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Creative Work Description

Persimmon Creek runs through the Susan B. Jacobs Arboretum, an oasis of nature in the center of our dynamic and thriving campus community at the University of South Carolina Upstate. My colleague Wayne Robbins and I were recently tasked with bringing back the student-edited literary journal formerly known as Writer’s Inc. Dr. Marilyn Knight stood at the helm of Writer’s Inc. for nearly twenty years, and when she retired, the journal left with her. We thought it would be an opportune time to pay homage to the legacy of Writer’s Inc. by renaming and reimagining our home department’s literary journal. On Earth Day 2019, Dr. Jack Turner, director of the Watershed Ecology Center, formally renamed our campus creek, which !ows into Lawson’s Fork. Persimmon trees grow near the banks. According to Dr. Jon Storm, Assistant Professor of Biology, our campus persimmons are the native variety (Diospyros virginiana). On warm, sunny days, I sometimes bring my students to the pavilion for a change of scenery. I can attest that the fruit on the persimmon trees will be sweet by the time Fall classes begin. We like the name Persimmon Creek for its uniqueness, its rootedness in our campus, and the poetic musicality of the word itself. In Dr. Turner’s announcement, he said that when we name something, we preserve, protect, and nourish it. That resonated with me. It is our mission to preserve, protect, and nourish the creative vitality of our campus and our region by featuring literary and artistic works curated by our staff of students in the pages of each issue. In his poem “Persimmons,” Li-Young Lee says: My mother said every persimmon has a sun inside, something golden, glowing, warm as my face. We hope you will find a sun inside each issue—a golden, perfectly ripe fruit that will sweeten and warm your day when you take the time to dwell among its pages. We look forward to growing Persimmon Creek beyond iv a literary journal, and into a creative movement that cultivates the voices and visions on our campus and in our region. While the shape the journal takes will depend on the hands collaborating in its creation, we envision expanding the journal’s contents to include interviews, translations, craft essays, featured writers, art contests, writing workshop series, and other forms of collaboration between our journal, our campus, and our greater Upstate community. We hope that you take time to enjoy the creative work of the contributors in our inaugural issue, which features former and current USC Upstate students. Thank you for reading! We look forward to your engagement as a reader, writer, artist, editor, or partner as Persimmon Creek evolves.

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