Dartmouth’s Creative Writing Program is previewing the Literary Arts Bridge, a new off-campus space for creative writing, which it expects to fully open by the fall. During its soft opening this spring, the space has hosted a few small events, including talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Héctor Tobar and The Yale Review editor Adam Dalva.
The Bridge, located on Lebanon Street, is a space for collaboration across writing and art, with year-round events that will spotlight writers and publishers, according to creative writing professor Peter Orner.
“Our inspiration was to create a place of welcome for anyone who writes creatively, which as we all know, isn’t just confined to the department of English,” Orner said. “The Bridge will be a place for writers from across the college and community to come together to write.”
Meredith Sherman MED ’28 said she started engaging with the Bridge through her creative writing classes with Orner. Sherman said her class has participated in discussions with writers at the Bridge, which she said helped inform her understanding of what a career in writing would look like.
For example, Sherman recently attended a talk at the Bridge with Dalva, who spoke with students about careers in editing and publishing. At the talk, Dalva discussed the importance of perseverance in writing, even when writers are not initially commercially successful.
“He’s so immersed in our world and was able to give very practical advice to students,” Sherman said. “Someone in my class is interested in publishing a book, and he was directly mentoring her right there.”
According to Orner, last week Tobar spoke about his trajectory from a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist to successful novelist and memoirist.
Posie Millett ’25, who was also introduced to the Bridge through one of Orner’s courses, said it is nice to have a space specifically dedicated to writing.
“Opening up a space that’s not necessarily focused on English but is dedicated to writing and that kind of way we translate information is a great idea,” Millett said.
Orner added that he hopes the Bridge will be a welcoming space for all writers.
“[We] invite all creative writers in our community to come by the Bridge, either to work on your own writing or partake in one of our many future events,” he said.
While the Bridge is still relatively new, Sherman hopes the space will be an opportunity to stay connected to the literary community at Dartmouth.
“I think it’s a really nice interdisciplinary space and just a good spot to go and get to know other people who are interested in writing,” Sherman said. “You can workshop pieces and talk, and I think it’s a really nice way that they’re facilitating the literary community at Dartmouth.”
