Many children dream up stories, writing adventures of fantasy worlds in notebooks or poems about the world around them. At Las Positas College, that childhood passion is evolving into professional craft.
The campus recently saw an increase in resources for aspiring writers. The English Center, located in Building 2100, was established in the 2025 fall semester. The center serves as a creative hub: It hosts monthly workshops, drop-in tutoring and a dedicated community space for students to work and sharpen their writing skills.
This creative space paved the way for LPC’s Black Ink Club. Founded and led by business and economics student Mikala Wong, the club’s first meeting took place in February 2026. The club was created to help writers develop their skills and publish their works. It also provides a space for experimentation, peer feedback and digital publication through their website, blackinkclub.org.
“Anyone can just sit and write,” Wong said, “but not everyone can … get it out there. That’s what my club is for.”
While it holds workshops as spaces for students to write, the club’s main mission is to help students publish their work, which the English Center has helped with. The English Center originally featured a rotating kiosk displaying papers that discussed professional authors. The display has since transformed into a showcase for student work.
The Black Ink Club now offers its own pamphlets that highlight student authors, many of which are club members. The display features more than 10 different student-written pamphlets — ranging from poetry to short stories — alongside five professional author pamphlets.
“The fact that we were able to actually push something physical out there on campus was already exciting for most of us,” Wong said. “You feel really proud of yourself because you work(ed) so hard to make something that was good enough to share.”
The club also acts as a connection to Havik for those seeking traditional print publication. Havik is a student-run publication and class that publishes a journal of arts and literature. From prose, scripts, poetry, art, photography and multimedia works, Havik publishes student submissions in a compiled book once a year. Through collaboration, any written submissions not selected for the book may be redirected to the Black Ink Club, ensuring students a pathway to getting their work published.
“(Student publishing) can give them confidence and allow them to be more creative,” said Nadianna Roy, editor-in-chief of Havik. “It can also help them in both discovering their own voice (and) a career path.”
Wong dedicates every other meeting to teach fellow students how to attain success in the publishing industry. Her instruction pored over how to get a literary agent, different methods of publishing and how to make one’s work appeal to publishers.
For Wong, the greatest reward is the “mirrored” inspiration.
“People have told me that watching me do my writing process inspires them to do theirs,” she said. “When you witness someone doing something you’re dreaming about, it tells you that it’s real.”
The momentum will only continue this May as Havik and the English Center partner for a “Get Published” workshop as part of the center’s spring 2026 workshop series. The Black Ink Club’s pamphlets displayed in the center will be used as examples of ways students can publish their own work.
“Sharing what you do with the world can be very scary, but it can be very rewarding, enriching (and) can also teach you a lot about yourself,” said Noël Fagerhaugh, senior instructional assistant to the English department and coordinator of the English Center. “The key is helping students identify and develop their own personal voices.”
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TOP PHOTO: Pamphlets created by the Black Ink Club with students’ writing on the inside. This display is in the English Center, building 2100. (Photo by Max Kiyoi/The Express)
Max Kiyoi is a staff writer for The Express.
