Name: Taylor Newman
Age: 22
Major: Education
Hometown: Jacksonville, FL
Her Campus (HC): Tell the HC readers a little bit about yourself and your involvement at FSU.
Taylor Newman (TN): I am sort of an odd mix. I love to be active and play as many intramural sports as possible, basically anything that gets me moving. However, I also have a deep passion for reading and learning. I really just want to experience as much as possible. I have been a Resident Assistant on campus and I am an active member of Sigma Delta Tau. I am still growing and using college to find myself.
HC: So Taylor, what is the purpose of this literary club you are trying to start on campus?
TN: We want to give undergraduate students the opportunity to be exposed to a more diverse literature sphere than they might normally be. We will have masters students, doctoral students, and professors as guest speakers to help students figure out what they want to specialize in. We want to make literature fun and accessible to everyone and keep it from being an academically snobbish environment. We are also a charitable organization! We will be putting on an open microphone night next fall. Books will serve as admission tickets and those books will be donated to the Tallahassee Homeless Shelter and the Baptist Children’s Home. Also, keep your eyes open for share nights in order to promote literacy among those who may not have access to books or literature. In addition, next spring we will be hosting the first FSU Literary Conference and a book exchange among students.
HC: What made you want to pursue this? Have you had faculty support so far?
TN: We figured that there were clubs for everything on campus and it didn’t make sense that we didn’t have one to discuss and promote literature. We also figured it might keep us from being so nerdy in other parts of our lives because we have an outlet. As far as faculty support goes, we have had amazing support from Kimberly Tate Anderson! She’s quirky and perfect!
HC: What do you think a literary club will add to FSU?
TN: We hope that this club will bring literature into the current sphere of discussion and open conversation between students and faculty and of course other students. I really believe that reading is a truly neglected art and one that could bring a lot of joy to FSU students.
HC: Do you have any advice for book lovin’ Noles?
TN: Expose yourself to new things and go outside of your comfort zone. You could find a new outlook on life through what you read and this is so important for personal and academic development. I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes. “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” –Haruki Murakami