A crowd of 35 people sat quietly, staring ahead, completely riveted by the words of five students and one alumna at the semester’s first session of the Baker Reading Series Sept. 27.(Story continued below.)
Watch KNBU's interview with Senior Haley Gilbert, who shared a non-fiction piece at the Reading Series, part of Inside Baker.<a href="httop://www.outube.como/user/KNBU" target="_blank">Inside Baker.</a> Inside Baker.
“These students are like fine athletes,” Mihalyi said. “(But) they don’t have people coming to them every week and applauding them, so this is a special night.”
The first presenter was Baker alumna Corie Dugas, who read a piece on the revision process titled “Breaking Down the Walls.”
“Through it you get a glimpse into the person who wrote it,” Mihalyi said. “It’s a marvelous look into the process of revision, and it’s an essay I’ll never forget.”
Mihalyi said writers could appreciate the piece about revision because some of the presenters had even made revisions just hours before the reading.
“Titles were changed, paragraphs jettisoned,” Mihalyi said.
In the essay, Dugas used many metaphors to communicate her ideas; among them she described the writer as a construction worker, wearing a hard hat, ready to drill into the walls of a diseased and damage house, the house representing the story.
Dugas’ essay set the pace for the night, and afterward five students presented works they had already drilled the damaged walls out of.
The five stories told by seniors Haley Gilbert, Keith Gaboury and Kurtis King and juniors Ashley Sims and Brianna Lichtenauer consisted of a first-person perspective on the devastation of eating disorders, a tiresome time with an autistic child, the symbolic importance of a hat, a chilling encounter with the potential premature death of a friend and a detailed account of a childhood spent with grandparents.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Professor of English Lucy Price said. “I have heard some of these pieces two and three times, and every time they come alive again.”
Price said the common theme among the stories was the emphasis on human interaction and relationships.
“There was always that human dimension,” Price said. “And what wonderful experiences to write about.”
Junior Connie Meyer enjoyed the reading.
“It was simple but also enlightening,” Meyer said. “I think Brianna’s was my favorite.”
Lichtenauer’s piece was a blend of two creative nonfiction assignments: one about a place, her grandmother’s kitchen, and the other about a fruit or vegetable, a tomato. Her grandfather, who grew the fruit, inspired the tomato idea. The end result delivered a stark contrast of a calm, quiet childhood spent with grandparents compared to an adult world filled with deadlines and duties.
King’s essay “Hat” focused on his relationship with his father and he compared it to a hat. Because his father wore one all the time, hats hold special meaning to King. He said a hat represents fatherhood and responsibility and will wear one while raising his newborn son, Miles, and imagines that Miles will eventually wear one as well. After all of the stories were told, many lingered to talk to and compliment the presenters.
The next reading is at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18 in Owens Audio-Visual Room. It will feature Laura Moriarty, acclaimed novelist and author of “The Center of Everything.”