Ekene begins his involvement in the JCCC Creative Writing Club for the day by creating short stories based on a list of prompts – one such example being “Wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Photo By: Nathan Schweiger 

During a recent Creative Writing Club meeting, students split into small groups for a game of “writer’s telephone.” One person writes the first sentence of a story and passes the paper to the next person, who adds a line of their own. By the time the page makes it around the table, the group has a collaborative and usually wacky story. 

Ekene Anyanike sat in one of those groups, and when the table decided to pass two stories around at once, he started both without missing a beat. 

Marianne Kunkel, the club’s adviser, was sitting at the same table and wrote in an email that she was impressed by how easily Anyanike could churn out stories. He didn’t stop to think about either opening line, and to Kunkel, that showed Anyanike was “someone with a ton of story worlds” in his head. 

For Anyanike, stories have never been hard to find. He calls himself “a bit of a creative person,” and long before he started writing seriously, he was already inventing characters and building whole worlds just to pass the time.  

“I always found myself interested in creating little stories in my head,” Anyanike wrote in an email, “or just worldbuilding as a sort of pastime when I was really bored.” 

What changed was realizing those stories might mean something to someone else. The idea that people other than himself could enjoy what he wrote pushed Anyanike to start putting the ideas floating around in his head onto paper. Since then, he hasn’t run short on them. 

“There’s always something new to be explored, always some new inspiration, always an idea that can be developed into something truly fantastic,” Anyanike wrote. 

Kunkel noticed that drive the first time Anyanike walked into a club meeting. He jumped straight into a writing prompt and stayed focused on it for 20 minutes. When it came time to share, Anyanike shot a hand up and read what Kunkel described as a “rollicking, scary-yet-funny” piece of prose. 

“Ekene is a serious writer,” Kunkel wrote. 

Kunkel has also seen that seriousness from the other side of the page. Anyanike is a student in her ENGL 232 Introduction to Children’s Literature course, where he digs deep into a text’s themes and then zooms out to talk about how it plays out in media and culture. 

At another club meeting, members held an original character show-and-tell, sharing slides about characters they were developing for their own projects. Anyanike presented a fantasy world so complex and well thought out that he ran out of time before he could explain all of it. 

“Ekene is an enthusiastic public speaker,” Kunkel wrote, “with a rich and almost reverent appreciation of creative writing.” 

Anyanike found the club almost by accident. 

“I actually first got involved through the Writing Center, shoutout to them,” Anyanike wrote.  

He knew a club had existed at some point but had no idea it was something he could join until staff at the Writing Center mentioned it. That first meeting was welcoming enough that Anyanike began attending every one he could and started spreading the word to other students. 

What keeps him coming back is the range of people in the room. 

“It’s really important to me that there’s such a wide variety of people in there all willing to share their stories and writings,” Anyanike wrote. “It’s honestly amazing.” 

The club has also taught Anyanike how much he enjoys reading other people’s work. For him, it isn’t about critique so much as seeing how each writer interprets an idea and draws on their own experiences to shape it. 

“Anytime someone shares a piece with you,” Anyanike wrote, “they’re giving you a window into their inner world.” 

Ekene gives positive feedback on a peer’s short story that was shared with the JCCC Creative Writing Club. Photo By: Nathan Schweiger 

That enthusiasm for other writers has made Anyanike a memorable presence in the club. As an officer this semester, he offers input on club events and writing activities and has even helped with poster design. According to Kunkel, he always smiles when a student walks into a meeting and makes sure others get a chance to read their writing aloud before he raises his own hand. 

Club member Shane Wilson described Anyanike in an email as “extremely welcoming and seemingly ready to chat about anything.” Anyanike’s humor leans into absurdity, especially in his comedic writing, and he also has a particular flair for horror. 

“His humor has rubbed off on me and others,” Wilson wrote. “The variety of prompts he brings to the club is awesome, and he has encouraged others to write more absurd.” 

Asked to name a favorite piece of his own, Anyanike admitted it was a hard question. 

“If I’m being honest, nothing quite yet, but also everything,” he wrote. 

Many of the pieces he is most excited about are still in progress, and the finished ones all hold a similar value that makes them hard to rank. Eventually, though, Anyanike made a call. 

“Just this once, though, I’ll be decisive,” Anyanike wrote. 

His pick is “tables,” the first piece where he tried some of the stranger ideas he had been wanting to experiment with for a while. Seeing those ideas come together into something cohesive made Anyanike “super happy,” and while he believes he can do better, he considers the piece an integral step toward becoming the writer he wants to be. 

That goal is simple. Anyanike wants to finish a complete story he is proud of. 

“Everyone writes for their own reason,” Anyanike wrote. “For me it’s really for my own enjoyment.” 

Writing gives him a place to explore the thoughts that keep occurring to him, many of which aren’t even story ideas at first. And like a lot of writers, Anyanike has a “white whale,” a project he has been feeding and building up in his head for some time. 

Part of the reason he has been writing so much lately is to make sure that when he finally starts that project, he has the skill to carry it past his own standards for what it should be. 

He hopes that day comes soon. 

“Until then, I’ll just keep writing,” Anyanike wrote.