SOU’s Meese Auditorium
All writers have to read out loud at some point. Reading before an audience is one of the most tried and true ways for a writer to imprint their work on an audience. It’s also an unusual inversion of how writing typically works. The writer becomes the reader, and the audience is put in the role of discerning skeptic examining what they’re hearing. Reading out loud is also a really good way for writers to suss out errors in their work, and get a glimpse at what actual audiences will see in it.
That’s why, starting on Monday, February 17th, SOU’s Creative Writing Department hosted a live reading, with eighteen students total participating. Southern Oregon University Live, or S.O.U.L., was a pilot for future readings, both at the University and in the community. Its goal was to promote its emerging authors, help students get familiar with public reading as a medium, and of course give them a chance to show off. Much of the audience was composed of the program’s members, and other arts’ students there to support it.
Sixteen of the students read the first four days, in the Art Building’s Meese Auditorium, which was around half full (I was one of the readers, going on Thursday the 20th). They were allotted a maximum of twelve minutes, with most readers choosing to shorten their pieces considerably, which kept the readings from getting tiresome. Although, that was never a real risk. Everyone brought their A-game. Students were given complete discretion in what they read, with the field fairly evenly split between fiction and poetry but slightly leaning towards the latter.
The last two readers, two graduating seniors, went on Friday, and had time slots of twenty minutes each to fill. Parker Boom read poetry, while Desiree Remick, the current Creative Writing Club President, read fiction. I asked Desiree for a comment. “It was an honor to read and to hear everyone else read as well,” she told me. “The whole experience just affirmed for me how much talent we have in the program. And none of it would be possible without [Creative Writing Professors] Craig and Kasey’s skilled instruction – so I am very grateful to both of them.”
“It’s a beautiful curse,” Kasey Mohammad told the room after the readings on Thursday, “to have so many writers better than me.”
