16 English undergraduates enjoyed a lunch with R.L. Stine, author of the famous Goosebumps children’s horror series, in NYC last week.

Last year, Stine established the R.L. Stine Scholarship for English majors who have a serious interest in Creative Writing. The award offers $11,000 to the student with the best writing sample in a genre of their choice. In fact, one of the lucky 16 was Sam Zafris, the first winner of Stine’s scholarship. The other 15 students were in NYC as part of Alan Farmer’s Shakespeare class. They received an expenses-paid trip to NYC to see four Shakespeare plays performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Their visit with Stine was just icing on the cake.

Stine entertained the students with stories of how he got started in the writing business, how he wrote his first children’s horror story, how he finds ideas for his books (hint: they start with a title), and many other things. These stories did not terrify the students at all.

Students reported that Mr. Stine was much less scary in person than they’d imagined him as children.