UNO Magazine: The Future of Writing

From the Spring 2023 UNO Magazine

Writing and storytelling are a central part of the human condition. The written word has evolved with inventions like the earliest forms of book binding, printing presses, typewriters and more recently the personal computer and mobile internet.

The writer’s imperative to create, to make meaning and to innovate in thought during the modern era has been around as early as the Confucian texts, and given voice by Ezra Pound, who said plainly, “Make it new.”

The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Writer’s Workshop’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs prepare emerging writers to join that calling to innovate. Two professors in the program, Kevin Clouther and Todd Robinson, see a lot to be hopeful and excited about.

“I don’t know that people have ever written as much as they do right now,” says Clouther. “Texting, posting to social media, and responding to things on the internet; people are writing constantly. If the current trends continue, there is a robust future for writing.”

This sense of hope and eager embrace of new media to study is at the heart of how UNO’s Writer’s Workshop prepares new generations for a future as writers. In studio workshops, students interact with a diverse range of written work from emerging voices and established storytellers, poets and essayists — and often get the chance to experiment with new styles in voice and form.

Robinson sees this idea of experimentation and innovation as a core part of the future of writing. “The word that encapsulates the future is hybridity. It seems like people are exploring the space between genres like never before. Poetry, prose, flash fiction, lyric essay, graphic components. People are mining that space between genres.”

When asked about what these new forms could look like, Clouther adds, “One of the exciting things to me is the idea that I have no idea. Young people who haven’t even been born yet will come up with new ways of surprising us with what and how they write.”

When asked about their view on the emergence of work created by artificial intelligence, both Robinson and Clouther agreed that while programs like ChatGPT and other emerging software can simulate creative work, there is a human element that simply can’t be emulated.

“We want to know that there is a human behind the novel, the poem, the essay. We want to know what it is to be human, above all.” As to the need for more writers in the future, Robinson says, “There’s a deeper need for connection with another beating heart, another brain, another story.”

And so, the UNO Writer’s Workshop is here, ready to help future generations of writers create those universal, human connections.