Joshua Linnehan
NORTH ANDOVER—-Being entranced into a thrilling novel or short story is one of the best feelings anyone can experience. At Merrimack, there’s a place for students to pursue that feeling and express their creativity.
That place is the English House. Their communications manager, April Richardson, along with club manager, Matt Muldoon, and event coordinator, Liza Santerre, have all done their part in helping the English House explode in popularity the past few years. There are multiple reasons as to why the House is flourishing, with Richardson crediting a relocation as a critical factor.
She described the new location as a “cute little branch house” right outside of campus. It’s right behind Crowe Hall. If students go through the main entrance, it’s straight ahead from there. The House was previously deserted in no man’s land, in the back of the Athletic Complex building. This relocation occurred at the end of Richardson’s freshman year, and her team is constantly working on improvements,
“We built a patio outback to hold outdoor classes. It’s incredible there. It just feels so homey, we’ve got our own kitchen, we make tea sometimes, and just hang out and relax,” Richardson said.
It’s also worth noting that the English House isn’t just for English majors. They have been able to expand their marketing to other majors, and Richardson believes it makes a big difference,
“A good majority of people that come to our book club are not English majors. They absolutely love just having a space to not do schoolwork, and talk about reading and writing,” Richardson said.
There are multiple clubs that meet once a week at the English House. The book club meets on Mondays, the creative writing club meets on Thursdays, and they also hold various events there.
The creative writing club is the most popular attraction, as up to 20 people actively participate according to Richardson. She also said that about a dozen people show up per event, while the book club is smaller, with about five people attending.
One of Richardson’s favorite events happened on November 1st in their annual Murder Mystery night.
“We actually have a couple members of the English House write up a script for the night and assign characters. This year we’re got 13 characters. It’s really exciting,” Richardson said.
Members of the English House looking at clues during Murder Mystery Night. Credit to April Richardson.
Other events include the yearly open mic nights, where about 20 or so people get the mic and perform any form of expression they want,
“We have people sing songs. We have people play instruments, read poetry, and short stories. We just give someone a mic and let them go crazy for a couple of minutes. It always ends up being really nice,” Richardson said.
There are also collaborative events such as meeting up with the Unity House in the Sakowich Center last year,
“We brought in a visiting author and he talked about his experiences as a poet and then members of both houses presented a creative story. I want to do more collaborations with groups on campus,” Richardson said.
A major development coming soon at the English House is the revival of the Merrimack Review. It was a literary magazine that had its last edition in 2018, but due to COVID it was discontinued.
Richardson hopes to bring a new installment to Merrimack in December,
“We’re in the final process of getting everything printed. We had a couple of submissions happen in the spring and we had a student design the cover. It’s basically [for] any creative thing. We’ve done visual art, poems, short stories, and interviews of people around the area,” Richardson said.
As we near the end of the semester and stress levels increase, the English House is the perfect place to settle down and relax on campus,
“I view it as an escape. I find that I’m really relaxed there. It’s kind of a place for me to let my guard down and it’s brought me a lot of success. It’s helped me become more confident in my own writing skills and helped others learn to express themselves,” Richardson said.
