Anoka-Ramsey creative writing students among readers at Jan. 7 community event

December 21, 2023

Anoka-Ramsey Community College creative writing students, along with students from Normandale Community College and professors from school, will be presenting original work as part of the Literary Bridges Reading Series on Sunday, January 7 at 2 pm at Next Chapter Books in Saint Paul (38 Snelling Ave. S., St. Paul).

Anoka-Ramsey students Eric Linder, April Mengelkoch, and Taelynn Wade will be joined by Creative Writing Program Director Kathryn Kysar, Normandale students Saff Drayton and Lūnetta Ōstara and Normandale’s Creative Writing Program Director Kris Bigalk.

“January is the time for looking forwards and backwards,” says Stanley Kusunoki, host of the Bridges literary reading series. “We have a real Janus reading this month with two college writing instructors reading alongside some of their students!”

More about event participants

Anoka-Ramsey Community College readers:

Eric Linder is a creative writing student at Anoka- Ramsey Community College, where he is pursuing an Associates of Fine Arts degree. He has worked with a non-profit, a rehab, and a carnival where he set up rollercoasters. He currently resides in Anoka, Minnesota, and writes non-fiction essays, features, and criticism for The Campus Eye, the college newspaper.

April Mengelkoch is seeking an A.A. degree at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, where she has enjoyed opportunities to write scripts and poetry and read for an audience. She enjoys writing about the extremely mundane and making it fantastical.   She recently appeared in Be More Chill, ARCC’s spring musical production.

Taelynn Wade is a writer and poet studying for her AFA in Creative Writing degree at Anoka-Ramsey Community College where she works in the financial aid office. She loves working out with her best friend and personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness and cooking from scratch. She lives in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. 

Kathryn Kysar is the author of two books of poetry, Dark Lake and Pretend the World, and she edited the essay anthology Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers.  Her work has recently appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Mollyhouse, Slag Glass City, and Voicemail Poems. She is the founder and director of the creative writing program at Anoka-Ramsey Community College.

Normandale Community College Readers:

Kris Bigalk is the author of the poetry collections Repeat the Flesh in Numbers and Enough, both published by New York Quarterly Press. She founded and directs the AFA in Creative Writing program at Normandale Community College.

Saff Drayton is a second-year student at Normandale Community College pursuing an associate of fine arts degree in creative writing. Saff was the 2023 winner of the Patsy Lea Core Award in poetry.

Lūnetta Ōstara is an aspiring Minnesota writer, with an AFA in creative writing from Normandale Community College. Fascinated by old horror, modern magical realism, and everything in between, her work is a blend of many genres and styles.  She is a 2023 Patsy Lea Core Award winner and the 2021 Cambridge Center for International Research Memoir Contest winner. Her work has appeared in Gone Lawn magazine. Right now, she is dabbling in short stories and working on her first novel. 

More about creative writing at Anoka-Ramsey and Normandale

Anoka-Ramsey and Normandale Community College host two of the largest AFA degree programs in the country. For more information about this event or creative writing at Anoka-Ramsey, including our fully online AFA and certificate degrees, contact Kathryn Kysar at Kathryn.Kysar@anokaramsey.edu.