Get Involved

• Screening manuscript submissions including poetry, short stories, and creative essays
• Contributing directly to selected content of the journal by learning to articulate opinions and recommendations based on quality, fit, and overall publishability of submitted work
• Contributing collaboratively to a large social media presence, blog, and weekly newsletter
• Assisting with daily operations of a small publisher
• Assisting with various projects of the African Poetry Book Fund, a growing literary non-profit

The UNL Film Club is a space for students, regardless of majors or affiliations, to have an open discourse about cinema and to meet other like-minded individuals, as well as to introduce students to a broader array of films. Follow us on Instagram for more information and content!

As UNL’s student-led literary magazine, Laurus publishes the poetry, fiction, non-fiction, essays, and visual art of our diverse campus community. Our editors meet weekly during the spring semester in an open discourse of student submissions, putting together the content of each year’s issue. During the fall, we organize events, work on long-term projects, and advertise membership applications as well as encouraging submissions. This year we are looking to expand into the digital realm via the development of our website as well as re-energizing our social media and involvement on campus. To these ends, we’d love to have anybody interested in joining our team as a web designer or in marketing and social media. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to get to know us and check out the Laurus page on the English department website to get involved.

Key Experiences

• Andrews Hall Classroom Guides
• Fall Department Welcome
• Peer Mentorship Program
• Advising Events for English and Film Studies Majors
• Major Fairs & Admitted Student Receptions
• Social Media Coordination & Digital Outreach
• Spring Awards Convocation
• Other department & college events as needed

Husker Writers is a network of secondary teachers, college instructors, and community partners who collaborate to sponsor critical and creative literacies, public writing, and meaningful community action beyond the classroom. Teachers selected for the program collaboratively plan curriculum with a local non-profit partner or an instructor at a different institution to create opportunities for students to write for and with public audiences. With grant support from the Coordinating Commission on Postsecondary Education, the program officially launched in the 2017-2018 school year.

Ignited by UNL’s Composition and Rhetoric program’s former MA students, Reagan Myers and Gina Tranisi, UNL's Slam Poetry team is a proud part of our English Department and competes each year at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI). The team holds monthly poetry slams on campus and considers themselves a rhetorical and artistic force for social justice at UNL.

Coached by UNL Associate Professor in our Composition and Rhetoric program, Stacey Waite, the success of our poetry team owes a great debt to Nebraska Writers Collective's Louder than a Bomb-Great Plains high school poetry program, from which many of our poets learn to write and perform at very high levels. Students in our program often intern with youth writing programs like Louder than a Bomb-Great Plains.

Photo credit: Eric David Herrera

Young Writers Camp is a two-week long program for high school writers hosted by the Nebraska Writing Project and both our Composition and Rhetoric and Creative Writing programs. Undergraduate interns collaborate with faculty, graduate students, and local teachers and writers to plan, promote, and help facilitate the camp each summer. These internships provide students with training in youth mentorship, writing pedagogies, community literacy, and antiracist and LGBTQA+ youth programming.

The Nebraska Writers Collective is a non-profit that exists to promote creative writing and performance poetry throughout the Midwest. It accomplishes this mainly through writing workshops offered in Nebraska and Iowa, including Louder Than a Bomb: Great Plains, the region's biggest youth poetry festival. Undergraduate interns help with all aspects of the festival: teaching and mentoring youth, organizing and running events, and assisting with workshops and readings. Through their involvement, students are trained in youth mentorship, writing pedagogies, community literacy, antiracist and LGBTQA+ youth programming.

The Nebraska Writing Project (NeWP) works to invigorate, enrich, and educate by connecting educators, scholars, and writers across disciplines and at all levels. NeWP offers programs for teachers and students alike from writing marathons, retreats, and youth camps to teacher institutes and inservice programs.

Located in Andrews Hall, the Writing Center offers workshops and free one-on-one consulting to all members of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln community. Undergraduate and graduate consultants work one-on-one with writers at all levels and from all disciplines, assist with outreach workshops and presentations, and participate in ongoing staff education. The Writing Center also hosts writing retreats and sponsors a Writing Fellows program for undergraduates.

The Writing Lincoln Initiative (WLI) is an organization founded in 2012 by University of Nebraska-Lincoln English department graduate students that seeks to both demystify and facilitate opportunities to enjoy writing. WLI facilitates workshops, writing marathons, and literacy development initiatives in the Lincoln community. We are currently partnering with TRIO Student Support Services and Upward Bound, as well as the Nebraska Writing Project and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. We have continued interest in new partnerships and will work with learners of all ages. WLI is also always looking for more members.

• Researching biographical information of authors and marketing information for specific titles
• Formatting and reviewing manuscripts
• Assisting staff in securing permissions for titles to be published
• Screening manuscript submissions, particularly memoir, literary nonfiction, fiction, and scholarly humanities titles
• Reviewing photos, permissions, and manuscript materials to determine readiness for production

• Gain a familiarity with Nebraska Authors, past and present, and the Nebraska Literary Tradition
• Learn to recognize literary themes and identifying features of Great Plains literature
• Practice synthesizing information to create brief biographical sketches of authors and their works, including book reviews for possible publication
• Understand and describe the cultures that contribute to the body of Nebraska literature
• Create narratives connecting Nebraska authors through their relationships with each other and through common themes in writing