West 10th Launch Reading

On the misty evening of April 12th, I attended West 10th’s Launch Reading at Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House. It was a great opportunity for me to indulge in fellow undergraduate students’ work, as well as poems from the celebrated poet, Gerald Stern.

West 10th is literary journal that annually publishes poems, short stories, and photographs produced by New York University’s undergraduate students. We were handed this year’s edition of West 10th upon entering the event. I skimmed through the booklet before the reading began, and was impressed by the quality of both the booklet itself and student works that it contained. I was more impressed by the fact that the entire publication process was done by NYU’s undergraduate students.

I didn’t really know what to expect from the reading, because I had never attended any literary event before. However, I slouched back on the couch in the back row and attentively listened to the contributing writers presenting their own work, as an Indian lady sitting next to me fell asleep.

The piece I was most impressed by was “Girl with Bird” by Frances Gill. A short story, mainly composed of a conversation between a mother and her young daughter, “Girl with Bird” was a very well constructed short story with a lot of humorous aspects.

However, I was more impressed with Gerald Stern’s repertoire of poems. Being new to the genre of poetry, I had a misconception that poetry must be inherently different from prose. However, Stern’s poems read just like prose; despite the lyricism and beautiful imageries, his poems told a very clear stories. I am going to try to incorporate such style as I work towards the rest of the semester to complete my portfolio of creative pieces.