So, I know that we’re almost through with May, but I really wanted to post about April’s writing events I attended: Scissortail Creative Writing Festival and Howlers and Yawpers Creativity Symposium.
I’ll start with Scissortail (go here for more info). This festival happens yearly at my alma mater, East Central University. Since its inception, I have been attending as a listener, an audience member. But I decided this year to submit, just to see what would happen. The worst outcome would be not to be accepted. So, I submitted, and much to my earnest surprise, I was accepted. Initially I was going to read a non-fiction piece, but Ken Hada, director of Scissortail and my friend and mentor, politely asked me to read one of my short stories dealing with a particular social issue in Oklahoma. So, I read “Letter from an Oklahoma Prison.” And Ken kindly put me on the first panel of the first day. I was a bit of a wreck. I mean, I always get nervous when I read because I’m sharing with people. That’s hard for me to have such attention. But these nerves were compounded by the fact that I was reading in front of my former profs, colleagues, and friends–people I respect and value. If I did a poor job, they’d be witness to it. This pressure was overwhelming. On top of that, the room had to have had 100+ people in it–some middle school students, some college students, some profs, and other writers. So, I just swallowed my fear and jumped into my story. I hoped the words did their thing. And I think they did because after the panel, a group of middle school girls came up to me just to meet me and take a picture. What an incredible feeling that was! They may have had to talk to the writers as part of their grade for the day, but they chose me. It felt so good to have such an impact on someone. And that was just the beginning. I stayed most of the three-day event and found myself in conversations with well-known authors, people I admire and love. Some of these were friends like Ken Hada, Nathan Brown, LeAnne Howe, Rilla Askew, Jessica Isaacs, Sly Alley, and Jim Wilson while others were new acquaintances like Alan Berecka, Jennifer Kidney, Tim Bradford, Juan Manuel Perez, Carol Hamilton, Greg Rodgers, and so many more. It was a buzz, a writing buzz for real. What a wonderful way to start the month!
Then to top a month with that beginning off, we had Howlers and Yawpers Creativity Symposium (go here for more info) at Seminole State College, where I currently teach. Many of the same individuals who attended Scissortail also attended this event, which was really nice. We were able to see each other again at a different venue and read our works. Jessica Isaacs, the director of the event, did an amazing job of organizing the presenters. It was heavy on reading the written work, but spattered throughout the day were art presentations, musical acts, dancing, and just creativity buzzing around us in all its forms. It was really incredible to be a part of such an event. Writing this post is reminding me to send pics to the web mistress to post. Back to my creative experiences…what was really cool about this event is that I helped with it. I mean, reading at my home college was an incredible honor, but to be a part of organizing and helping and working it was just an amazing feeling. To see some of the same people who presented at Scissortail and PCA come to our small, rural campus and provide our students with creative inspiration was just such an honor. It may have been just one day packed with creativity, but the buzz was just as intense as what I felt a the beginning of the month.
So April was bookended with some pretty incredible events for me. These experiences have really started pushing me toward publication. I have never written to be published; I’ve written because I have stories and I want to write. Now, though, I feel like maybe publication is another avenue to touch peoples’ souls, to help people. We’ll see.
For now, I’ll just keep writing and reading and being a part of an amazing writing community in Oklahoma.
