Glenn North wasn't having the best day.
"I was kind of feeling sad today, kind of melancholy," said North, graduate student in the Department of English.
North said he tends to feel that way when the seasons change.
Sept. 21 marked not only the final day of summer, but the most recent session of Working Words. The program is in its third year and provides a forum for graduate students in the Department of English to share their writing in an informal setting. Various genres of creative writing, including poetry and fiction, are read aloud.
"It's an opportunity for students and faculty of the university and the broader community to have an opportunity to witness up and coming talent," North said. "I think it's important for those people who have the opportunity to read to get a feel for how their work is going to be received by their peers."
Serving as emcee for the evening, North introduced two of his fellow graduate students during the gathering, held at the Kansas City Public Library Plaza branch.
"Hopefully, the two readers tonight will be able to pull me out of this melancholy, kind of depressed mode I'm in," he said.
Ashley "Red" Morgan offered a selection of short poems. Morgan said she strives to give her writing a unique flavor.
"I try to make it weird," she said. "'Funky' is a good word."
For Morgan, Working Words is an opportunity to explore new literary territory.
"I'm edging into this new phase where I'm trying to break out of what I usually do, which is very internal," she said. "I turn to the world; I turn to the outside and write about the things around me."
Katherine Tirado Ryen read a selection from her master's thesis. Ryen's piece, 'El Rosario,' is a work of historical fiction focusing on past and current perspectives in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
For inspiration, Ryen draws upon the experiences her grandmother encountered as an emigrant to the U.S. with her mother in 1945.
"I'm drawing a lot on her personal experience and researching the Latin experience in the '40s and '50s," Ryen said. "The piece oscillates between the past perspectives and the present day perspectives."
Those on hand said Working Words was a valuable way to exchange ideas with peers.
So, were the writers successful in drawing North out of his end-of-summer funk?
"I feel so much better now," he said.
jds8t2@umkc.edu
