Aidan Schuttler, CU Denver photography and creative writing major, has a problem. The standard writing workshop model just doesn’t work for him. This model is where a group reviews in-progress works the author submitted. During the workshop, the author isn’t allowed to respond or clarify anything about the piece. If there’s a typo and the group is analyzing it more than they should, the author can’t explain this. Resulting in unhelpful feedback for the piece. This model just doesn’t make Schuttler passionate about writing. Schuttler was on a mission to find a solution to this issue.
So, in late July, he went to a Local Writer’s Meetup event in hopes of finding some answers. This is where he met 90s sci-fi author John Barnes. He told Schuttler about how when he was in college, he set up a group in which Barnes and his classmates would review each other’s completed works instead of in-progress ones. His teacher called them the Coroners because they were reviewing “dead stories.” The goal is to learn how to write for the next story, rather than focusing on individual stories. Thus, inspiring Schuttler to create his own version of The Coroners here on campus.
The club currently has 15 members, including Schuttler. Its goals are similar to the original Coroners Barnes created. Focusing on skill-building. A typical day has “something like a workshop that we’re cheekily calling “salon,” where everyone present, having read someone’s work, will discuss it as if we found it on a shelf out in the wild. We want the salon process to include the writer and to be generally casual in tone, but to be aimed at assessing and critiquing the work as we would the work of someone we didn’t know,” Schuttler told me in an interview.
If you don’t want to submit a work or don’t have one, don’t worry because Schuttler has already thought about this. “We’re hoping that writers will find small topics or ideas that they might want to share, and we’re going to arrange times, whenever this occurs, for writers to give presentations of some kind, like informal lectures,” Schuttler explained. The goal is to give you a space to talk about something you’re passionate about regarding literature.
But it’s not just writers who can become a Coroner, anyone can. Schuttler wants the group to be multi-disciplinary. He stated “When you learn about different art forms, you don’t only learn about yours, but about the nature of art itself. So whether you’re a physical artist or digital or a musician or writer, we want you.”
If you’re interested in joining, you can email Schuttler at [email protected] to get access to the Discord server or schedule a one-on-one consultation with him. You can also stop by the English Lounge on 1051 9th St Park Thursdays at 2 or 3:30 pm, though times are subject to change. You only have to attend one meeting per week but Schuttler will be present for both.
Photo by Angela Fraser.
