Category: Craft

Harrison Scott Key: Cow Whisperer

Harrison Scott Key - Logan PictureOne writer of Douglas Anderson Writers’ Festival 2016 who I cannot wait to meet is Harrison Scott Key. He has been published in an array of magazines, my personal favorite being McSweeney’s, and writes about what often feels like personal memories through a view of both nostalgia and hilarity. When studying hardcore literature, it is easy to forget the value of humor writing. Key’s work brings both literary value and laughs into the same world. For example, his piece “Fifty Shades of Greyhound” depicts the unsightly experience of riding a bus across the states in a way that is both creatively descriptive and hilarious. An example of this blend can be found in the following line:

“It was his hair, though, that was most worthy of note, for his large sunburned head was home to two quite opposing hairstyles: the front hemisphere shorn to stubble, the rear running wild in thick fields of ripe, silvery wheat, the two halves divided by a perfect prime meridian of barbering, as though he had jumped from the barber’s chair mid-haircut, having been alerted of more denim in the area.”

The word choice “alerted” is already enough to make me laugh pretty hard, but when combined with the preceding image, I felt like I was choking in a jovial fashion. I have shared the works of Mr. Key more than the works of any other writer, because while you normally have to match up someone’s personal interests with the works you recommend to them, everyone likes to laugh. I have even shared his works with some of my family. If you know me, you also know that I do not share anything with my family. The only work they see from me is the stuff that gets published, and even then I tend to stay quiet. But I couldn’t sleep on the works of Mr. Key. I immediately showed his piece “The Wishbone” to my father, who thought the piece was “pretty damn funny.” Still, the most instrumental thing toward my love of Mr. Key was my first impression of the writer.

The first thing that I saw pertaining to Mr. Key was his profile picture on the Writers’ Festival website. (Upon later inspection, I would realize that this picture also takes up a majority of the home screen on his personal website.) The picture shows him holding a book and whispering into the ear of a massive animal, which is mounted to a wall and wearing a cool hat. The animal could be some sort of mutated cow, pertaining to his account of cows in the piece “The Imaginary Farm.” Regardless of exactly what the each component of the picture refers to, the picture is what first made me fall in love with this writer. I can trust a man who talks to taxidermy projects.

-Logan Monds, Junior Social Media Editor

Movements of a Trapped Animal

Maddie-Jamaal May Pic BlogpostA few years ago I discovered the poet, Jamaal May doing a spoken word piece on Button Poetry, which I recommend checking out, “Movements of a Trapped Animal.” I instantly became drawn to the rawness and honesty he achieves in the poem and knew that was something I wanted to achieve in my own writing. Hearing that he was coming to Writers Fest on March 5th was incredibly exciting and I really can’t wait to meet him and be able to learn from someone who has achieved the art of being able to do spoken word and write poetry really well while also keeping them in very separate worlds. He started out being better known for his slam poetry, being a member of six national slam teams, most from Detroit where he grew up and one from New York. He has won the Rustbelt Regional Slam three times and has been a finalist for many national and international slams.

When I first heard his piece, “Movements of a Trapped Animal,” I was just flipping through Button Poetry on YouTube. Listening to spoken word pieces is one of my favorite past times. I almost skipped past it because I assumed it was going to be about hunting or trapping and that didn’t exactly appeal to me, but I listened anyways. His presence on stage immediately eases you into the piece, welcomes you. He is comfortable and it allows you to fall whole heartedly into the piece, something many spoken word artists still work at achieving, something I still work at achieving. His purposeful hand gestures, full voice, inflection, and well-placed pauses force you to listen as he takes you on the journey of PTSD in Americans, not just war veterans, but everyone.

Also on Button Poetry is his piece, “Sky Now Black with Birds,” which he performs in his hometown Detroit at the Rustbelt Regional Slam. He walks us through the feelings of grief and the anger that comes with it and the eventual acceptance that one needs to forgive.

“Forgive.
I swear,
the word has feathers. I want
to learn to get its wings between my teeth
before more retribution
blots out the sky.”

I ordered his poetry collection, “Hum,” online. It was the first thing I had read and enjoyed in a long time because it was something I was genuinely interested in. It wasn’t an assignment or anything, I read it because I wanted to. I want to be able to walk up to him at Writers Festival and tell him his poetry has made a difference in my poetry. I will also be able to tell him that I’ve spent the time I should have spent writing, reading and listening to his work. I hope he takes that as a compliment.

-Madison Dorsey, Junior Poetry Editor

Finding Light

Mary Feimi Blog Post PictureWhen I was a high school freshman, I came to the Douglas Anderson Writers’ Festival with pens packed in my pockets. With each step I took, the paper from my empty notebook clashed against my fingers. I remember rubbing my eyes because the night before I stayed up and re-read each authors bio over and over, re-read pieces I already analyzed because how could one choose a workshop to attend with such an abundance of good writers? I remember being beyond eager to take a “real” workshop from published writers and college professors.

Schedule in hand, I had messed up the times and ended up in a poetry workshop. I thought to myself, “Poetry. Yeah, right. The only thing I can do is write nonfiction.” My palms sweat, my stomach clenching, I sat down. This wasn’t any poetry workshop; this was the workshop of Patricia Smith, the woman who could make Hurricane Katrina beautiful, all through fresh lines packed with imagery and diction. Ms. Smith stood at the podium moving the hair out of her face. What I didn’t know at the time was that she was going to ask me to write the most difficult exercise I had ever done. To write a poem where the person you have had a difficult relationship with is dead in an empty room, laying on a marble slab, and you had to dress them.

For starters, at this point in my life I had never written a poem I was proud of, or even considered writing something this complex. Ms. Smith just kept telling us, all we had to do was try. By the end, I had dressed my father in an Armani suit and leather loafers. Towards the end of the workshop, a couple of people shared what they had written, a couple of people cried. I didn’t write a great poem, or something that would make anyone cry, but I did write something real, something packed with emotion, and thoughtful decisions on why I chose the words I did.

After the workshop I bought Patricia Smith’s book Blood Dazzler, and fell in love with the way her poems made me feel. She signed my book and, as I write this now, I look at it and am still as inspired as I was that day to become a poet. It reads: “Mary, I hope you find light here.” I realized that it wasn’t poetry I was afraid of; I was afraid of the journey poetry would take me on. Two years later, with several portfolios of poetry I am proud to say I have written, I look back on that day and am thankful for the exposure it gave me, as well as the inspiration.

With the 2016 Douglas Anderson Writers’ Festival line up full of amazing writers, I anyone who attends can have the same experience I did, if they just try. You too can find light here.

– Mary Feimi, Junior Editor-in-Chief