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The Indiana Daily Student

arts community events

Prose performers read works at Bear's Place Sunday

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Toward the back of Bear’s Place, a mic and a stage were ready for readers to read their writings. The Writers Guild at Bloomington organized its first Sunday Prose Reading 3 p.m. at Bear’s Place.

The word ‘prose’ comes from the Latin word prosus which means straightforward or direct speech. It’s a form of writing in which writers have the freedom to enhance their paragraphs and requires no rhythmic structure.

Writers Guild Chair Joan Hawkins said this event encourages people to read their work publicly and see how people respond to it. She said prose can be plays, novels or essays.

“It’s a very rich and elastic form,” Hawkins said. “It can be linear and narrative. It can be non-linear.”

Senior Cameron Pokrifcak came to the event because her creative writing professor recommended that she go. The reading she did came from her book “Concentric,” a fanfiction story of a goddess and god in a world that she created.

“It’s a mix between Lord of the Rings, A Court of Thorn and Roses, which is a book, and just my love for fantasy novels,” Pokrifcak said.

Pokrifcak has been writing the book since May 2019. Her favorite line was, “In her hand was not his heart though, but rather an obsidian crystal that pulsed and expelled wisps of black smoke.”

“It was the first that I have ever read anything to the public before that I have written,” Pokrifcak said. “I didn’t feel self-conscious, I felt like I was welcomed."

Terry Brennan, who lives in Chicago, came to the event because of his friend’s recommendation. He read the first chapter from “Bonsai Boy”, an original novel he wrote. 

Brennan said he had done readings before in bars in Chicago. 

“I was hoping for more laughs, but that’s okay,” Brennan said after he read. “I’m enjoying being out and learning how to use my voice again and learning how to perform again.”

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