Scissortail Festival

I attended the readings by Julie Hensley of Eastern Kentucky University, Jenny Cropp of Oklahoma State University, and Jerry Brigham of East Central University. Julie Hensley read an excerpt from her book in progress, The Recklessness of Water. Her story, at least the part that she read, was about a summer that the main character of the story and her sister spent at their grandparent's house in the country. Hensley told the audience that much of the inspiration for her story came from the real life actions of her sister. The theme seemed to be the expanding relationship between the main character and her sister. The description was wonderful. My favorite part of her story is the description of the ugliest duck. She and her grandma are feeding the ducks, and she spots one who has bulbous growths all over its head. The image reminded me of the hideous ducks that wagged their tails at my dad's church growing up. They were hideous, and sounded and acted like dogs. But they were sweet, and tame, and everybody loved them. Jenny Cropp read from her collection of short poems. Her work was titled String Theory, because many of her poems have a scientific subject matter. She read seven poems, String Theory, Orbit, Dragon and Snow, To Joel Henry Hendricks, Food for the Dead, and Head of Duire Pauli. I am not sure about the spelling of the last one. All of Cropp's poems were rather morbid, and several had a distinct Korean influence. They were good, although I am not a big fan of poetry, nor am I a critic. Food for the Dead seemed like a very personal story. I loved the small details that Cropp tells that make her poems sound almost off the cuff, and very real. She mentions in Food for the Dead that her brother doesn't like to let her drive because her wheels turn slightly when she checks her blind spot. This is such a mundane part of life that it almost seems like it doesn't fit in a poem, but it works, and gives the poem a certain honesty. My favorite poem by Cropp was Subatomic Black Holes. The concept is that miniature black holes could be anywhere, even right next to us. Cropp uses this as an excuse for missing socks, keys, moved objects, forgotten memories, and a lack of concentration. This was actually a great poem, and I don't usually like any poems. Jerry Brigham read three of his short stories, one called Uncle Luke, which took place in Stonewall and was about the town drunk, Southern Gothic, about Mr. Finley and his Monkey, and Bad Bootlegger, which needs no description. I liked all of his stories, but my favorite by far was Southern Gothic. Professor Brigham uses a sort of frame story to delve into the antics of the crazy monkey. The untitled main character is visiting Mr. Finley, and while looking at all the pictures of dead relatives in their coffins, comes across one who he thinks is a very ugly baby. Turns out it is really a monkey sent home by a son in the military. The monkey was indeed part of the family, but it never acted right, until it finally went too far, and Mr. Finley chopped his head off. This story had me fighting not to laugh out loud and disrupt Professor Brigham. Bad Bootlegger was very funny also. Basically a bootlegger who had terrible booze dies and the scene takes place at his funeral. Everyone is talking about how bad he acted and terrible his booze was, when the furnace booms loudly, and everyone is very uncomfortable, thinking that the bootlegger is getting in one last laugh. Though I liked all of the readings at the Scissortail Festival, the one that inspired me the most was The Recklessness of Water by Julie Hensley. She drew from a lot of personal experiences, first and second hand. She used what she watched other people go through, and what she felt herself to write a wonderfully descriptive and extremely drawing story. I hope to be able to draw upon my experiences in order to be a better writer.