Elton John may prefer Saturdays, but the Residential College calls dibs on Friday. Yesterday, storytellers, logophiles, and those who just really love homemade brownies gathered in East Quad’s Benzinger Library for a live reading event hosted by Midwestern Gothic, a literary journal based in Ann Arbor. Established in Spring 2011 by Rob James Russell and Jeff Pfaller, the publication sets out to debunk the common perception that the Midwest is simply a sweet, innocent, ‘flyover’ region. We all know that this myth is far from the truth.
In order to showcase the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Midwest, Midwestern Gothic, which last year hosted a Midwestern literary festival in East Quad’s concourse, returned to the Residential College’s home for a live reading by Midwestern writers themselves. Contributors included U of M professor Julie Babcock; Ann Arbor News crime reporter John Counts; RC Creative Writing Professor Laura Thomas; Jared Yates Sexton, a Midwestern-turned-Georgia Southern University professor; and Rob James Russell, one half of Midwestern Gothic‘s team. Each read short excerpts of their own work that highlighted both the unusual and the everyday of Midwestern life.
John Counts kicked off the event with his piece found in Midwestern Gothic’s Summer Issue 14, a unique piece entitled “The Skull House,” that explores a girl’s unusual habit of collecting animal skulls. It ponders the existence of “roadside attractions” and the exploitation of individual lifestyles and quirks. His visceral language of “boiling the animal flesh” and the processes of cleaning the skulls was scientific to the bone, and yet made me twinge uncomfortably in my seat. A good storyteller, in my opinion, can utilize his/her words in such a way to make you squeamish at one moment, full of remorse the next, and lift you up with hope. Counts fits the category perfectly.
Next, Laura Thomas claimed that she “normally doesn’t steal story ideas from the newspaper headlines.” But one story from a year or two ago was stuck in her head, and she had to write a story about it. Her story, printed in Midwestern Gothic’s latest Issue 15, is called “Sole Suspect.” The plot follows a father whose daughter has been missing for 20 years, and he is the only one to have seen her the night she went missing. The mystery/crime short story, Thomas explained, was based on a story in South Dakota, where two girls, who had been missing for 20 years, were discovered in their submerged car after driving off a bridge. I was particularly interested in hearing Thomas read, as I have taken Creative Writing classes with her, and was curious if she uses her own helpful advice in her work. I was very satisfied to know that she loves a good adverb and extended metaphor as much as I do. Although she only read an excerpt of the short story, it was beautifully constructed and makes me want to read the rest!
Rob Russell followed up with a story from his forthcoming collection about “relationship, love, family and all that jazz.” His smart and nostalgic piece, “Rough and Tumble Sorts,” examined family dynamics in a small-rural Missouri setting, while walking his audience back in time with the memory of AOL chatrooms. “But how do you know that who you’re talking to is really the person you’re talking to?” one character asks, skeptically. “Why wouldn’t they be?” the other responds. “I don’t know.” (Oh, the innocence of the ’90’s.) Preceding his reading, Russell played the clamor of the AOL Dial-Up sound from his iPhone in the ultimate visual of clashing decades, “in case you young’ins in the audience have never heard it before.”
Julie Babcock, whose poetry collection “Autoplay” is forthcoming this month from MG Press, read her lyrical snapshots of youthfulness and Ohio-love. Each were beautiful on the surface, but their real beauty comes when you peel up the outer layer and delve into the “deeper meaning.” What I love about live readings is that you get to hear the story that inspired the author/poet to write that particular piece. Instead of just reading a poem out of context, we understand how Babcock came to title this one “Astronaut, Ohio” and that one “Pregnant Chad” and suddenly, the seams of the story come together a bit more.
Likewise, Jared Yates Sexton prefaced his reading with an in-depth story about his cat who drinks his water so vigorously that he instantly gets sick afterwards. Although irrelevant to his short story, it somehow drew me closer to the reading, like I shared this quirky piece of knowledge that only “insiders” would know about the author. Also, the short story that Sexton read would be a totally different piece if not read aloud by Sexton himself. The story was based on a true event with people from Sexton’s past. Therefore, with much dialogue, only Sexton could imitate the exact inflections of the character’s voice, pairing the words with their corresponding gestures that were not written in the story.
Just like a CD cannot do justice to the energy and spirit of a live performance, nor can reading a story in private provide the same experience as hearing the story as the author intended. I recommend to keep an eye and an ear out for author readings. If nothing else, you’ll probably hear a good cat story or two.
For more information on Midwestern Gothic, check out their website: http://midwestgothic.com.
