UT Writes Broadcasts First Show on WUTT

Starting this month, the University of Tampa’s radio station, WUTT, will be hosting a new program called UT Writes. The program was established by visiting assistant professor, Dr. Janet Sylvester, who has been teaching at UT for two years.

The program will be a monthly half-hour show consisting of readings of fiction, non-fiction and poetry by UT students and creative writing faculty.

Sylvester wanted to start the program in order to “enhance the profile of creative writing at UT.”

“We have a number of things in place like the Writer’s Series, which is available to everybody—both at the university and the general public. And there is Quilt and The Minaret,” said Sylvester. She wants to be able to reach students who do not attend the Writer’s Series with the new program.

“I thought, ‘Have we really hit all of the media yet?’ and then suddenly I heard one of my students, Jackson Harris, talking about working for the radio station. Jackson was in my creative writing class last fall and I got the idea that it would be wonderful to have a reading series on the radio that would be eclectic and would include fiction, non-fiction and poetry.”

Harris, whose father does a morning program on WFLA 970, is in charge of the technical aspects of the radio program.

Harris stated that it has been a short-term goal of WUTT for a year now to have a spoken word program. Sylvester said that she had no idea about this goal when she pitched the idea for UT Writes.

The first show will consist of a flash fiction reading by Conner McDonough and a poetry reading by assistant professor of English Dr. Erica Dawson.

Both McDonough and Dawson are excited to be part of the beginning of the program.

Dawson said that she was “flattered that Professor Sylvester asked me to be part of the kickoff.” She began preparing for this just as she would any other reading by choosing poems that are accessible to everyone.

McDonough is excited to be “sharing a mic for the first time with a nationally renowned poet.”

Sylvester feels that the program has a lot of potential in that it will make students more aware of the creative writing department and make them want to explore it.

Harris also sees great potential in this program because it is targeting the right audience. He eventually hopes to increase it to air twice a month.

The first airing of UT Writes on WUTT is next week.

Shivani Kanji can be reached at shivani.kanji@spartans.ut.edu