WINNING SEASON
FOUL TROUBLE
The Eastern men’s and women’s swim teams will take on the Saint Louis Billikens Saturday.
The Eastern men’s basketball team lost 81-59 against Belmont Thursday on the road.
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D aily E astern N ews
Friday, January 26, 2018
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID ”
CE L E B RATI NG A CE NTUR Y OF COV E RA GE
Seniors reflect on time at Eastern
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Homework Hero
By Andrew Paisley Campus Reporter | @Andrew_Paisley1 As they have begun their last semester, seniors are reflecting on the time they have spent at Eastern. April Pickett, a senior music major, said her professors and friends have made the biggest impact on her as a student. "My professors have always been really good mentors to me and they are always willing to help me no matter what," Pickett said. "My friends have also been so good to have and have helped me to stay on track." Pickett plans on taking a year off after graduation to find a job, and then eventually go to graduate school. Danielle Ehrlich, a senior kinesiology and sports studies major, said she has really enjoyed her classes. “The classes here are very handson and I have always been able to get help when needed,” Ehrlich said. “Everyone at Eastern made my arrival very welcoming and I felt comfortable.” Ehrlich is looking forward to an internship this summer. “After a couple years of working, I would like to eventually go to graduate school,” Ehrlich said. “After I graduate, I want to spend just a couple years diving into my career.” Jay Abell, a senior political science major, said he thinks he will remain friends with the people he met at college for the rest of his life. “Like all friends, the friends I have made here have had ups and downs with me, but I know at the end of the day they will always have my back, even into the future, and we made some incredible memories,” Abell said. Though college has been hard work for Abell, he said he has enjoyed it. “Having sleepless nights and working until the early hours of the morning is definitely worth it to get my degree,” Abell said. Abell plans to relocate to Detroit, Mich. after graduation. “I want to become a police officer,” Abell said. “There is a pretty good chance that when I move to Detroit I will end up getting hired on at the Detroit Police Department.” Not all students plan to leave Eastern right away after completing their undergraduate education. Macy Brown, a senior athletic training major, plans on attending graduate school at Eastern and getting her master’s degree in sports administration.
Seniors, page 5
QIAN CHENG | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Yifei Ma, a senior marketing major, does homework Thursday afternoon at Booth library. "The architecture appreciation class is very interesting, and the fries in the Union taste good. That made my day. I am enjoying my first semester in Eastern," Ma said.
Lions in Winter returns for 5th year By Tom O’Connor Staff Reporter | @DEN_News Young writers will join a diverse lineup of established authors at the fifth annual Lions In Winter Literary Festival. The festival begins at 9 a.m. Saturday and lasts all day in the Doudna Fine Arts Center. Anticipating crowds of around 80 to 100 people, the festival has incorporated a new segment for youth writers, an installment made possible with the help of the Coles County Arts Council. The festival this year will feature the Young Lions, a group of high school writers awarded with literary prizes, chosen specifically by a panel of Eastern English professors. With the inflated growth of technology in recent years, some might presume that students have traded “Charlotte’s Web” in for the worldwide web. But English professor Daiva Markelis, who organized the festival, rejects this hypothesis, instead pointing to changes in reader preferences as the culprit. “I think they may be reading things that 20 years ago, maybe, people would not have been read-
FILE PHOTO | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
People look at and sell books during a book fair at the Lions in Winter Literary Festival on Jan. 2016 in the Doudna Fine Arts Center.
ing,” Markelis said. “But I do not think that students are reading less, they are just reading differently.” As the preferences of young readers have shifted toward sci-fi, their writing has portrayed a similar dynamic, Markelis said. “Over the years that I have been teaching creative writing, more students are writing the kind of prose that they are also reading,” she said. “So there is more fanta-
sy, more science fiction, more kind of mystery.” Three heralded authors have also been selected for the festival, including CM Burroughs, Rachael Hanel and Vu Tran, whose novel “Dragonfish” was selected by The San Francisco Chronicle as the best book of the year in 2015. The festival’s planning committee has, ever since its inaugural year, gravitated more toward writ-
ers who are based in the Midwest and have published at least one book, Markelis said. Given the number of attendees, the itinerary, composed of book readings, craft talks and a symposium, has been structured to accommodate the audience’s interests in kind. The workshops, whether they be on the topic of poetry, fiction or non-fiction, will provide tips for writers aspiring to cultivate their craft. “We will have one panel session that deals with publishing,” Markelis said. “A lot of students and community writers want to know some tips for publishing their literary work —where to send them, what to include.” In the first talk of the day, Hanel will examine the concept of time as it pertains to memoir writing, while also addressing the constant shifts from past to present so often found in this genre. She was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award a few years ago, earning distinction for her chronicle “We’ll Be the Last Ones Down: A Memoir of a Grave Digger’s Daughter.” Lions, page 5