While Dartmouth students have likely written more essays than they can count, many might have trouble remembering the last time they wrote for pleasure — to craft a story just for themselves. I personally love to write poetry but can never justify pausing in the middle of a problem set to pull out my journal. Making time for creative writing can be difficult at Dartmouth. As a result, some students find that joining writing-based clubs in college gives them a dedicated space for their passion.
One such organization is the Stonefence Review — commonly known as Stonefence — an undergraduate journal that publishes quarterly and accepts prose, poetry and visual artwork submissions from the Dartmouth community.
Editor-in-chief Eliza Dunn ’25 has been involved with Stonefence since her freshman year. After working on a literary magazine in high school, Dunn said she wanted to contribute to a similar publication in college. Dunn added that though Stonefence struggled to get submissions and maintain active membership immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, membership has grown significantly since then.
“It was definitely a small club,” Dunn said. “I remember for the first couple weeks [of freshman fall], it was just me coming to meetings along with the editors.”
The club — which now has around 12 to 15 active members in a given term — meets weekly on Thursdays at 8 p.m. in the John Milton Reading Room in Sanborn Library. Most meetings are spent reviewing rolling submissions, both from members themselves and students not in the club, according to Dunn.
While Stonefence focuses mainly on publishing submitted editorial content, Spilled Ink Poetry Club focuses on reading and writing poems during its meetings, according to past coverage by The Dartmouth. The club encourages writers of all experience levels to share their work in a supportive space, according to Lucas Manso ’27, who joined Spilled Ink fall term.
Manso said club members are given a prompt during the second half of each meeting. He loves this aspect of the club, because, in his words, “it forces me to write.”
Though the club is small, Manso said members form a “very close-knit group.”
“We are always looking for new people who want to write with us,” Manso said. “I feel like we’re not as out there or known about, but it’s a really cool space.”
Stonefence and Spilled Ink accept submissions on any topic, while Spare Rib, a feminist magazine, publishes pieces focused on social issues with the goal of increasing dialogue on campus, according to their website. Spare Rib currently has over 50 members — though meetings are open to newcomers — and meets on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Carpenter Hall.
Maggie Emerson ’25, who serves as a writing lead on Spare Rib, focuses on copy editing and reviewing submissions for the club. She first joined Spare Rib after retiring from the ice hockey team due to an injury, explaining that she wanted to use her increased free time to try something new.
“I really like to read and write poetry, but I never had [written poetry formally] before. I liked that Spare Rib was a feminist space as well,” Emerson said. “So I was like, I’ll just try it. I’ll go to one meeting. It was such a lovely welcoming environment, and I met so many new people.”
Similar to Stonefence, Spare Rib collects submissions from both members and non-members for the magazine, or “zine” for short, according to their website. Each zine has a theme — which are oftentimes a single word — for submissions; the group accepts all writing and art or design submissions as long as they adhere to the theme, Emerson said.
According to Emerson, aside from producing the zine every two terms, Spare Rib also tries to engage in activist and political spaces on campus.
“Sometimes we’ll do a topical tea time or read a feminist, political piece and discuss it,” Emerson said. “Last meeting we made handmade Tarot cards and had a presentation on feminist connections to Tarot. I think it’s a really cool way to bring awareness to activism that our campus sometimes lacks.”
While creative writing classes at Dartmouth can be a strong formal way to hone writing skills, many students said the community built by these clubs draws students to write for themselves and keep coming to meetings.
Spare Rib members grow very close based on their shared passion for activism, Emerson said. She appreciates that although they are tight-knit, the club doesn’t feel like a clique. That dynamic is due to the fact that members have varying levels of experience and all events are open to everyone, she added.
Similarly, Dunn said Stonefence has a strong group dynamic.
“Since it’s a small group, Stonefence has become a pretty light, comfortable and fun space for all of us,” she said. “It’s nice to have those little pockets of people that do appreciate writing as much as we do because I think it’s hard to come by.”
While Stonefence, Spilled Ink and Spare Rib each have different goals and functions, the three clubs create a space for writing outside of class. We all need an outlet, and creative writing is a great way to de-stress, be present and work through emotions.
“Having your only intake or expression of any thoughts be purely academic can be really constraining and also just depressing over time … having opportunities to help students cultivate creative writing as a potential passion or hobby is important and influential,” Emerson said.
Eliza Dunn ’25 is a former Mirror writer.
Correction appended (May 7 5:23 p.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number of members in Spare Rib. This article has been corrected.
