One campus organization promotes creative writing

As the only creative writing and literary student organization on campus, the Vermillion Literary Project (VLP) hosts many events each year and publishes its own annual literary journal.

Marcella Remund, the faculty advisor for VLP, said the organization is unique because of the tradition it holds on campus.

“We’ve been around since the late 1960s, different iterations of the VLP, but we’ve been around that long,” Remund said.

As an organization, Remund said VLP hosts events like an annual short story writing contest, an annual writer’s festival and a monthly “LiTrash” night at the Varsity Pub. They also publish an annual literary journal, The Red Coyote, every April. 

“We get submissions for that journal from all around the country, from writers all around the country,” Remund said. “Then the VLP members sort through those submissions and select the ones they want to put in the journal.”

Remund said they use a service called Submittable that allows people from all around the world to make submissions for the journal electronically. They also take submissions from people in Vermillion and USD students.

Emma Koehler, a first-year English major, said she’s excited about the opportunities that she might have with VLP. 

“I don’t know really what area of English I want to do, I don’t want to be a teacher but I love reading and writing,” Koehler said. “Publishing and writing, I want to explore those options more and this seems like something that would offer a lot of opportunities for me.” 

Molly Cameron, a first-year English major, said she’s looking forward to the events that VLP hosts and for the people she’ll meet.

“I really love open mics so having a venue and an audience to get up in front of people and share things and hear other people’s things will be fun,” Cameron said. “I’m really excited about getting involved with the people in the department, but also with the people that like the same things that I do that aren’t English majors.”

Remund said membership for VLP is open to all majors and undergraduates and graduates alike.

“We have a lot of members who aren’t English majors,” Remund said. “I think one of the misconceptions is that we’re all a bunch of nerdy writers, and we really aren’t.”

For Koehler, she said having all of those people to share ideas with will be good inspiration for her.

“I enjoy writing quite a bit so I think it will be a nice to kind of share those things and talk about it,” Koehler said.

The main goal this year for the VLP is to promote all things creative writing on campus, Remund said. Her favorite part about the organization, though, is the Red Coyote.

“It really becomes another face of USD out there and I’m just really proud of it every year,” Remund said. “It’s really an achievement for students.”