The dusty orange brick cottage stands between Old Main and the Bateman Physical Sciences Center on the Tempe campus’ Tyler Mall. It’s one of the oldest buildings on campus, but most students don’t know anything about it.

The Piper Writers House is home to the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, which is a resource center for creative writers, especially for those who are in the Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts program.

The Creative Writing MFA program will be celebrating its 25th anniversary starting this year, though the program officially turns 25 in 2010, said Karla Elling, program manager and coordinator for the Creative Writing MFA program.

“ASU has the greatest creative writing program in the United States or anywhere else in the world,” Elling said in an e-mail. “No other program has such fine faculty, generous students or possibilities for outreach and world travel. Other older programs sit on their haunches.
ASU moves and does good everywhere.”

Elling has created her own exhibit in celebration of the upcoming anniversary, which opened fully Wednesday at Hayden Library, though some of the display opened earlier in the week.

“The dean of ASU libraries, Sherrie Schmidt, was enthusiastic about having a display of my letterpress [and] handmade paper broadsides at Hayden Library,” Elling said.

Elling has been a part of the program for as long as it’s been around and plans to retire in May after earning a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degree from the school.

“I was hired way back in 1985 to help build the new program by writing grants to fund visiting writers and building special programs,” she said.

Sally Ball, assistant director of the undergraduate creative writing program, called Elling an “incredibly distinguished paper artist.”

“She’s a book artist and a reader and a person who knows the history of this program better than anybody else, probably,” she said.

Ball works to promote the connection between the undergraduate and graduate creative writing programs and the Piper Center and Writers House.

“It’s a nice place, it’s an oasis in this campus,” Ball said about the Piper Writers House. “It’s a nice place to be able to go in and enjoy the atmosphere.”

She encourages her students to go to the programs the center offers and teaches students about some of the authors who will be visiting through the distinguished visiting writers series program and assigns their work to students in her classes sometimes.

“I think it creates a real center, a gathering place, a place where [students] can feel connected to the program,” Ball said.

However, few students outside of the creative writing program know about the programs or Writers House.

“I know that there are people who just hang out there who have no idea, no connection, don’t really care, but who just like the house,” Ball said.

English literature junior Chrysta Wellman said she regularly passes by the Piper Writers House but doesn’t know anything about it and hasn’t used it as a resource.

“I’ve been curious about what goes on in there, but I’ve never gone inside or really looked into it,” Wellman said, adding that she has some theories about what goes on inside. “I just thought it was a house where creative writers go and hang out.”

She enjoys writing fiction and eventually hopes to be an author.

Peter Turchi, director of the creative writing program and the Piper writing center, said the center is 6 years old.

“A lot of the work that the house does is directly related to supporting the students in the graduate program as well as the faculty,” Turchi said.

The center has been aggressive this year in involving undergraduate students as well, including the creation of a new undergraduate newsletter, the Dead Metaphor, he said.

The Piper Center may help celebrate the upcoming anniversary, though most celebrations will happen next year, Turchi said.

Creative writing senior Cortney Yee is an intern at the Piper Center for Creative Writing.

On a tour of the Writers House, Yee brought up interesting history of the house, including the possible ghost of Dixie Gammage, the first wife of former ASU President Grady Gammage, because the house was once his residence.

“Apparently her ghost lives here,” she said. “I’ve never seen it, but it’s a good story.”

There is also a time capsule in the backyard from around 2003.

“Some of the staff and writers put stuff in there and are going to dig it up in like 50 years,” she said.

The house is always open to visitors, she said.

“Most people don’t know about us,” she said. “It’s pretty much a lot of grad students who come and hang out. Random people like to come up and sit in the rocking chairs out front.”

Reach the reporter at reweaver@asu.edu.