Area writers go on the record
New CD spotlights local talent
Posted on March 9, 2004
(Shreveporttimes.com)
Area poets and prose writers are talking.
A public CD release party is being held Sunday at Columbia Cafe.
"We started talking about the possibilities of doing a CD about the middle of 2002," said Colon, chairman of the SRAC Literary Panel and reference supervisor at Shreve Memorial Library. "We wanted to get poetry and prose pieces out to more people."
Money for the CD, which cost about $2,600 to produce, came from the sponsoring Literary Panel. The book cost about $1,200 and was funded through a grant from SRAC with funds from the city of Shreveport. The book was printed by Insty Prints of Shreveport.
Between Quiet and Confrontation includes 18 poems, two short stories and two novel excerpts and runs about 60 minutes. The writers and poets read their own works. Colon said part of the inspiration for the CD came from Shreveport poet Noma Fowler-Sandlin, who had produced a similar CD, Unsounds, of her works accompanied by music. The underscoring music on the Between Quiet and Confrontation CD was professionally recorded by local musician Scott Griffin.
Colon said the panel sent out invitations to the people in the Writers' Registry, spoke at various writers' clubs and e-mailed more than 100 people to stir up interest for submissions. Thirty-four people responded.
"Those selected had to pass muster of the jury," he said. "The jury was made up of writers who won the SRAC Literary Fellowship, with one exception."
Besides himself, jurors were Shirley Kay Campbell, Ashley Mace Havird and Theresa L. Mormino. The exception was Fowler-Sandlin, who is a former recipient of the SRAC Multidisciplinary Fellowship.
"I guess we'll find out if there is a market for the CD," Colon said. "We have had some pretty good response. We wanted different types of things. For the most part, that worked out well. The pieces range from humorous to serious. All of them are well written."
Colon's poem on the CD is called Squatter's Rights and is about someone who comes to a poetry reading and doesn't want to give up the microphone. It's free-verse poetry.
Bossier City prose writer, Lee Marvin Adams, has the longest piece on the CD. It's a short story titled Lessons Learned that runs about 11 and a half minutes.
"It's about a sign of the times in the early 1970s involving a cultural misunderstanding," said Adams, who is an operations associate at the Bossier Central Library and member of the Shreveport Writers Club and the Trapped Truth Society. "I think the CD and book do several good things. You write to be read, of course, and this gives writers an opportunity to be heard. I also hope it will open the local public's eyes to the pool of talent we have here in our community. I think the CD showcases that quite well."
Adams said the CD also offered a diversity of talent and was accessible to the public.
"That's one of the good things about it," he said. "It's simple."
He has been actively writing again for about four years. In 1994, he threw away about 900 pages of manuscripts because he thought his writing would go nowhere. In fact, a garbage truck came down the alley, and he pitched the pages into it, so there was no turning back. Later he enrolled for classes at Louisiana Tech University. He had a paper due and was late with it. He recalled one of his previous writings and duplicated it.
"In the process of doing that, I discovered how much I enjoyed writing. I recreated a good bit of what I had written before. I am now seeing it through different and more experienced eyes. There is a different flavor to my writing now."
Another prose writer, Shreveporter Scotty Denhollem, is represented by a short story titled Dusty Room. It's about a disturbed individual who assumes the personality of late singer Dusty Springfield for manipulative purposes.
"It seems I've been writing forever," said Denhollem, a decision writer for the Social Security Administration/Office of Hearings and Appeal. "I was in journalism as a photo editor and wrote on the side. I've written a number of nonfiction things that are law related, because I am an attorney, too. I've also written some teacher's supplements.
"As for stories, I've never had a place to put them. This CD is great for me. Carlos Colon is a patron saint of writers. He's the man behind all of this."
Denhollem said being a single mother with two children had not left her a lot of time in which to write.
"I just grab time here and there in the evening and on the weekends. I don't intend to give it up. Actually, it's gotten more entertaining as the years go by.
"I was reasonably uncomfortable reading my work for the CD, but Scott Griffin and Carlos were so encouraging. It certainly went better than I expected."
CD PARTICIPANTS: Michelle Pinkard, George Burton III, Paul Curtis Carroll Jr., Dorie LaRue, Scotty Denhollem, Marian M. Poe, Patricia Cochran Murrell, Marcy Frantom, Nadine A. Charity, Shirley Kay Campbell, Lee Marvin Adams, Theresa L. Mormino, Cassie Smyth, Gary Drew Willingham, Kathryn Usher, David Love Lewis, Ashley Mace Havird, Noma Fowler-Sandlin, Wendy Babiak, Stanton Dossett III, Charlotte Rice, Carlos Colon.