“He still brought her flowers,” read Jane MacLaughlin ’24, thus kicking off the Student Creative Writing extravaganza at the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center on April 14. Sponsored by the Smith English Department, the extravaganza featured nine student writers who read selections of their works, five of whom were seniors.
“We wanted people who were graduating to read,” said Gillian Murray Kendall, Chair of the Creative Writing Committee and organizer of the event. But among the honors thesis excerpts from the graduating seniors were pieces written for introductory creative writing classes or just scraped together years ago for pleasure. The evening offered a complete picture of the talented, vibrant writing world of Smith, spanning both class year and content.
MacLaughlin began the evening with her piece “Flowers in the Place Beneath the World,” a moody re-telling of the Hades and Persephone myth. The story carried hints of Sarah J. Maas, presenting Hades as a handsome faerie man who stole away MacLaughlin’s delightfully vindictive Persephone.
M Hawes ’25 carried on the sci-fi/fantasy theme with an excerpt from the story “Sanctuary on the Mountaintop.” Hawes’ piece recalled the dystopian world of “The Hunger Games” with its plot of a high-stakes life-or-death competition mixed with corporate team-building. There may have been an “only one bed” trope at work in the form of two enemies with underlying feelings in a too small mountain-top cave, but the excerpt ended before the audience’s hopes could be either crushed or confirmed.
Leo Smith ’22 then took the stand with a witty, lively selection of poems. From an animated extended space metaphor in “After the Drive Home I Want to be an Astronaut” to a celebration of dance as a form of self expression in “Disco Incantation,” Smith clearly demonstrated their wide range of original poems that were fun and quick but also deeply personal and raw.
Nicole Lussier ’22 was next, with a humorous satire about the modern culture surrounding self-love in an excerpt from “Me Day: The How-To Guide,” which followed a young woman through a mental-health day gone hilariously wrong. The next writer, Campbell Prince ’23J, carried on the comedic spirit in their subtly skilled piece, “VeggieTales Fanfiction.” Prince’s story switched back and forth between gut-achingly funny commentary and genuinely profound religious contemplation: it was the crowd favorite, judging by frequent laughter.
“I’ve never seen it… That was just my best guess,” Prince replied when asked if they were a big fan of “VeggieTales.” Prince spoke with an easy nonchalance, as if they were used to receiving a floor-shaking applause for their fanfiction pieces every Thursday evening.
Next came Ruth Schreiber ’22, with an excerpt from her piece “The Girls Are Out to Get Them,” a re-imagining of the story of the “Gloucester Pregnancy Pact,” when 18 high school girls from Gloucester, MA, all got pregnant during the same school year. Addy Lovell ’24J followed Schreiber with an excerpt from her piece, “Accidents,” about a boy caught up in the legal aftermath of a fraternity hazing death who forms a close bond with a shelter dog. Lovell’s piece was touching and at times funny, with a hint of the classic dog-driven redemption story that we all know and love. Olivia Davis ’22 followed with an excerpt from her piece “The Beholder,” conceptualized as a haunting series of unreceived letters from a mother to her absent daughter.
“[The concept] is the loss of a person who is still alive,” Davis said. “When I can’t think of what I want to do for a story, [I like to] find a really interesting job and go off of that.” The story featured the mother’s profession as an ocularist (a creator of fake eyes) and her accompanying disturbing artistic obsessions. This produced a unique story with stunning imagery and a complex well of emotion.
Emma Kerr ’22 finished up the night with an innovative sci-fi piece, “Anteris,” which seemingly took place in the distant future of another universe. Kerr’s work had the heart of a coming-of-age story of sisterly love and the pains of adolescence, expertly blending the sci-fi aspect into an interesting background without drawing attention away from its more human themes.
Thus ended the extravaganza, leaving the audience with a clear impression of the true creative talent of Smithies — and perhaps a hankering to go home and binge-watch some religious, vegetable-based cartoons.
