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Volume 80, Issue 27 Web Edition
www.brevard.edu/clarion
SERVING BREVARD COLLEGE SINCE 1935
See page 4 for
Honors and
Awards Day
information
April 15, 2015
Working writers reading
a sweaty success
By Jordan Laws
StaffVVritei^_
Katie Crawford, Ken Chamlee, and Jubal Tiner
presented their written work to an overstuffed
crowd of students and faculty in MG 125 last
Thursday, proving the community cares about
The Working Writers.
The room busted at the seams with people. Extra
chairs were brought in, some students sat on the
floor, and the temperature reached 115°F. But
everyone politely sat in their own sweat to listen
to the amazing stories produced by EC’s own
Triumvirate of Creativity; this doesn’t mean other
faculty members don’t produce great works—I
just haven’t been familiarized with them yet.
Festivities began with Crawford reading an
excerpt from her work-in-progress historical
novel titled “The Year of Josephine Scott’’ and
it focusses on a female character named Jo who
is in Massachusetts with her brother when the
Civil War breaks out. Jo and her brother are from
South Carolina and their parents write letters to
them, begging them to come home due to their
philosophical difference with Lincoln’s Union.
We were all transported to that place and situation
with the description Crawford employed, sitting
with Jo and her brother at a table in a bar. With
appropriate lexical choices indicative of the time
period, Crawford caused us all to suspend our
disbelief long enough to experience what Jo saw
and felt in the scene; and we believed that all of
it actually happened.
That’s powerful writing.
She closed her portion of the presentation
with a humorous article about a rest area mishap
involving red ants that dissolved her decency
long enough to save her legs from the onslaught
of microscopic bites that was published for the
Greenville News. It was a tale of humility, of fam
ily, of doing what you have to do when everyone
is watching, even her own daughters. It started
as travel stories do when parents tell them: they
were on the road, finally making progress, and
then her daughter had to pee. They just stopped
fifteen minutes ago, Crawford says. But I have to
go now, her daughter replies. They ramp off to a
rest area. After bathroom breaks are finished its
playtime and Katie jumps on a stump pretending
it’s a stage and it is but one set with thousands of
angry red props. Then ants, taking this as a sign
of war, return fire. All of us in the audience could
relate because this has happened at one point or
another and Crawford’s comedic timing had us
all in stitches.
She also has a book titled “Keowee Valley” and
a review has been published in the Times-News.
With Crawford’s funny bone enticing story at
a close, Chamlee took center stage to enlarge our
hearts with poetry.
Before I attended Chamlee’s Literary Criti
cism class, my view of poetry was unfavorable.
I limited it to angsty Emo stanzas about how
parents suck but Chamlee proved me wrong; and
continues to do so with his work.
He read two poems from his second collection
titled “Logic of the Lost.” The second poem stays
with me because we get a glimpse of Chamlee’s
love for his son. In it he describes his son asking
if he’ll learn magic in school and asking why the
water from a river doesn’t go over a bridge. With
heartwarming clarity, Chamlee describes snap
ping the river over the bridge for his son and in
this instant the audience realizes the extent of his
love. It is so immense that he would physically
displace a river if he could. We all saw Chamlee
how he truly is and were invited to steal a glance
at his heart.
That’s powerful writing.
His following reeitations were from his book
in progress about Albert Bierstadt, the American
landscape painter; its working title is “Nowhere
on Heaven or Earth.” With these poems Chamlee
proves his mastery of form and concept. In these
poems the audience understands how poetry can
be utilized to capture the essence of artwork.
Chamlee re-paints the landscapes captured by
Bierstadt with his words and the audience could
see it as he spoke, we could envision this land
scape with mountains stretching beyond sight.
Tiner came up to the podium to bring the pre
sentation to a close with a piece from his story
called “Ursa Major.”
One of the working writers professor Jubai Tiner
This story is a shining example of what words
can do to the imagination; it’s an ancient magic
that has been perfected over time. Tiner trans
ported us into the mind of a father who has a
crying baby named Claire and no matter what the
father does the baby doesn’t stop crying. Upon the
advice of a cashier at Kroger’s, the main character
visits the meat sheer who has this mystical cure for
crying babies—sounds promising, right?
The father is advised to take the baby outside
at night under the full moon and undress the baby
completely; hold it up in the light and reveal a
deep secret that hasn’t been told to anyone. This
is a sure-fire cure, the meat sheer says. The father
does exactly what he’s advised to do and instead
of a silenced baby he summons a giant bear in
stead; great cure. But the bear doesn’t harm him
but rather beckons to the father. Tiner delivered
truisms about the awkwardness between cashiers
and people buying condoms; parenting; and life.
The Working Writers were awesome that day
and they continue to be a source of inspiration for
students and faculty.