2010 Fall Reading Series Recap . . .

During the fall of 2010, the creative writing community at JSC kicked off the Fall Reading Series with two intimate visits by renowned poets Carl Phillips (September) and Nancy Mitchell (October), both of whom often stepped out from behind their mesmerizing poetry to talk openly and frankly about the lives from which such poetry springs -- lives at times comical (Phillips described becoming trapped on his own roof after an ill-advised attempt at home repair) and harrowing (Mitchell spoke candidly about her son's consuming drug addiction and how it generated much of the emotional energy in her newest book, Grief Hut).

October:  The JSC students who participated in the fall 2010 Poetry Slam did not so much step out from behind their words as blast through them.  This was high-contact writing at its best, featuring not only slam poetry but works of flash fiction and flash essay.

Ashley McCauliff, Winner, Fall 2010 JSC Poetry Slam

Doug Bliss

Jasmine Ohadi

In late October, creative nonfiction guru Michael Steinberg delivered his craft talk entitled "Memory, Fact, Imagination, Research:  Memoir's Hybrid Personality," which pushed for a new definition of this often indefinable, "mongrel" form, specifically addressing the uncomfortable "truth in memoir" controversy and the uncomfortable yet necessary alliance between imagination and fact.

 Michael Steinberg

 Michael Steinberg and JSC Creative Nonfiction writer Todd Loskutoff

JSC Creative Writing students strike a pose:  (left to right) Taylor Shaw, 

Todd Loskutoff, Elizabeth Glasser, and Stephanie Girard

In November, acclaimed fiction writer Antonya Nelson was this season's keynote visiting author, providing as well a Creative Audience event for first-year students.  She wowed a big crowd by reading the first chapter of her new novel, Bound.

Before her reading, Ms. Nelson visited Professor Jacob White's Introduction to Creative Writing class to discuss the unlikely sources of fiction.  Much of that conversation can be found here in the Fall 2010 Issue 5 of JSC's campus newspaper Basement Medicine.  

Antonya Nelson

Finally, we capped off the 2010 Fall Reading Series by celebrating the work of JSC's own creative writing community.  These readers included Rose Nash (fiction), Ann Turkle (poetry), Alison Moncrief (poetry), Jacob White (fiction), Elizabeth Powell (poetry), and JSC President Barbara Murphy (poetry).  What a cornucopia of voices!