The final Sin Fronteras workshop brought 13 students together with professional writers to explore poetry, prose, literature and the idea of borders.

Organ Mountain News report

SILVER CITY - Western New Mexico University recently held its final Sin Fronteras Creative Writing Project for Undergraduate Students, closing a three-year effort designed to help students build community and develop new work through poetry, prose and literature.

The final workshop brought together 13 students, primarily undergraduates, for sessions focused on narrative, poetry, international and regional literature, writing techniques and the idea of borders.

The project was organized by Heather Frankland, an associate professor of English composition at WNMU. Each year of Sin Fronteras featured different sessions, and returning instructors refreshed their approach to help long-term participants continue developing their craft.

“This is our third and last year of Sin Fronteras, and as always, it’s an enjoyable time where students get to experiment with writing,” Frankland said.

Frankland said the project also showed students what a healthy writing community can look like.

“Oftentimes, writing can be a solitary art, but in getting to know each other and the guest writers/teachers, students realize that writers celebrate and encourage each other,” she said.

The workshop included professional writers JJ Amaworo Wilson, writer-in-residence at WNMU; Fabienne Josaphat, winner of the 2023 PEN Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction; Miguel De La Cruz, a bilingual author and board member of the New Mexico Book Association; Melanie Sweeney, a USA Today bestselling author; and Frankland.

Wilson said the program encouraged students to explore their identities as people and writers.

“As guest author/educators, we encouraged the students to explore their identities as people and as writers and to broaden their definitions of what literature can be,” Wilson said. “In the process, we discovered vibrant new voices and inquiring minds.”

Students Laisha Vargas and Anais Orantez, who also serve as editors of The Maverick, WNMU’s student academic journal, returned to the program.

“Sin Fronteras was an opportunity that I am so glad I took,” Vargas said. “It not only helped me strengthen my writing skills as a poet, but it opened my eyes to new ways of enjoying literature. One of my favorite lessons I learned is that anyone can write, you can make good writing out of anything.”

By the end of the workshop, the 13 students had produced new work ranging from prose to poetry.

Frankland said the project was supported by the WNMU Foundation President’s Society Program Support.