“I grew up in a princess-centric world, and because of this, I decided to write this poem,” Alissa Greenberg, a lecturer of English at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) said. “I was promised silken, tangle-free hair, delicious food – not disappointing salads, followed by a sleeve of thin mints, followed by shame, followed by another sleeve of thin mints.”
Greenberg, accompanied by professors Labecca Jones and Alana Voth, presented for the monthly Poets and Writers of CMU series, a program founded years ago that invites faculty and community to read or perform their written work to a passionate audience.
“Admittedly, one of my primary reasons for participating is for the benefit of a deadline. It encourages you to prepare new creative material in the midst of a semester,” Greenberg said.
Greenberg presented at the series for the past two years. This time she read a few poems and a creative nonfiction piece. Her works included a piece about a grandma that plays cards, and a man named Ted, who is a college dropout who just wanted to live a nice life.
“I’ve long been drawn to write and read female-driven work about women who buck the system and disrupt the status quo. As they say, well-behaved women rarely make history,” Greenberg said.
Voth presented after Greenberg, reading a couple of flash fiction pieces. One was called ‘If I’d Loved a Grizzly Man,’ appearing in Eclectica Magazine, and ‘Eve,’ appearing in Best Women’s Erotica.
“If the reading was all about me, and I had the time, I read a story from my book Dog Men, but this reading isn’t all about me, and we each have fifteen minutes to read,” Voth said.
She was fascinated by the topics that inspired the flash fiction pieces. The story of Timothy Treadwell, a man that lived amongst grizzly bears, before finding his ultimate demise at their claws, was the inspiration for ‘If I’d Loved a Grizzly Man.’
“That story wrecked me emotionally. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So I asked myself, what if I had loved Timothy Treadwell? That question lead to speculation and resulted in a story that editors and publishers categorize as speculative fiction,” Voth said.
The story ‘Eve’ was inspired by the story of Adam and Eve and original sin. “I don’t play it safe as a writer. I go after uncomfortable topics because it is in making audiences uncomfortable that we stand the best chance of getting their attention and inspiring people to reconsider preconceived notions, prejudices, and/or fears,” Voth said.
Jones read after her, introduced by English professor John Nizalowski, who promised her poems had “all the usual smiles and rainbows that illuminate her work.”
“My poems are meant just to be funny and give the audience a good laugh. One is more serious and a reflection of my anxieties regarding human behavior. My hope is to open a conversation with others who share these feelings,” Jones said.
“Some of my work was inspired by a writing challenge from a friend and colleague who encouraged me to write outside my comfort zone. The other work is based on current global events and my ongoing cynicism,” Jones said.
Their work was met with enthusiasm, and several other professors were in attendance that have presented before, such as Nizalowski and English professor Robin Calland.
The three professors are all pursuing their individual work outside both Poets and Writers and the classroom. Voth temps for CMU as a custodian during the summer, and wakes up at 3am every day to write her two ongoing novels before class starts. Voth is superstitious about sharing the details of them, but said one of them is about a young man on Death Row, and the other one “scares the hell out of her.”
Jones is working on a memoir, and writes for various publications. Greenberg has been working on a novel for the past few years, and is hoping to begin shopping it to prospective editors in the fall.
“Reading out loud, in front of a group, imbues the work with a stronger sense of realness to me. It’s no longer just a document saved on the computer, or a piece of paper on a desk. Other forms of creative expression, like painting or sculpting, offers you the ability to make something tangible,” Greenberg said.
“At the end of the day, you have a completed work that you can touch. You can point to it and say: ‘Look! I made that!’ Writing rarely affords that same experience. These readings are a chance to show your work, and say: ‘Look! I made that!’” Greenberg said.
