This past Thursday, the SFA English Creative Writing department held the first BFA reading of the semester. As a creative writing major at SFA, during your senior year you and a professor work together to create your thesis. This thesis—fiction, nonfiction, or poetry—can be anything from a collection of poetry to a full-length novel. When you’re done, you present a portion of the thesis to your professors, fellow students, friends, and family at a BFA reading.
Dr. John McDermott speaks to the audience at the reading. Photo Courtesy of: Alexandra Pitman
Professor Dr. John McDermott opened up the night, congratulating the students for their hard work, as well as complimenting the students who, due to a last-minute faculty resignation at the beginning of the year, found themselves under the direction of a different professor for the remainder of their thesis. Students Christopher Barton, Breayne Bennett, Amber Canales, Sarah Johnson, Bobby Ryder and Skylar Woods were then introduced one by one, and proceeded to read from their works. From Barton’s war poetry to Ryder’s comedic short stories, from Woods’ emergency room essay to Canales’ narrations of her family, there was no shortage of talent in the room. Each piece read was the result of months of work and dedication, and the end result was magnificent. Some like Johnson, whose poem “Sowing Sarah” has been published in 2River, and Barton, whose poems have been published in Gravel, have been fortunate enough to have works in their collection published both within and outside of SFA.
These students have worked incredibly hard to reach this moment, and it’s amazing to see just how much that work paid off. If you can, go to the next reading, and see for yourself what SFA students can accomplish.
There will be another reading on November 2 and 16, at 7 pm in Liberal Arts North 142.