The night’s readings began with an introduction from Camille Dungy, director of the Creative Writing Reading Series. She described the goal of the series as an opportunity for students to meet and engage with established writers from both inside and outside of the Fort Collins community. There were door prizes for canned food donations; each prize was donated from a local shop.
Katherine Indermaur introduced the first reader, Chloe’ Leisure. Leisure is an M.F.A. graduate from Colorado State, she was also the 2014-2015 Fort Collins poet laureate. Indermaur described Leisure’s writing to be fierce with determination, yet childlike with wonder. Leisure read excerpts from old as well as new work, focusing on human interactions with nature. The new work she read from looked particularly at the in-between of wild and domesticity — or the unknown and the known. Many of her poems were influenced by her Michigan upbringing.
After another round of door prizes, Kelly Weber introduced Rebecca Brown. Brown is the author of 13 books and Weber describes her writing as honest and distinctive, while influencing the reader to ask questions about the world around them. Brown began by reading a piece called “The Girl Who Cried Wolf” which started with the image of a girl with her hand bitten off by a wolf. Next, a character with his calf bitten off by the wolf emerged to bring the reader into a discussion concerning the word-origin of “calf”. Brown describes one of the definitions, “a floating piece of ice detached from an iceberg”, launching into a discussion of Global Warming. Within her writing, Brown also interweaves ideas of religion and holiness and the darkness of human nature.
The night ended with questions for the authors from the audience and a final round of prizes.
Don’t miss the final Creative Writing Reading Series reading on November 29, 2018 from 7:30-9 pm in the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art. Come hear M.F.A. students Caleb Gonzalez and Sarah Wernsing read from their final thesis.