{"id":637,"date":"2019-11-20T16:47:48","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T21:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/?p=637"},"modified":"2022-11-23T10:08:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T15:08:43","slug":"meet-the-2019-writers-harvest-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/2019\/11\/meet-the-2019-writers-harvest-readers\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the 2019 Writer’s Harvest Readers!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the days begin to shorten and the air begins to\nchill, once again we welcome a return of the annual Writer\u2019s Harvest! Here is a\nsneak peek at who will be reading this year and what they have in store for us:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Joe Squance — <\/strong>He\/Him <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Visiting Professor <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tell me a little about yourself\/your\nwriting\/academic interests! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a Master’s degree, which I\nguess makes me Master Squance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are my academic interests? That’s\na good question. I don’t consider myself to be a very good academic, but my\ninterest is stories. I like stories. I like to read them and think about how\nthey were written and what the author meant by them and how the author tried to\nconvey that through words on a page. I like to talk about stories. I like to\ndraw them. So my interests are short fiction and flash fiction, but really all\nfiction. I teach some poetry, but I consider myself a student of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own writing lately has been mostly\nflash fiction, which is stories shorter than 1,000 words. My shortest story is\n300 words on the nose. I’m a shy guy and tend not to say much around people I\ndon’t know, and that’s kind of how I write. I like to see how little really\ntruly needs to be said out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite part of the holidays is\nhaving the excuse to sit around and do nothing. Every day of my life is a\nbattle against laziness that sometimes I win and sometimes I don’t and\nsometimes is a draw. But during the holidays there is no battle. Laziness and I\nsit down with our coffee, do the NYT daily crossword, and listen to records.\nIt’s great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you read at the Writer\u2019s Harvest\nbefore? Also, do you have anything in mind as to what you will read this year? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can’t remember if I’ve read before at Writer’s Harvest, but I think I have. I’ve been around long enough that it makes sense I’d have done it at least one other time. I have two stories picked out to read for this time around, both pieces of flash fiction. I like flash for live readings because I feel like they’re easier for listeners to keep track of — I know that when I am in an audience listening to a longer story, I can sometimes lose the thread. Two little flashes are ideal for the Writer’s Harvest, I think, considering how many readers are on the schedule. My little storylets should be easy for everyone to follow along with. And one of the stories I’ve picked for its content: it’s about a guy who ventures out into the night and attends a fiction reading at a small, Midwestern university. It should be very accessible material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trevor Root<\/strong> — He\/Him <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

MFA Student <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tell me a little about yourself\/your\nwriting\/academic interests! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m Trevor, I\u2019m an MFA student here\nat Miami studying Creative Writing with a focus in Poetry. Before coming to\nMiami I earned my BA in English at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. My\nacademic interests are sort of all over the place. Right now I\u2019m mainly\ninterested in experimental poetics and its relation to\/as autonomous political\nphilosophy. I guess my favorite part of the fall would be the weather\u2014I\u2019m\noriginally from Connecticut so I\u2019ve always been a fan of the cold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you read at the Writer\u2019s Harvest\nbefore? Also, do you have anything in mind as to what you will read this year? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t, but I attended last year\u2019s which was a great\nexperience. I\u2019m excited to try out some of my new work to a broad audience.\nMost of the readings I\u2019ve done so far have been smaller events, so the audience\nhas been fairly narrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will most likely be reading from two new works, both experiments in using computer-assisted procedural techniques to \u2018generate\u2019 raw text from which I assemble poems. The first uses the phrase \u201cthe beverage you are about to enjoy\u201d as an organizing subject to replace speaker pronouns (I\/you\/etc). The second plays with the inconsistencies of Google Translate to generate short poems from otherwise nonsensical blocks of text. In both, I\u2019m particularly interested in working with sound, so I thought this would be a good chance to really see how they play in a reading experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your thoughts on Oxford\u2019s writing community, and how we as creative writers can give back to that community? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been really impressed in my time here with how large and\nactive the creative writing community is. Events like Writer\u2019s Harvest help not\nonly maintain but expand artistic communities, and I\u2019m excited to be able to\ncontribute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As someone interested in autonomous politics, I think \u201cbeing\u201d a\nwriter offers a ton of opportunity to engage with and contribute to one\u2019s\ncommunity\/society. In one sense, writers work at the boundary between the real\nand the possible. But there is also a danger implicit to \u201cbeing a writer,\u201d\nwhich is falling for the trap of \u201cremoval\u201d\u2014pulling away from the realities of\nour communities or societies and staying in the bubble of reflection,\nobservation, etc. It\u2019s cheesy but I look to people like Pete Seeger as models\nof how a writer can give back: people who engage seriously with the realities\nand struggles of the world around them while always directing their art towards\nopening up or exploring new possibilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katy Shay — <\/strong>She\/Her <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

