The Ink! Undergraduate English Association is an organization that develops students academically and professionally in the areas of literature and writing—fostering a sense of community among its members. We are open to all students of all majors who enjoy reading, writing, and/or critiquing English literature.

Follow us on Instagram (@ink_usc) for updates about meetings and events!

Join our GroupMe to stay up to date and chat with other members!

What We Do:

Club Meetings

We meet bi-weekly to hang out and have fun creative writing sessions! During these meetings, you can respond to fun icebreakers, chat about writing, and then work on unique creative writing prompts. Information about meeting times/locations can be found on Instagram and GroupMe.

Open Mic Nights

Once a month, you can join club members and students from all academic backgrounds in a night of sharing creative writing. And no, it’s not all dark poetry, but if that’s you—bring it on!

You can share poetry, plays, short stories, comedies, epics, or excerpts from a novel you’re working on. If you want to share your writing, make new friends, or just listen to others share their creativity, then Open Mic Night is for you!

Open Mic Night is typically hosted at a local coffee shop, so you can also grab a drink or a sweet treat while you listen! You can check out photos from our previous Open Mic Nights in our photo gallery.

Social Events & Community

Ink! is a network for English majors and students interested in finding friends or going to any number of lit/art-oriented functions on campus and in the greater Columbia area. Basically, if you want to have fun, you’re invited! We host various social events, including anything from plays on campus to trivia nights and holiday parties.

USC’s Literary Conference

...is hosted by us.

If you have done your own literary research, independent or for a class, or have written an amazing creative writing project, we want to hear about it. You can present a paper to a crowd of your peers and professors—again, they don’t bite—and answer questions in a Q&A panel. And yes, it’s a competition. There are judges, and you can win. It's a great experience (For all you resumé lovers).

Or if you want to get involved in research, find out more about what your peers are doing, learn some new things, or support your peers, the Annual Literary Conference is still for you.

We host the conference every spring, and if you are interested in program planning or what goes into putting a conference on, we would love to have your help and have you in our organization!