Writers of all genres now have a home here on the Hilltop.

From poets to screen writers, casual or committed, regardless of passion or experience level, writers now have an intellectual and creative outlet in which to exchange their ideas here on the Hilltop with the formation of the SMU Writers Group.

Co-founders Josh Duke and Ben Painter started the organization last spring as a trial experiment. It’s success has led them to try to continue and expand the group in its first real semester.

“We both felt that SMU was lacking a community for writers, that everyone writing was kind of by themselves and had no one to turn to for ideas or criticism,” Duke said. “We created this group to give them the medium to exchange ideas.”

The group has taken the sharing of ideas a step further and created a website, SMUwriters.com. Here students can load and electronically share work so people can workshop and communicate outside the group, which only meets every two weeks.

In addition to creating a free flow of ideas between writers, the group also has more structured goals.

“We really want to expose writers to those with more experience and give them ideas on what to do with their writing, how to actually use a creative writing degree,” Painter said.

The group also has plans to bring in faculty members for seminars on various writing aspects as well as established writers to share their experiences.

As a way to share ideas and work, the group would also like to potentially collect all student work and have it published annually to share with those in both the surrounding SMU and broader community.

“That is why you write, so your work can be read and enjoyed by others,” Duke said. “We would really like to give our writers the opportunity to do that.”

The group also strives to bring back the long lost SMU literary festival that was discontinued over 20 years ago.

“The idea of a literary festival is to expose the public to the literary world more so than a book store,” Painter said. “Authors come out and give readings, genre workshops-provide different services to the community so they can get as much experience as possible. We want to bring in both the SMU and surrounding Dallas community.”

To get the community involved, a tent sponsored by the SMU writers group will allow for local writers of all ages and experience levels to come and share their works.

“We’re trying to make a community where one doesn’t exist-we want to expose the community to what is going on with writing and allow them to join in,” Painter said.

The first meeting of the SMU Writers Group is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. in Dallas Hall 120 and is open to all students, not just English majors. Duke feels that writing, and more importantly the mastery of the English language are important skills to learn.

“Writing is important in all facets of life,” Duke said. “Employers of every profession look for people that have a mastery of the English language and good communication skills, our group just furthers those.”

The group hopes to be a safe haven for writers at SMU and give them an alternative to classroom learning, faculty forced creativity and teacher reviews.

“The purpose isn’t to judge someone on the merits of their work but to help someone receive feedback in a constructive way to help writers,” Duke said. “It’s much more inviting and a lot different from the classroom.”