This past week, Western Reserve Academy launched the inaugural Word Count Literary Festival, a bold new initiative in honor of the WRA Bicentennial Speaker Series and a celebration of storytelling in all its forms. Made possible by the T. Dixon Long ’51 Fund for Creative Writing, the Knight Fellowship and much thoughtful planning, the festival brought nationally recognized voices to campus. Seth Borgen, Anne Raeff, Knight Fellow Lori Ostlund and Iheoma Nwachukwu shared passion for the written word that echoed through classrooms, Ellsworth Dining Hall, the Chapel and the Hudson Library & Historical Society.
Each program reaffirmed for our community what stories can do: connect us across differences, hold space for curiosity and illuminate what it means to be human. This event also opened WRA’s doors to the broader community, reflecting WRA’s ongoing commitment to fostering dialogue well beyond campus.
The authors’ reflections sparked conversation around identity, memory and transformation:
As a person who leaves home, you carry a bit of home with you,” explained Nwachukwu. “The meaning of home changes…it’s a dance, a really subtle dance where you’re negotiating your existence in your new place.
I’m living my life, but I’m also hearing these stories…and you have all of these disparate threads, you have a lot of images, you have a lot of sentences…sensory experiences. My life and those stories come together,” shared Raeff. Raeff also left students with a powerful mission: Actively try to make the world a better place for the people around you in order to write.
I think, in general, people are very bad at being where they are,” noted Borgen. “We have a romanticized version of the past — life was better then — or the future — life will be better when I’m there, when my life is like this…but the present is where your life is happening.
The Lori who drove around at 19 stupidly, foolishly, curiously was the beginning of how I thought about a narrator,” reflected Ostlund "...the character of me, the narrator, the iterations. Because I’m never really the narrator...maybe just some version of me or a piece of who I was at a specific time.
In exploring themes of diaspora, liminal space and authentic voice, the festival invited students, faculty and community members alike to think deeply about where we come from, who we are and what stories we choose to tell. “Word Count” ignited a powerful energy, a reminder that storytelling is both torch and tether, arcing always toward light and truth.
The success of this event can be directly attributed to the passion of many: Ali Long ’86, the T. Dixon Long ’51 Endowed Fund for Creative Writing, James L. Knight & Mary Ann Knight Fund and the entire Advancement office; English Department Chair Elliot Zetzer, English teacher Todd Gilbert and the entire department; Head of School Suzanne Walker Buck, Associate Head of School Brenda Petersen and all faculty members; current students Izzy Haslinger Johnson ’25, Tessa Lavi ’26, Kaden Haslinger ’25, Sarah Wilcox ’25 and Nicole Pae ’25; the Learned Owl Book Shop and the Hudson Library & Historical Society.
Click here to enjoy photos from the various events!
