Sam Anderson, Class of 2006, didn't expect much. But he was feeling ambitious, so he decided to submit his poetry to a few literary journals. "It was a dream of mine to get published," he says, "but I didn't really think that I would."

His dream came true when he received word that his poem, "Repetition (Copland's 'Midday Thoughts')," would be printed in the inaugural issue of the Chautauqua Literary Journal. Anderson reacted appropriately. "I jumped around a lot," he laughs. "That really made my month." He was the only writer in Chautauqua who had not previously been published.

Anderson wrote "Repetition" for a creative-writing course, Introduction to Poetry Writing. He credits the course with shaping his skills as a poet, even though he had begun experimenting with poetry a few years before. "It wasn't until that class that I started writing good poetry," he says.

But Anderson's ambitions as a writer go beyond poetry. He wants to explore every style of writing, and he's found a Kenyon class for each. "I took a drama class because I wanted to try playwriting. And I'm taking a film class-I want to try screenwriting. I've been trying to write every genre that I can."

This kind of energetic curiosity comes naturally to Anderson, who has been an avid reader and writer since his childhood, which he spent on a farm near Wooster, Ohio. "My parents would have to tell me, 'Put the book away and go outside,'" he says. "Writing was what made me want to be an English major, and reading was what made me want to write."