REMEMBER: No class on Friday--go to the Festival during our class instead! (I read at 11, hint, hint!) I also strongly encourage you to attend the Thursday 6:30 reading with Natasha Trethewey!
BEFORE YOU GO...
Remember to go to the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival this Thursday-Saturday! You can see the full schedule, author biographies and more here: http://www.ecuscissortail.blogspot.com/. On Thursday the sessions follow a TR class format: sessions at 9:30, 11, 2 and 3:30, along with our featured reader, Natasha Trethewey at 6:30--come to this one if you can! On Friday they follow a MWF class format, with readings at 9, 10, 11, and 2, with an additional one at 3:30 and another featured reader at 6:30, Norbert Krapf. There are two sessions on Saturday, at 9 and 10:45. Note that on both days, there are concurrent sessions going on in the Estep Auditorium (in the Bill S. Cole University Center) and at the North Lounge (just down the hall from the Campus Bookstore).
AFTER YOU GO...
Be sure to attend a full session--and please don't leave in the middle of a reading (it's rude and might disturb the reader and the audience). Afterwards, answer ONE of the following questions in a short paragraph based on your experience as a COMMENT to this post.
1. Explain the experience of hearing authors read their own works. This doesn't usually happen, and especailly not at ECU. What were you able to see, hear, or experience that you might not if you had simply read the work yourself? On the same note, would you be more likely to read one of the stories or poems in your session after hearing them in the session?
2. Which work/author impressed you the most and why? Was it his/her manner of presentation, the story he/she told, or simply the ideas expressed in the story/poem? Be specific so I can understand why you identified or enjoyed this writer.
3. Which work or works opened themselves up to a theoretical reading? Did you see a poem that seemed to cry out for a psychoanalytic reading? A 'Marxist' short story? Any work that might be wildly subjective if given a 'reader response' analysis? Or, where there anyworks that connected with any of our Gothic ideas in class, such as unreliable narrators, the "uncanny," taboos in society, etc.? Be as specific as possible so I can "see" your connection.
ENJOY THE FESTIVAL!
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ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, I couldn't narrow down just one author. Jennifer Kidney had some awesome poetry. She was creative and delivered it well. I was holding back laughter as she read her road work ahead poem, and I couldn't hold in my laughter anymore when she did her poem about meeting her dream man in an Atwoods while searching for that much needed lawn gnome. (She explained that she did it as a response to Hada's "Pickin Up Chicks at Wal-Mart." Her ideas expressed could be seen as intense in a certain light, but I felt that her poetry really wowed the audience when it was presented, which could possibly be the strongpoint of her work.
Of course, not to sound like a kiss-ass, but I speak for all of us when I say that yours was, by far, the funniest prose piece at the festival. Most of us were thoroughly disappointed when we learned that you had not, indeed, been 100% truthful in it. I'm also pretty sure that all of us walked out of there wanting to hire that guy to write our hold messages as long as they consisted of something along these lines: "why do _____, when you can have a nice heaping spoonful of PEANUT BUTTER?!" I've mentioned it before, but the energy and excitement you bring when you're in front of people takes the presentation from "awww" to "awwwSOME!" I think the story would've been funny anyway, but, when read out loud, it was just plain hilarious.
Last one I'll mention, on a more serious note, was Rilla Askew. I was already a fan of hers after reading some of her other works, but the story she presented was...just... wow. It was intense. Even reading it on paper would've been intense, but the fact that Rilla was actually a witness to the events she described made it even more emotional as she read it to the audience. She explained her godson (who is a black man) had been wrongfully taken to jail for petty larceny (stealing a $70 piece of something off a car). She explained the corruption he faced in the judicial system, and her friend's and godson's reaction to the events in his life. It was beautiful, amazing, heartbreaking, and any other adjective one could imagine. It caused me to rethink a lot of stereotypes I may have, or that I see others having. The strongpoint of her presentation was the ideas she expressed in her story, but having her read it was like the icing on the cake.
Great, honest responses to the festival--I'm glad to hear you connected so much with Kidney and Askew's work! Sadly, I had to miss Askew this time, but I've been bowled over several times in the past. We're fortunate that she not only cares about the festival but wants to encourage other writers and readers to see works in progress (she often reads works before they are finished, as do others). That's the most exciting thing about Scissortail...you can hear future novels and books 'in embryo.'
ReplyDeleteAnd of course I'm tickled that you found my story amusing. But don't be too disappointed; much of it IS true, I just re-arranged many of the events and 'fictionalized' certain elements to make them read better. For example...
1. Both the 'peanut butter' and 'battle ship' messages were real--I just re-wrote them from memory with slight additions. We really sent those out to clients.
2. The real 'on-hold apocalypse' wasn't nearly as significant as I made it sound. It was a few customers over a longer period of time. Yet we did insult people by putting peanut butter messages on their machines, and one client did rip their on-hold unit out of the wall while talking to us.
3. The "Drew" character was based on a real guy who wrote all those awful scripts and was considered the best Scriptwriter in the department. He made our lives miserable, since he never had to take the flak for his creations.
4. We actually all had to contribute to writing the Holiday scripts, but since he wrote the most, he sent out the most--and he always chose his own paragraphs. So it might as well have just been his brainchild.
5. The other details about the job are all true and based on bitter experience! There are actually much funnier messages than the peanut butter one that we really wrote, some intentionally, but they didn't really go with the story. Maybe a sequel?
I concur! Just make an entire book of essays and we will buy them!
ReplyDelete1)Though I'm late to the party, I did love going to the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, even if I only did end up going three times Thursday and once on Friday. I also went during my Freshman year and was lucky enough to see and hear Rilla Askew read from her new novel, which was a real pleasure especially since I read Fire in Beulah in one of my earlier classes. It's always fun to listen to so many different authors read from either their works or the works of someone they admired. Every reader has such different stories to tell, which in turn brings out lots of alternate emotions.
ReplyDeleteThis year I particularly liked listening to Andrew Geyer (who I had never heard of before) read his new novel Dixie Fish. The simple story about a guy in love with a girl, who waits hours on end for her to show up - and only for her to ignore him - was a really good and well told story that held my attention for the entire time he read. Also, listening to Juan Perez read his many poems and songs about a "Brown Christmas" was very entertaining. Suffice to say that hearing 'On-hold Apocalypse' was the perfect capper to my time spent going to Scissortail as it was hilarious and very well written! It's always nice to listen to people from so many different backgrounds, with very different stories to tell. I really can't wait to go next year as well.
Juan Manuel Perez is one giant, funny man. I'm sad I missed him this year.
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