Seven Ouachita students will be going to New Orleans on March 4 for the annual Sigma Tau Delta Convention. Sigma Tau Delta is the International English Honor Society, and its central purpose is to confer distinction upon students of the English language and literature in undergraduate, graduate and professional studies.
“Seventeen people in Arkansas got accepted to go to the conference and seven of them are from OBU,” said Jason Curlin, a junior English major and member of Sigma Tau Delta. “This is a conference where about a thousand people will be present.”
To have been accepted to go to the convention, Curlin and the others sent up to two submissions, one fiction and one non-fiction. If at least one of their submissions was chosen, they were invited to attend.
At the convention, the students will read their writing submission in front of a group of other Sigma Tau Delta members, answer questions and talk with the group about their work.
“It’s helpful to listen to the forthcoming English majors of America,” Curlin said. “These guys are the ones who will be writing books and the newest literary criticisms. It’s good just to hear what’s out there.”
The students also have the opportunity to hear from at least six different published authors, attend workshop sessions and also experience New Orleans.
“An English major going to the Sigma Tau Delta convention parallels a Trekkie going to a Star Trek convention,” said Dr. Amy Sonheim professor of English. “You’re with people who love what you love. Everybody wants to talk about poetry and authors.”
Sonheim is also the Sigma Tau Delta sponsor. In her duties as the sponsor she “gathers, encourages, promotes and applauds,” she said.
“Our English majors are brilliant,” she said. “So every year we have English majors who I gather together and I say, ‘Don’t forget to submit an essay or poem or short story you’ve written to the national convention.’ Then I promote it and they fine tune what they’ve done, and then I end up applauding [them].”
Dr. Sonheim said she is very impressed with the writing English majors and members of Sigma Tau Delta produce.
“We just have really great responses from our students,” she said. “Two years ago, a Ouachita student won the best paper award for the whole convention.”
In addition to Curlin, the students attending the convention are Dielle Short, Emily Davis, Ellen Eubanks, Bethany Kohl, Jody Persson and Marrissa Thornberry. Of these students, only one has been before.
“Last year we went to Pittsburgh, and we all went to each other’s sessions and heard each other read,” said Short, a senior English major and student president of Ouachita’s Sigma Tau Delta chapter. “You had the option to go to any session, but we wanted to go to each other’s. Then we explored Pittsburgh.”
Short was accepted to go to the convention because of her critical response essay submission.
Short’s duties as president primarily focus on organizing and calling the meetings. The other officers are vice-president Kelli Wilson, secretary Bethany Kohl and historian Jody Persson. Emily Davis and Andrew Sweatman serve as editors of “Scope,” Ouachita’s literary journal.
On the Sigma Tau Delta website, one member wrote this about her experience at the convention, “I could not have anticipated the culminating effect of being in one stimulating discussion after another.”
Short spoke similarly of her own experience in Pennsylvania last year.
“The experience of going, in and of itself, was just awesome,” she said. “You make closer connections with people you don’t necessarily hang out with. Last year we didn’t have the Sonheims with us; it was just five girls going off to Pittsburgh alone. I had all sorts of classes with them, but I hadn’t spent much time with them outside of class. We bonded and made some good connections. We had a lot of great talks. I found out a lot about myself in the three days I was there.”
Picture courtesy of Daniel Schwen.
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