SILVER CITY, NM—This spring marked the second year of the Sin Fronteras Creative Writing Project at Western New Mexico University. The project included a weekly series of two-hour workshops, each led by an established writer. Participants not only had an opportunity to experience craft talks, but they also participated in writing sessions and experienced readings of international and regional literature.

The session leaders this year were poet and WNMU Associate Professor Heather Frankland, who led a session on international fairy tales; novelist Melanie Sweeney, whose session focused on romantic first meetings; WNMU writer-in-residence JJ Amaworo Wilson, who led a workshop that examined international works of art that explore the boundaries between life and death; and novelist Fabienne Josaphat, whose session examined how personal and historical borders shape identity.

Sin Fronteras concluded with a celebratory reading and potluck that allowed participants to not only share literature they admired but also to read from their own work created during the project.

Frankland, who serves as Poet Laureate of Silver City and Grant County and who coordinated Sin Fronteras, said that she started the project to generate an intentional creative community. “The overall purpose of the project was for workshop attendees to create connections, to be exposed to international and regional literature and themes, and to generate new work,” she said. “Each session served as both a craft talk and a generative writing workshop.”

The students that participated this year said that the experience boosted their confidence as writers while also stretching them creatively and intellectually. For Anais Orantez Middleton, who is the editor of the student-led journal The Maverick, one of the highlights was the diversity of the workshops. “You are exposed to different genres, and you get to apply the different stories to your own life,” she said. “It is a lot of critical thinking.”

Laisha Vargas Garcia said that this was her second year participating. “I really loved it last year, so I had to come back,” she said. Vargas Garcia, who is part of Mariachi Plata de WNMU, said that the conference allowed her to explore personal creativity outside of her music. “To be able to branch out and go somewhere else on campus with different people and be recognized … It is refreshing.”

Frankland said that Sin Fronteras was made possible with support from the WNMU Foundation and the Department of Humanities. Given the project’s success in its first two years, said Frankland, she hopes to see Sin Fronteras continue as an annual event.