Writing, Reading, & Alliteration

With fresh ideas and charm, Kalamazoo College’s English Department offered a well-rounded reading in the Olmstead Room Wednesday night. All speakers have obtained an MA, MS, MSW, or PhD within the field of English. Between pieces of creative non-fiction, memoirs, and poetry, as well as works of history and stream-of-consciousness, it made for a very intellectually stimulating and entertaining experience. No matter the subject, all the authors’ compositions were intriguing, as they are clearly experts of diction in their field.

The reading was bookended with the only two male writers in the department: Andy Mozina and Bruce Mills. Mozina began with his piece, My Nonsexual Affair, which used compelling imagery through a narrative structure to portray the innocence of “hot fudge sundaes” in contrast to sexually implied descriptions of “thick”, “dribbling” and “sticky” sauce on the front of his shirt that pegs him guilty of indulgence.

As strongly as Mozina opened the reading Wednesday night, Mills closed it. His excerpt from An Archeology of Yearning described his personal battle in coping with an autistic son. Compassion and hope interjected and stole the story with his delicate use of adjectives (“crescent moon of fingernails”) and sensory imagery (“the taste of compressed air”).

Glenn Deutsch’s piece was one of wonderment and humor. Beth Marzonie’s colorful perspective of The Tate Modern in London was vibrantly captured through her concise language and use of alliteration. Babli Sinha’s piece stretched backward to her heritage on a “new woman” in India. Amelia Katanski’s Noble Truth was one of suffering with “sticky patches of puss”. Amy Rodger’s personality shined through in her very descriptive stream-of-consciousness piece of self-exploration. Marin Heinritz’s use of clear, short sentences and childhood thoughts in her autobiographical piece about her mother proved very emotional and affecting, allowing that connection to be mutual among her audiences.

Diane Seuss also strived to reach out to her audience with her un-failing confidence and poetic voice that can’t help but inspire. Her engaging line breaks and sexual undertone make audiences gripping for more of her dark and violent imagination.

In a similar way, Gail Griffin is sure to influence. If Griffin ever wished to pursue a job as a motivational speaker, she would be extremely successful. She fully understands the meaning of emphasizing the most important words at the most important times. Griffin’s memoir piece revisits the shooting of a Kalamazoo College student many years back. It was gloomy yet spiritual. Her precise imagery of a sky “gathering dark” and of the “earth darkening black” brought her piece alive. Her emphasized words, such as “he was marked”, can’t help but stick with audience members.

Words truly do fill the gap in experience and these writers took the risk of detailing those gaps in attempt to bring forth more meaning. As all of these writers clearly had their own individual interests and strengths, it offered a wide-range of literature that could be appreciated by all types of audiences. Though there were naturally stronger speakers than others, all the works recited were extremely vivid and overall brilliant.