Writers go off-book during student reading sessions

Public speaking is always a big challenge, but when you’re reading a story or poem you created, the anxiety doubles. “Will the crowd react the way I want them to? Will they like it? Will they understand the message? Am I any good at this?”

But the only way to move past those doubts is to keep reading aloud in public until it becomes second nature, which is one reason Curtis Crisler, a professor in the Department of English, holds public readings/open mic sessions near the end of each semester. It also reminds Crisler of his own days as a Mastodon student, when public readings served as a way for young writers to showcase their work and encourage one another.

“If you’re representing your own thing, don’t you want them to get the best representation out there?” Crisler asked a small audience during a reading in November. “And since they are your words, you can represent them the best.”

Writers get 10 minutes during lunch break in Walb Student Union, Room G21, to present samples of their work, which can include poems, a manuscript chapter, or any form of creative writing. There’s no microphone, but it takes courage to share.

Eden Bailey, a senior studying anthropology and women’s studies, started the fall semester reading with “Have you seen the news this morning?” about the overwhelming depression that can take over. He followed with three more poems, including “Someone show me how to cry.” All of his selections that day were about dealing with anxiety, including being a cancer survivor. While reading, Bailey sometimes sways from side-to-side, as if to a soundtrack in his head, which enhances his rhythm and cadence.

“I thought this was a good place to debut some of my stuff,” Bailey said. “It’s very good practice for me to get comfortable, but I’m also working on making it sound like it sounds in my head. I don’t think it causes me to go back and rewrite, but it makes me want to keep it going and write new stuff.”

Bailey, 30, said he has been writing since high school, but has only been seriously pursuing the craft for a year.

Isabel Speicher, a junior studying communication sciences and disorders, shared two poems she wrote for limited-term lecturer Erica Anderson-Senter’s English 203 class. The first is titled “Things you miss out on as a grownup.”

“At work today, during my lunch break
I went outside and found
A still-smoking cigarette smashed
Flat into the pavement.

I had to stop myself 
From reaching down,
And salvaging one last drag
From that pathetic smoldering stick.

I don’t even smoke cigarettes.

I’m 21 now.
And if I wanted to start
I wouldn’t need
To scavenge for scraps in a grocery store parking lot.

But the smoke billowed out,
And circled round like a helping hand,
And the smell of cheap tobacco and nicotine
Spoke to something deep within me.
It shouted loud and ashamed
And woke that miserable 15-year-old
I put to bed so long ago.

It cried out in raspy warning
“Now! Before it’s too late!”
And that was the end 
Of my 15-minute lunch break.”

Speicher said she doesn’t write for a specific reason, but she’s always enjoyed it, even as a kid, and always finds herself coming back to it. She loves art, but believes she’s better at writing than drawing.

“I believe the practice in front of a crowd is crucial, no matter what genre you work in,” Speicher said. “And receiving feedback, while intimidating, is just as important if you want to grow as a writer, so doing these presentations helps me as a writer face my apprehensions with reading and sharing in front of a crowd.”