The Writers’ Harvest on Tuesday, November 8 in the Self Auditorium at Strom Thurmond Institute showcased 8 different writers from the staff of Clemson University who read brief excerpts from their own works of literature.
The first presenter was Mr. John Pursley III who read part of a story he had written. It was a western in which he had derived the idea for the story form western shows and movies he had purchased. The main character was the Apache Kid. I was not fond of his story; or at least not the excerpt he chose to read. It was hard to follow and was lacking in the action in the form of gunfights and chases on horseback that I have come to expect form a western (I am a big fan of Louis L’Amour’s western novels which are full of this kind of action).
The second reader was Ms. Lindsey Jones. She read a story about a three-year-old girl form Haiti whom she had taken in to care for while she was having surgery on her feet (she had misshapen feet that required surgery she couldn’t get in Haiti). The story takes place while the narrator is cleaning up a mess form carving pumpkins with the child. I found Ms. Jones a very captivating reader. She engaged the audience on an emotional level; she appealed to the heart extremely well. The little girl lived in Haiti with ten other people in a two-room shed. She knew little English and the narrator had to string a mixture of English words, Haitian words, and a form of sign language together like “laundry on a shared clothesline.” At times the narrator forgets that the little girl isn’t her daughter; the listener really gets a feeling of strong love between the narrator and this little girl.
The third reader was Mr. Steve Katz. He read an assortment of his own poems. They seemed unrefined to me as an audience member, and not well planned out. His poems were based on an “alternate reality.” The titles were like “Alien Love,” “Virtual Gloves,” and “Avatars of love.” I did not like these poems very much. They were based on things I didn’t understand and were hard to relate to.
The fourth reader, Mr. Keith Lee Morris, was the final reader before the intermission, and the final reader I witnessed. He read an entire short story entitled “My Roommate Kevin is Awesome.” It was the best of the four readers I listened to, most likely because it was the funniest and most entertaining; the crowd as a whole laughed throughout the entire story. The story was read quickly and contained lots of foul language. It sounded like the stereotypical pothead college kid only worried about having a good time. The story is over a course of seven days, and on each day, a different, strange event happens. It starts when the narrator witnesses his roommate Kevin hanging upside down in mid air, latter endless amounts of food appear, and Ray Charles even comes back form the dead for a day. The story’s events are outlandish and yet told in a way that is totally believable! The events are caused by a feeling of immense boredom, and eventually the avenging angle shows up in a fancy car to tell the two young meant that they have discovered something God didn’t want discovered, and that they must stop immediately. They stop out of fear, but try and plan a way to try them again in the future.
I enjoyed the event very much. I had no idea such talented writers were here at Clemson University.
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