Crowded streets, loud music and neon taxicabs set the scene for a typical Thursday night on Mill Avenue, but the creative atmosphere on the back patio of one local bar differed from the norm.
Three Master of Fine Arts students, one poet and two fiction writers, read their original works in front of their peers in a not-so-academic setting at the Tavern on Mill as part of the ongoing MFA Graduate Reading Series.
The series provides graduate students in the program an opportunity to present their work, either poems or short stories, in a comfortable environment outside of the classroom.
Ben Blickle, an MFA graduate student who read at the event, said the series allows students to read their works in progress and get supportive feedback from peers.
“I am friends with all these guys [in the audience],” Blickle said. “It’s nice to read [my work] out loud to them.”
He read “Normal, Natural, Alright,” his short story about summer love, landscaping and the controversy over one uncut lawn.
Branden Boyer-White, another MFA student, said this was her first year in the program and first time reading at the series.
Boyer-White said she felt the series was a good way to introduce herself and her work to the other students in the program.
“I think it went well, but I had a couple of stumbles,” she said. “It’s cool that the program has this opportunity for us.”
Boyer-White read “Ink,” a short story about a female so obsessed with tattoos that the character literally bites, licks and sucks the ink from the skin of her lovers.
The provocative story intrigued the audience and roused a few suggestive whistles during more descriptive passages.
She said the idea for the story was inspired by a conversation with a friend who told her that getting a tattoo would be redundant.
“He said, ‘On you a tattoo would be redundant because you are [as a writer] already full of ink,’” Boyer-White said.
She said his comment led her to think how a person‘s body can become filled with tattoos and what it would be like if there really was someone full of ink.
Allyson Boggess, an MFA student, said she felt reading her poems helped with her work.
“When I write, I read things out loud,” Boggess said. “Orally hearing it out loud is a great tool.”
She read multiple poems including, “Putting Up The Chicken,” a poem about slicing-up a chicken carcass.
Boggess said writing poetry allows her more flexibility with language and gives her the ability to play with the musicality of words.
“A lot of times I listen to music as I am writing,” she said. “I think music gets the emotional part of life.”
Reach the reporter at lpalmisa@asu.edu.