MA Program Alum <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tell me a little about yourself\/your\nwriting\/academic interests! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\nname is Katy Shay. I\u2019m a nonfiction writer: narratives and essays but I also\ndraw comics. I love the fall because it\u2019s the best time to get cozy. I\u2019m\ntalking hot chocolate, pajamas, slippers, blankets\u2014the whole nine yards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you read at the Writer\u2019s Harvest before? Also, do you\nhave anything in mind as to what you will read this year? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read\nat the Writer\u2019s Harvest in November of 2016 which was a really fraught time to\nbe on campus. After the election, I remember feeling really on edge while on\ncampus and a lot of the people in my program, including myself, were super\nworried about what a Trump presidency would be like. I read some piece about\nthis girl Tara who was a very tough girl who tried to befriend me when I as in\nseventh grade. The piece was about the tension I felt being stuck between this\ncool tough girl who also scared me and the girls who I grew up with who were\ngoody-goodies. A few of my creative writing students attended and after the\nreading one came to my office hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We ended up talking for hours about basically everything.\nFamily and philosophy and writing and music and travel and religion and\npolitics. We were very different people, like in every way. But there was\nsomething about the timing. Something about that piece and the exact timing of\neverything\u2014even that fraught feeling on campus\u2014that made this young man feel\nlike he could come talk to someone who he felt was super different from him and\ntry to understand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            It\u2019s a hard thing to put into words but that experience\nhad a huge impact on me. It\u2019s the promise of writing and sharing your\nwriting\u2014that it can lead to openings between people, places where we can see\none another and value that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your thoughts on the Writer\u2019s Harvest? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The Writer\u2019s Harvest is awesome. It\u2019s a great time for\nthe whole community to come together and celebrate what they have. I think it\u2019s\nsometimes easy to undervalue our writing communities\u2014especially in school\nbecause everything is so go, go, go. The Writer\u2019s Harvest is a great time to\npause and listen to appreciate the work that everybody’s doing.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What projects are you working on?\/Anything you want to\nplug?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndon\u2019t have any currently but if you want to plug my Instagram @shadykays that\u2019s\nwhere I update\/link to published stuff\/make mushroom puns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jen Sammons —<\/strong>She\/Her <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Second-year MFA student<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tell me a little about yourself\/your\nwriting\/academic interests!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I write mostly creative nonfiction but have been writing some flash fiction lately which has been really fun. I am thinking of reading two short pieces for the Writer’s Harvest and just might leave it up to the audience to determine whether or not the story is true!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your thoughts on the\nWriter\u2019s Harvest? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year’s Writer’s Harvest had such\na great vibe. Since this event comes at a point in the semester in which\neveryone still has a lot of work to do, but is also feeling pre-break\nexcitement, Writer’s Harvest has this spirit of festive camaraderie. It feels\ngood to step away from our desks, offices, classrooms, and computer screens,\nand come together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It means a lot to me to be a part of\nevents that help other people. I think that it is so important for people who\nwork with words to use them for as much good as we can in as many ways that we\ncan. I believe that writing is a powerful act of love, of resistance. Whether\nit’s by writing an op-ed, sharing resources, or speaking out against hate and\ninjustice, we as writers have a responsibility to make sure that our words move\noff of the page and into the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What projects are you working on?\/Anything\nyou want to plug?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am working on a couple of book projects that move across and through genres and forms, but most of my creative energy these days goes into helping my 8-year-old find matches for his socks. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the days begin to shorten and the air begins to chill, once again we welcome a return of the annual Writer\u2019s Harvest! Here is a sneak peek at who will be reading this year and what they have in store for us:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2819,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,202,210,208,1],"tags":[145,144],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events-readings","category-faculty-spotlights","category-interviews","category-students","category-uncategorized","tag-events","tag-writers-harvest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2819"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions\/654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}