Linfield’s Literary Arts Club (LiLAC) kicked off its first event of Word Week with a thesis reading May 17.
“It’s to celebrate the importance of literature,” senior Ansley Clark said.
Senior creative writing students Robin Severson, Keeley Thurmen and Sam Jordan read their work to a crowd of about a dozen listeners.
Severson read an excerpt of her fantasy novel.
Thurmen read part of a short story from her collections and Jordan read from a collection of poems she wrote.
The authors took questions from the assembled students after the reading, which lasted about 45 minutes.
CAMAS Journal of Art & Literature also participated in the event, holding a reading in the Nicholson Library Austin Reading Room for the journal’s 2010 release.
After the CAMAS reading, audience members were encouraged to read some of their own work in an open mic.
“It’s about bringing literature students together,” Jordan said. “I think that’s really important because interest in literature has been growing over the past few years [at Linfield].”
May 19 was a night of games about words. Students played Taboo and the classic word-related board game, Scrabble.
“I think we do the game nights to entice other people to come,” Clark said.
LiLAC tries to hold two or three game nights
each semester.
The club showed the film, “The Importance of Being Ernest,” the cinematic adaptation of a play by Oscar Wilde, May 20 in the Nicholson Library Viewing Room.
The club will also host a booth at Wildstock on May 21, serving cucumber sandwiches and mint water in honor of Wilde.
Word Week culminates with the Literary Ball at 8 p.m. May 22 in the Fred Meyer Lounge. Attendees are encouraged to dress as their favorite fictional character or a famous author.
“Everyone is encouraged to come,” Clark said. “This year will be smaller than last year’s Literary Ball, so it will be more cozy.”
The ball is free for anyone who wishes to attend.
Joshua Ensler
News editor