the 2026 Student Writing Showcase.