Have you ever sat down and dissected all of the ways that the University of Tulsa is considered a top university? From its engineering programs to its work in the humanities, the University of Tulsa has been placed amongst the top tier of universities. One thing that has helped boost TU’s reputation is its thriving literary journal: Nimrod. Throughout the years, all top universities have maintained literary journals of quality, yet now, with increasing costs, fewer and fewer such publications can survive. For nearly sixty years now, however, TU and the larger community in the city have helped make this into one of the nation’s premier literary publications.
Nimrod International Journal was founded at the University of Tulsa in 1956 and initially served as an outlet for student creative writing and art; over the next two decades it developed into a nationally and internationally acclaimed literary journal. After a move to the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa in 1978, then Dean Thomas Horne of the Henry Kendall College of Arts & Sciences invited Nimrod back to TU in 1996. Its offices are now ensconced in Zink Hall, sharing quarters not only the university’s English department but with its other distinguished journals, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature and the James Joyce Quarterly.
Nimrod’s signature event each year is an all-day conference for writers and readers of all ages—from high schools students to senior citizens—that reaches deeply into the campus and city communities. Participants work with world-class writers in classes on poetry, fiction, memoir, playwriting, and biography. This year’s conference is being held on October 17th and will feature master classes, readings, panel discussions, and one-on-one editing sessions. Each workshop and panel is designed to stimulate ideas and discussion and to inspire and improve participants’ writing. Not only will participants be able to attend classes with award-winning authors, but they also will be able to interact with them during coffee breaks, lunch, and informal talk sessions. The one-on-one editing sessions are designed to allow participants to have their work critiqued in a session with a Nimrod editor or other visiting writer. Just a few of the unique class titles:
- “Diversified: Incorporating Real-World Diversity into Young Adult Fiction”
- “Down a Dark Alley: Atmosphere in Crime Fiction”
- “Write About a Box: Taking the Fear out of Writing Your Memoir”
- “The Fantasy Writer’s Cupboard: Fairy Tales, Folklore, and Myth”
- “Writing with Questions: Empathy, Intimacy, and Interviewing in Nonfiction.”
All are designed to encourage dialogue, share experience and expertise, and leave space for discovery. For more on this event, visit Nimrod’s wesbite.
–Mikayla Pevac