Subtexts SFUAD’s seniors read from their work

Write from the heart

The last weeks of college are often rife with mixed emotions as seniors look toward the future with a combination of confidence and trepidation while saying goodbye to undergraduate life. For Santa Fe University of Art and Design’s class of 2018, the feelings may also include a sense of the surreal — because they are the only students left on campus and the last class to graduate from the shuttering for-profit art school, which closes in May.

Seniors in creative writing have turned up their efforts in this environment, said Julia Goldberg, the lead faculty member in the creative writing and literature department who oversees these seven students as they prepare for a final public reading. Rather than succumbing to sadness, it is as if the strange desolation is feeding their creativity. In interviews posted to jackalopemagazine.com, the online publication of the SFUAD creative writing and literature department, the students discussed their reasons for attending college in Santa Fe, how they have grown as writers during their time in the City Different, and how they feel about being the last class on campus. “I feel kind of sad,” Geneva Henri-Le Pierrot said. “But I’m also really excited. I get to be one of the last majors to graduate from SFUAD. I get to go home in the spring with a degree and a sense of accomplishment. It’s kind of bittersweet being the last graduating class. We get to hold on to this legacy because there’s no one to pass the torch onto.”

— Jennifer Levin

SFUAD creative writing seniors read poetry, fiction, and nonfiction at Collected Works Bookstore (202 Galisteo St., 505-988-4226) at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 7, and Tuesday, May 8. For more information, visit collected worksbookstore.com.