While some students used Thursday night to let loose, others chose to listen to and appreciate the creative works of graduate students.

VOICE, a University program where graduate students share fiction and poetry with an audience, began in 2001 and is still going strong today.

VOICE is designed for master’s degree in fine arts, or MFA, students, said Program Coordinator Ashley Booth.

“The nice thing about VOICE is that it is a gateway to see what one’s fellow classmates have been up to,” Booth said.

There are only 21 people in the creative writing program, and almost all participate in this graduate reading series once a year, Booth said. There are three readings per semester, which usually feature two to three readers per event.

In the most recent reading on Dec. 3, MFA students Aaron Hobart and Sara Gelston read their own writings.

There were also several visiting students from Bowling Green State University in Ohio who participated in the event.

“It is cool to see those who you normally don’t work with share their writing,” Hobart said.

Hobart is a second year graduate student in the program, and performed one of his fiction pieces in the recent reading.

“I believe that reading aloud is more performative,” Hobart said. “The best is hearing something that is funny or involving sex. I picked a little of both.”

Before Hobart decided to go back to school to gain his master’s degree, he worked as a publisher. He said VOICE gives him an outlet to share his work with others.

Gelston shared with the audience several selections of her own poetry. Since there is not a big job market for poets, Gelston said she is planning to stay in academia and teach once she completes her degree.

“It is important not to fulfill the stereotypes of writers of acting too stuffy and boring,” Gelston said. “It is important to dispel it and make VOICE an engaging event.”

The event is held at the Krannert Art Museum, where students and faculty gather to listen to the speakers.

“Krannert is such a great location to have VOICE, and we are so glad that they are so accommodating to us,” Booth said.

Krannert will continue to be the location for VOICE next semester.

The VOICE events will be held on Feb. 12, March 4 and April 1, Booth said. The readers for each event have been lined up since August.

“VOICE is a great way to get experience as a writer and to see the support from the other writers,” Booth said.

Not only is it valuable to the participating students, but it is also valuable to the audience, which sometimes includes undergraduates in writing programs, Booth said.

The reading and writing components of VOICE are not only a chance to showcase the graduate students’ talent, but also to bring awareness to writing in general.

“However we can bring back writing into people’s lives we do because it’s not a part of everyday life, which is sad,” Gelston said.

“Through VOICE, writing is alive.”