By Liz Hammond, Digital Media Editor
Seniors in the creative writ- ing department presented work from their time at Susquehan- na on Nov. 8.
The readings serve as a chance for the students and faculty at Susquehanna to see how the Writers Institute af- fects each student personally.
Seniors who read included Sage Negron, Jenn Ghiorse, Jenna Danyew, Sydney Cur- ran, Lucia Garabo, Rebekah Smith and Jade Matusick.
Glen Retief, director of the Writers Institute and associate professor of English and cre- ative writing, said, “This is the largest turnout I’ve ever seen at a senior reading.”
Retief and creative writing fellow Monica Prince intro- duced the seniors by giving a personalized speech about each writer before they pre- sented their work.
Negron was described by Re- tief as an “intensive poetic writ- er and an intelligent writer” and Prince said Negron has “strong aspirations for writing in class.”
Negron read an excerpt from his short film screenplay about a man and his girlfriend
living in a post-apocalyptic world. Negron left the audi- ence on a cliffhanger and said, “If you want to find out how it ends, see me after the read- ing,” which earned a laugh from the audience.
On Ghiorse, Retief said, “I feel very lucky to have gotten to work with [Ghiorse] over her time here at Susquehanna.”
Ghiorse read a five-page ex- cerpt from her advanced non- fiction piece, which touched on personal experiences.
Danyew was introduced by Retief, who said she had a strong sensitivity to very fine emotions.
Prince added, “[Danyew] is the most honest student I’ve ever had.”
Danyew read a piece of liter- ary journalism, a genre of non- fiction which blends narrative writing style with investigative and immersive journalism.
When asked about where she got the inspiration for this piece, Danyew said, “I made calls to area funeral homes un- til I got a number for a grave digger named Brad Beaver.”
“I called to ask him for an interview, but instead he in- vited me to a burial and grave- side service the next morning,”
Danyew continued. “I spent the day with him watching his pro- cess, listening to his stories and gaining an understanding of him as a human and professional.”
Danyew’s piece, “Grave Encounters,” is an 11-page piece in total, but she had to slim it down to three and a half pages so that it could fit into her time slot for the reading.
On the process of editing her work, Danyew said, “For the past two months I have printed and hand-edited this piece at least twice a day.”
“I continue to make changes and corrections every single time I read it,” Danyew continued. “I practiced reading it orally to not only find a natural flow but the perfect timing, voices and physical movements to enrich the performance quality of the piece.”
Curran then read a piece that was inspired by a work of non- fiction that she wrote last year.
Curran’s piece, “Lie to Her,” made the crowd laugh multiple times. Retief prefaced her reading by saying that Curran had a wonderful sense of narrative.
Garabo was commended both for her work in the department and with her immense participation in the Susquehanna community.
Garabo read two short-short stories, “Forward Shootin” and “Glove Guy.” When asked what inspired “Glove Guy,” Garabo said, “It’s based off of an incident that happened to my mom, dad and I when we were on our way into the city.”
“Idea-wise, it was inspired by my experiences and my family’s experiences of being Italian-American, where people have asked us if we have mafia ties and such,” Garabo continued.
On “Forward Shootin,” Garabo said, “I wanted to challenge myself by writing about something completely different, with a real, compelling voice and an important story to tell.”
“I found this opportunity when, in my Thought and Social Diversity class, we were given a reading about the study on homeless heroin injectors living on the streets of San Francisco,” Garabo continued.
“I was drawn to the language and the strong sense of community that the addicts had and the story took off from there,” Garabo said.
When asked what she did to prepare, Garabo said, “Senior creative writing majors take a Senior Writing Portfolio [class] in the fall.”
“I currently take the class on Tuesday mornings with Prince, who has played a major role in preparing myself and others for our senior reading,” Garabo continued.
Smith read a piece entitled “Mammalia,” which was inspired by her experience as a science major at Susquehanna.
Matusick was the final senior and finished the night with an excerpt from a novel that she had been writing.
