With our workshop only a short weekend away, the instructors leading the 2024 Young Writers’ Workshop have been hard at work preparing a fun and engaging schedule full of activities.
As always, we hope that this will be our best and most productive year yet. We are all very excited to meet this year’s group of young writers.
In the meantime, we wanted you to get to know all of us who are running the workshop.
Without further delay, let me introduce you to our 2024 staff!
Dr. Traci Brimhall, Program Director and Lead Instructor
Traci Brimhall (she/her) is a Professor in Kansas State University’s Department of English with a focus in Creative Writing and is also the current Poet Laureate of Kansas. Originally from Little Falls, Minnesota, Traci has moved ten times in her life but is now celebrating her eleventh year in Kansas! Last year she worked on a poetry walk for the library of Johnson Country, which consists of a series of 16 poems, and when she isn’t writing or working, she enjoys spending time camping, hiking, paddleboarding, or all things outdoors! This year will be Traci’s third year with the Young Writers’ Workshop.
What is your favorite medium to write in? What about that medium speaks to you?
Poetry is my great and first love, though I also really enjoy writing personal essays and memoir.
A stranger approaches you on the street. They ask you for a recommendation of any form of literature. What do you give them?
I teach a course on Literature and the Body to PreMed students, and one of their favorite books is always When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. I think it can speak to a lot of people, and it’s both profound and accessible.
Tell me about a story that changed your life. What made it so impactful?
One of my most profound moments with literature was one of listening, not reading. A poetry teacher read me a Sharon Olds poem in college, and I felt like all the atoms in my chest were rearranging themselves as I listened.
If given the opportunity, what fictional character would you most like to have lunch with? Why are they the ideal fictional lunch mate?
Lucien from the ACOTAR series by Sarah J. Maas, because my favorite times are always with people who share my sense of humor, and he seems funny.
Noah Jayne, Instructor
My name is Noah Jayne (he/him), and I have just finished my first year of grad school at K-State. I also completed my undergrad there in creative writing and decided to go on to get my master’s degree in the same field. I’ve written a few different projects fiction, though I am not published officially (yet)! I love writing, watching movies, playing nerdy games, and eating delicious foods with good friends and family. Also, as a warning, if you start talking to me about Star Wars, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, D&D, or BIONICLE, you will get me talking for a while. So, watch out for that.
What is your favorite medium to write in? What about that medium speaks to you?
I love writing fiction, specifically novels! I love exploring fictional worlds and characters, and novels are one of the most in-depth ways I know how to do it! Writing is almost like sharing dreams I have with those around me (without having to go through the whole Inception ordeal).
A stranger approaches you on the street. They ask you for a recommendation of any form of literature. What do you give them?
Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings. I’ve only read the first book in the series, but man, was it cool! Great book, amazing worldbuilding, exciting characters… It’s a fiction writer’s gold standard.
Tell me about a story that changed your life. What made it so impactful?
I’ve got a lot of answers I could give here; stories matter a lot to me! Perhaps one of the most impactful fictional stories to me has been the Spider-Man story. The idea of a nerdy, scrawny kid that gets superpowers and just does his small part to make the world better… how inspiring is that? That’s a story that can be told time and time again and it won’t get old because it’s a story we long to live out.
If given the opportunity, what fictional character would you most like to have lunch with? Why are they the ideal fictional lunch mate?
Great question! You know, I would love to just have a conversation with General Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I feel like we’d get along, and he’d probably force me to drink tea and I’d force him to drink coffee. Sounds fun.
Aimee Lamoureux, Instructor
Aimee Lamoureux (she/her) is a rising second-year graduate student at Kansas State University studying Poetry on the Creative Writing track. She holds a B.A. in history from NYU and a M.A. in life writing from CUNY. She is from the Northeast. She likes books, the beach, and the Boston Bruins.
What is your favorite medium to write in? What about that medium speaks to you?
I like all kinds of creative writing, but my focus is primarily poetry. I think it’s one of the most interesting and impactful forms of creative writing. Because you aren’t beholden to plot or characters, there can be a lot of freedom in it, but it’s also very demanding. In a lot of ways, it expects as much from the reader as it does from the writer. And it encourages us to pay attention to things we might otherwise not notice.
A stranger approaches you on the street. They ask you for a recommendation of any form of literature. What do you give them?
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It’s a great Gothic horror novel. It is dark and moody and has such a strong and unsettling sense of place. It does a fantastic job establishing Manderley as a setting that feels very “alive,” almost like it is a character in its own right. Also, I think Daphne du Maurier is underrated.
