Alpha Epsilon Eta 

A Short History

 

At Stephens College

Below: Marcia Kierscht, President of Stephens College and Isabel Sparks at the Chartering, Alpril 18, 1996

The Alpha Epsilon Eta chapter began in April of 1996, when Isabel Sparks gave us our charter, with Ginger Jones, sponsor of the Lincoln College chapter, giving the plenary speech. Isabel Sparks is an alumni of the college and had been the President of the national Sigma Tau Delta organization for the seven years prior to our formation. Ours was a modest begining, with the minimum of five members. We have maintained ourselves through the years, and in 2005, we celebrated a decade of service to the English language.

 

Annual Events

Each Halloween, we hold an open mic reading marathon which lasts until midnight: the Spook-a-thon. Members and guests come dressed in their favorite costumes and compete in our costume contest. In the past, winners of the contest have been: "Son-of-a-Bush," "Airing Dirty Laundry," "Music Pirate," and "One Night Stand." For each reading, an annonymous alumni donates an agreed upon amount. This helps Alpha Epsilon Eta pay for traveling to national conventions.

We hold our Induction Ceremony annually in December. At this ceremony, we ask all our inductees to read from an author she feels represents one of the Three Ideals: truth, sincerity, or design. These may be published authors, or personal writings.

The Alpha Epsilon Eta chapter has attended every national convention, except one, since our founding in 1996. For each year that we've attended, we've had students invited to read at all of the conventions since our founding. In 2006, we had three students chosen to read their works in Portland.  And one student, Emily Sharp, won honorable mention for her fiction piece "What I Learned at Reverchon," which is also available in the 2006Harbinger.

A slightly longer history

Jamie Dea, "A Plea to the Rioters of my Generation," Aired October 6, 2006

Heather Mulikey, "The Cat-Napper," Aired April 21, 2006

Ashley Kay Emmert, "Church Van Continuously Honking," Aired April 14, 2006

Kaitlyn Black, "Untitled," Aired April 7, 2006

Patricia Jones, "Redneck Hero," Aired March 25, 2006

Kim Bennett, "I am You," Aired March 10, 2006