Growing up, Brooke Davis moved around a lot as her dad’s job took her from Virginia to Ohio and seemingly everywhere between. So, books became her most consistent companions.

Her love of reading flourished into a toying with writing. Though she loved creating stories, she never imagined writing could provide reliable income.

“Being a writer just seemed unattainable. There were all these other voices telling me that it was a long shot. So, I needed to have a backup plan. I needed to make writing my hobby.” – Davis

As she began her college search, Brooke penned herself down as a prospective English teacher. It was not quite her passion, but close enough.

For her first semester she attended a large Indiana college, desiring to leave her small Buckeye State town. But the decision backfired when the thousands of aloof faces left her craving for one to take notice. Giving up on the big school environment, Brooke consulted Google for smaller colleges and came across Franklin College. After the first visit, she found Franklin’s smiling faces were a stark contrast to those indifferent expressions she passed on her other campus, so she transferred.

“Then, when I got to Franklin, I was so overwhelmed by how much my teachers believed in me and encouraged me.” – Davis

While attending Franklin College, Brooke took many creative writing classes and enjoyed the workshop approach to the instruction. This method optimizes students’ ability to receive individualized feedback from both other students and the professor. Her professors and peers took notice of her strong writing abilities and encouraged her to abandon her safety blanket and pursue her real passion: storytelling.

Brooke graduated from Franklin College in 2015 with a degree in English and with the college’s first creative writing degree. She is now a full-time novelist. A book she began writing when she was 16 is scheduled for a 2021 publication.

After maneuvering through the long and winding road to publication, Brooke credits part of her accomplishment to the encouragement she received at Franklin College. “I fed off of that and the more of that I got the more I was like, ‘This is what I was meant to be doing.’ The more encouragement, the more experience that I got, the more confident I felt in my ability to become a writer.” – Davis