Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, Saturday Morning - Finale, April 6

The Grand Finale of the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival were 3 back-to-back readings in the Estep Auditorium, with time in between to buy those book you’d been thinking about all festival.

When I was here 2 years ago I listened raptly to Ann Howells' poems about the people living on the Chesapeake Bay islands, which have been collected as So Long As We Speak Their Name, to be released soon. She read more of these captivating poems today, such as “In Defense of Southern Towns,” “After the War” about a woman going to a dance looking for a way out, “A Black Ferry,” & others about the many widows of the fishermen. “Breath by Breath" can best be described as an eco-poem about the islands getting smaller as the ocean rises. There were others, including a villanelle “They Call Me Honey.”  Interestingly enough, Ann has a poem in Up The River Issue 7 published by AlbanyPoets.

This was the first time at Scissortail for C.D. Albin who read a short story titled "Four Fine Horses." The story was based in Arkansas at a horse ranch, and sounded close to being a memoir, particularly with all the knowledge the author seemed to have about horses & auctions, a fascinating tale.

This was also the first time here for Julia McConnell whose poems were lightly humorous, full of hearts, longing & determined hope. She began with a captivating anaphoric piece repeating the phrase “The poem I need to write…” There were ekphrastic poems inspired by the work of Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide & by the art of Holly Wilson; another titled “Bugs, Boots & the Blank Page” a library poem inspired by Alicia Ostriker, as well as Valentine poems, a birthday poem & a New Years poem.

As good as all this was, I was most taken by Rob Roensch’s intricate, poetic story “Boxes of Oklahoma City,” told by a 1st person narrator who works as an independent contractor for Amazon delivering packages to homes. It was filled with quirky, obsessive details about the size & weight of the packages, a relationship of some kind with a woman named Jane, a confrontation with ICE, & ultimately being fired & stealing packages then giving the contents away to random people, saving a pillow for Jane, all with wry, minimalist humor.

We all needed a short break, a poetic palate cleanser so to speak, before returning to Estep for 4 more writers.

I’ve enjoyed Hank Jones’ poetry at previous Scissortails, but none more than today. His tale “The Murder of a Chair” had us all in stitches, as did “The Lament of the Composition Instructor.” But he could also be quietly moving as in “Playing Catch Before the Game,” & the wrenching “Digging a Grave.” There were also the meditations on aging “Middle Aged Aubade,” & a look-back to last night’s performance here “Before I Die” (he wants to meet a cellist). “Pot Roast & Poetry” was about shopping for groceries with Scissortail director Ken Hada. He ended with a piece inspired by a trip with students to Japan “In the Buddha’s Belly.” His poems were funny & touching, &, as I overheard some women discussing later, he had the best hair of the festival.

Emily Hull directs the Deep Roots: Oklahoma Authors Oral History Project for the Oklahoma State University Library. She said she was reading new pieces that continued from earlier work. What she read seemed like intertwined stories, mixed with asides & digression, almost like the rambling of oral history. “What Keeps Me Up at Night” was her 3-year old daughter & thoughts of leaving, a theme that came back later in the piece “Stay at Home,” & in a memoir about visiting Cuba with nuns. Somewhere in between she read “I’m In Love With a Poet I Never Met” a line that woke her one morning. She ended with an erasure from an interview she had done.

I’ve seen Andrew Geyer here at Scissortail once previously; he writes “hybrid” stories in collaboration as well as individually authored books. Today he read from “Things Roman” co-authored with Terry Dalrymple, who had read earlier in the festival this year. The story centered on Cecil, who longs for a mate, marries Juno, naming their daughters after Roman goddess, teen age Diana has a baby & Cecil goes golfing. Quirky but entertaining.

Ann Weisman’s reading of her poems were more performance, albeit quiet & meditative than others. “Resistance” was about using her voice, her words against fascism; another poem was set in a sweat lodge with “all my relatives,” a chant/list in the style of Ferlinghetti’s “I Am Waiting…” at the end of which she steps from the mic to bow to the 4 directions. A villanelle for her father, “Into the Light” referenced Dylan Thomas, its repeating lines perfect for musical accompaniment. At the end she paid tribute to her friend the Tulsa poet/artist Alice Price (1928 - 2009) by reading Alice’s “Weathering,” then her own poem about scattering Alice’s ashes “I Can Be Like Water.”

A short break then on to the Grand Finale. An integral part of the Scissortail festival is the awards to the winners & runners-up of the Annual R. Darryl Fisher Creative Writing Contest, a state-wide effort for high-school students, with separate fiction & poetry components. The judges are East Central University professors Dr. Mark Walling (for fiction) & Dr. Joshua Grasso (for poetry), both of whom were effusive about the quality of the work submitted. You can read the complete list of winners, their schools & the names their teachers here: http://ecuscissortail.blogspot.com/2019/03/winners-of-15th-annual-r-darryl-fisher.html

The final featured reader of the 2019 Scissortail Creative Writing Festival was Brandon Hobson who read excerpts from his novel Where the Dead Sit Talking, which was a finalist for 2018 National Book Award. The story centers around Sequoia, a teenage Native American in foster care, as well as his sister also in foster care, & Sequoia’s obsession with another foster child Rosemary. A good way to end this festival, held in the middle of “Indian country,” a reminder of our painful heritage & our diverse culture.

As it always is, Scissortail was exhilarating, exhausting, emotional & just plain fun, literary & otherwise. There were more than 50 speakers/readers at the event, with 19 here for the first time. There were 19 separate sessions, some, as I’ve said, competing with each other happening at the same time, & at least 100 books for sale. Of the sessions I attended, by my rough count I listened to about 1000 minutes of poetry & prose, in 2 1/2 days. Highly recommended to anyone who loves good writing, whatever the genre. Did I mention that the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival is free?

Thank you Ken Hada & all the staff, & those unnamed who introduced each author, & the student volunteers at East Central University, who make my visit, & that of all the others who attend, such a pleasure & inspiration. See you again!