Cypress Dome Society Fosters the Literary Arts at UCF
By David Smith

The University of Central Florida supports a number of organizations that promote particular aspects of the literary community at UCF. But no organization has attempted to further develop the literary community as a whole. The Cypress Dome Society is dedicated to fostering the literary arts at UCF and in the Central Florida Community.

Our organization was initially designed to provide support to the Cypress Dome, the undergraduate literature magazine. This publication has been an important place for UCF students to become published poets and authors for more than a decade. However, our society has taken strides to fulfill the far-reaching goals of "fostering the literary arts."

The Cypress Dome Society is looking forward to a productive year of literary activities that include, but are not limited to, the promotion of the Cypress Dome magazine, the Writers in the Sun Reading Series, a student-faculty reading series, and a website devoted to all arts being produced by UCF students as well the potential for an online workshop and discussion forum. The website is already being developed and can be found at http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~cdome/. It has and will have important information concerning upcoming activities.

The first event is our Writers in the Sun Reading Series, which will bring three nationally known authors to UCF. The first reading from this series was by Lucy Grealy, on October 11th, 2001. In the spring semester, poet Marie Howe and fiction author John Dufresne will give readings. These writers' involvement with the UCF community will not end here. After the reading, the writer will talk about the craft of writing to interested students. This is a privilege that will be open to all UCF students after Lucy Grealy's reading. The two readings in the spring semester will be a closed forum, only available to Cypress Dome Society members.

The Cypress Dome Society already has a number of active members but we need more. For the society to succeed in its mission to foster UCF's literary community, the UCF literary community must support the efforts of the Cypress Dome Society. One way is to become a member; other ways are through donations and patronage of our activities. If you would like more information on the Cypress Dome Society, email us at cdome@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu.