But maybe the best sounds of all come before the reading, during the breaks and afterwards, as writers talk with each other, offer compliments and hands on shoulders. Teresa Middleton, a creative writing teacher at Ben Davis High School and budding poet, finds her fuel both in readings and at poetry workshop classes offered by the Writers' Center. I feel like Emily Dickinson sometimes, I swear. Having the opportunity to bounce ideas off of other people is so important. Todd Watson, the Writers' Center's director, knows that's one of the things his group is all about.
Writers work in isolation.
The open reading series is really one hopeful component for that. It's a way that writers can hear what their colleagues are doing, what's happening now and create a great sense of community. Plus, it's a lot of fun. That seems to be the best way to describe what goes on at the Lockerbie Coffehouse on Thursday nights. While a young woman reads about love from an unamplified stand in the corner, two boys outside in the gravel parking lot fight with bamboo kendo sticks, nearly running into a teen-age girl talking on her cell phone.