Creative writing Senior Readings begin
Photo courtesy of Managing Editor, Kendall Cruise
On Tuesday, Apr. 8, Senior Readings for senior English (creative writing) students began a part of their process in endcapping their dedication to the Creative Writing Department, celebrating their work. These readings take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM, in the Doty 300, also known as the Tower Room, through Apr. 24.
Opening the first reading was senior English (creative writing) major, and Wading River, NY—a place on Long Island—native, Mollie McMullan, who read poetry for attendees. McMullan serves as one of Gandy Dancer’s Managing Editor and has been previously published in the literary magazine. Poems performed included “On a Mountaintop in Manlius, New York,” which works to draw parallels between the story of Leda and the Swan, a Greek myth where Zeus takes the form of a swan and seduces the Spartan queen Leda, with the events of a news story out of Manlius, NY. In the events, a swan mother is killed and eaten, along with the taking of her baby swans, or cygnets.
In this poem, many of McMullan’s themes are drawn out, especially gender and its relationship to violence. Amongst this, several other poems were read, including “It’s Ritual,” “Volta,” “Phillies,” “Boiling Water,” containing an epigraph from writer Ocean Vuong, “Poisoned Against the Moon,” with epigraph from song “Mother” by Tori Amos “Grande Odalisque,” an ekphrastic poem inform by the notable painting, “My Sister Dreams About the Apocalypse,” “Tioga,” and closed with “Bloom Spike and Red, which makes a return to the swan story out of Manlius and connecting it with broader reflections on the speaker’s mother.
Following McMullan was fellow senior English (creative writing) student Margaret “Greta” Flanagan, originally from Oyster Bay, NY—also on Long Island. Flanagan has been previously published in Gandy Dancer—where they have also served as a fiction editor—and in Iris magazine. For the reading, Flanagan read a short story called “Dana,” where the second-person address is used to talk about the relationship between two creatures after humanity is largely wiped out due to climate change.
In this story, based on a dream Flanagan had, the creature known as Dana is under the assumption that they are a human, though some of their physical characteristics make that doubtful, and the narrator, a different creature named Minik, keeps from them that they know Dana is not a human. When Dana later comes to this conclusion through their discovery of a photo depicting a human family, the strong relationship between the two, reflective of a parental-child relationship, is tested.
After their reading, a question and answer (Q&A) session was held, where the writers were given and responded to questions about the work they had presented and writing more broadly. As readings that both had ties to contemporary issues, the question was raised about what both writers see their writing as a tool for in the world. To this, both talked more broadly about literature’s stake in politics and the seemingly inevitable role of writing being informed by them. They add a further perspective to this, as Flanagan remarks that “We’re in an era where literature is being attacked,” making the overt and active involvement and contribution to literary spaces all the more important. McMullan adds to this by commenting, “The act of writing…is an act of resistance itself.”
On Thursday, Apr. 10, the second reading of the series was held, where the work of two additional writers was shared with the audience. The first reader this afternoon was Elianiz “Ellie” Torres, a senior English (creative writing) student from Worcester, NY, published in Gandy Dancer for both creative nonfiction and poetry.
The piece she read was a creative nonfiction essay titled “Memento Mori,” a conceptual phrase which translates from Latin as “remember (you have to) die.” The essay focuses on the struggles the narrator faced during adolescence, talking about their suicidal ideation, feelings of isolation, strained relationship with their father, and how the narrator's writing and their passion for it are how they best coped and navigated their emotional experiences.
It was written in response to a class prompt given to the group of students in the Senior Seminar, asking the question, “Why I write?” The essay is tied to an Ancient Greek question that was asked of the dead: whether or not they had passion. This essay was deft in its knowledge of its heavy material, unflinching in its scope and bluntness, creating a moving experience for all those in attendance.
Secondly, was senior double major in Political Science and English (creative writing), Dasha Dranovsky, from Staten Island, NY. She is a former Vice President of Model UN (United Nations). For her portion of the afternoon, she read three creative nonfiction essays. The essays were titled “The Forgotten Bones,” “The Black Lexus,” and “Kitty,” which all touched on topics of permanence and change, family, and growing up. Through these essays, Dranovsky's taut and vivid descriptions are given by the dozen, producing strong, imagistic essays that channel a bittersweet nostalgia which seeks to, as she later stated when being asked why these pieces were paired together, “…let the language speak for itself.”
During their Q&A portion, they were asked several questions, one addressed to them both on the topic of how they approach writing about the family. In response to this, Torres notes how, “I’m very honest in my writing, and I think it is a disservice not to be,” also marking how their mother, who was in attendance, would clap and cheer her on, whether a piece of writing was affectionate or critical of her. Dranovsky incorporated their notable sarcastic style with their answer, remarking that they, “Mostly write about people not in my life anymore, that’s how I sidestep the guilt.”