Kristen (Woszcynski) Lund

Class of 2008

Kristen (Woszczynski) Lund was the senior writer at Tucker Publishing Group in Evansville, IN. Her work has been published in Indianapolis Monthly and The Indianapolis Star's community magazines and has aired on WNIN public radio. She is currently Director of News Services at the University of Evansville.

Can you tell us how majoring in Creative Writing at UE has helped you?

Career-wise, I feel that an English degree served me better than a traditional journalism major would have. Writing for a magazine is fundamentally different than writing for a newspaper, which is different than writing for TV, radio, etc. My classes at UE taught me the skills that make good magazine writing: telling a story with a narrative arc and memorable characters. Also essential is the ability to write pieces that have both timeliness and staying power — and to make every word count, whether a story is 250 or 2,500 words long.

Did you have any memorable experience (in or out of the classroom) that changed you as a writer or a creative thinker?

Yes, namely my semesters at Harlaxton College and Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch, South Africa. I have to admit that I barely wrote at all when I was abroad, except for journaling and the obligatory travel blog for friends and family back in the U.S. But once I came back and processed my experiences a bit, they worked their way into many stories and essays. I traveled as much as possible, tutored South African preteens, walked through buildings 1,000-plus years old, met refugees, talked with Northern Irish young adults about their wartime childhoods, and more. Hearing those stories and experiencing other ways of life gave my writing a broader frame of reference and (I like to think) a maturity that I may not have otherwise gained at a young age.