Tell me about a story that changed your life. What made it so impactful?
It’s not technically a story, but the essay “On Keeping a Notebook” by Joan Didion had a huge impact on me the first time I read it. The writing itself is phenomenal, from the very first line to the very last. As a lifelong notebook keeper myself, I saw a lot of my own feelings on writing and note keeping very beautifully and clearly articulated in that essay. It was also my first introduction to Joan Didion, and she became, and remains, one of my favorite writers.
If given the opportunity, what fictional character would you most like to have lunch with? Why are they the ideal fictional lunch mate?
Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks. But definitely not at her house. I would want to meet at the Double R Diner, order coffee and a slice of cherry pie, and ask her what happened?? I’m still trying to unravel the mystery!
Cosette O’Brien, Instructor
Cosette O’Brien (she/her) is a lifelong Kansas resident and English Master’s student at Kansas State University on the Cultural Studies track. She specializes in researching murder mystery video games and recently gave a presentation on the game Your Turn to Die -Death Game by Majority- at the 2024 Pop Culture Association Conference. When she is not researching for her Master’s project, you may find her around a TTRPG table or doing even more research at the Prairie Museum of Art and History in Colby, Kansas.
What is your favorite medium to write in? What about that medium speaks to you?
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with TTRPGs as a writing medium. On one hand, I love being a player because I can create characters that allow me to interact with the world in different ways from my real life. On the other hand, I want to try GMing games myself because I love that the TTRPG format will allow my players to experience the story as characters.
A stranger approaches you on the street. They ask you for a recommendation of any form of literature. What do you give them?
I would recommend checking out murder mystery visual novel games, like the Zero Escape series and the Danganronpa series. While murder mystery books are great, games have the added benefit of allowing the player to make decisions in the story. When a crime happens in these games, I get more invested in the story than I would if it were a book because I have some stake in it as a player!
Tell me about a story that changed your life. What made it so impactful?
When I was in high school, I played a video game titled The Stanley Parable. Unlike most games that are based around challenges like fighting an enemy, The Stanley Parable challenges the player to disobey its narrator’s commands. This game shocked me because I had never seen a story (let alone a game) break the fourth wall in such a creative way. I chose to study creative writing in college because I wanted to write stories like that.
If given the opportunity, what fictional character would you most like to have lunch with? Why are they the ideal fictional lunch mate?
I would love to get lunch with Nagito Komaeda from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. He’s my favorite character of all time, so of course I would love to have lunch with him! I’m not sure if he’s an ideal lunch mate, though—he’s notoriously unpredictable…
Eli Long, Program Assistant
Eli Long (he/him) is a recent M.A. graduate from Kansas State University in the field of English, concentrating in cultural studies. His main area of research includes horror film, particularly in applying cultural and affect theory to the genre. He has presented his work at the Popular Culture Association’s nation conference twice, as well as the University of St. Thomas’ Undergraduate Research Sessions. When not studying horror movies, Eli enjoys playing the guitar, watching basketball, and learning Magic: The Gathering. If you see Eli, feel free to ask him, “what’s your favorite scary movie?”
What is your favorite medium to write in? What about that medium speaks to you?
As someone whose writing is generally focused on scholarly work, I love writing short essays. That might sound boring, but I love the constraint of length to make me write clearly and concisely.
A stranger approaches you on the street. They ask you for a recommendation of any form of literature. What do you give them?
Slaughterhouse-Five is probably my favorite book of all time. I am a big Kurt Vonnegut reader, so I’d have to give them to be what I think it his best book. You laugh. You cry. It’s got it all.
Tell me about a story that changed your life. What made it so impactful?
This one is going to be a little goofy, but so much of my life the last few years has been dedicated to writing and thinking about horror movies, so I’d have to go with Wes Craven’s Scream. It was the first scary movie I watched and one that I will always go back to. It is so well produced, that someone who studies horror movies for a living can enjoy it just the same as someone who hasn’t seen a single one.
If given the opportunity, what fictional character would you most like to have lunch with? Why are they the ideal fictional lunch mate?
I’d have to go with Bugs Bunny on this one. I’m a little afraid of his sort of omnipotent power, but he would definitely make it an entertaining lunch.
We are all very excited for the workshop to begin next Monday, and very excited to meet the 2024 group of young writers. Keep up with the workshop by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to see what your young writers are up to, as well as this blog for daily updates.
Make sure to check back in next week to see what we have planned for this year’s workshop!
-Eli Long, Program Assistant
K-State Young Writers' Workshop 