FLUENCY Featured at Wussow's Writer's Salon

I was the featured writer at Wussow's Writer's Salon! It was a frightful luxury and a true delight to share space with fellow writers and to read some stories from FLUENCY!

I read for the first 30 minutes and had a crossword puzzle that people could complete as they listened to the stories. Several people successfully did so and won free copies of the zine!

For those who couldn't be there, you still have a chance to complete the crossword! Below, I'll post what I read with the clues.

This is my first time featuring my work like this. I’ve read at a few open mics, but never have I had the frightful luxury of sharing my work for 30 minutes. Buckle up, buttercups, we’re on a journey together for the next half hour.

That said, this isn’t my first time on the Wussow’s stage. Throughout my late teens and early twenties, I played in a folk band around town, but Wussow’s was the first place we ever played.

And as I was preparing for this writer’s salon, I was struck by how Wussow’s has served as such a safe, creative, and welcoming place for me for over a decade. I imagine I’m not alone in that. Now, you might have a deeper connection to this space, or it might be new to you, but can I get a feel if Wussow’s has meant something important to you, too?

And I think in these current times, spaces that bring us together are more important than ever. Spaces like this help us find solidarity, safety, camaraderie, and art. And damn do we need art right now. Art is the resistance. And these spaces exist due to people like Tina and Jason and the baristas working tonight — big thanks to you all!

And thank you to the fellow writers here tonight. I’m thrilled to have the space to read with you all and equally excited to hear from you all later tonight. In the words of Margarete Atwood, “A word after a word after a word is power.”

Putting words on a page, crafting a narrative, writing a letter to a friend, posting on your blog, or reading here tonight. There is a vulnerability in storytelling that is equally empowering.

And that is how I felt about this zine. I hadn’t exactly planned to compile it until I heard about the Scribes and Vibes event that took place last fall. When I read about it, I initially was interested, but thought Oh there’s no way I can participate because at the time all work had been stored either in my head, on my laptop, or floating out in the ether of the internet.

But then I thought, what if I put together a zine of my stuff? I could pull together some pieces.

And then I thought, what if I made a watercolor for each short story and put that in the zine too?

Because if you don’t already know, zine is short for magazine or fanzine. It’s often produced independently and can include text and art, prose or poetry, and anything in between.

The publishing world is full of rules, right? Up until then, I hadn’t felt like I had enough content to create a short story collection, because there are word count parameters, and what about my weird lil watercolors? And my novels are still being edited and drafted.

So, a zine to me felt like this free-form open to open-to-interpretation vessel for my work to go live in for a little bit. Suddenly, no one could stop me. There was no gatekeeper. It was just me and my stories and my art.

Often, you probably know too that zines are self-produced on copy machines or hand-written, but I printed mine externally to ease my own time capacity.

The spontaneous creation and launch of Fluency allowed me to share a piece of myself that I normally hold close to heart. Having people read my stories and reach out with connections was surprising, humbling, and deeply rewarding. It allowed me to get in touch with my local writing community, connect with Tina, who so generously read these stories and wrote a blurb for them, and allowed me to be here tonight.

And with that, I’d like to start reading my first story from here. I’m going to start with a story called “C is For Guilt,” which was first published with the Duluth Poetry Chapter’s Zine Freshwater Feral.

Before I start, I want to draw your attention to an opportunity to win a free copy of the zine. I have made some crossword puzzles with answers from the readings. The first word has been given to you, and that’s the title of the zine “Fluency.”

In “C is for Guilt,” you’ll be looking for 2 down and 4 down.

Read "C is for Guilt"

After that story, I want you to meditate on who you imagined to be the protagonist. Did you picture yourself? A mother? A father? A grandparent?

I ask this because this story is written in 2nd person point of view with “You” being the protagonist. The child is also unnamed, and no gender is given. This is an exercise in examining what background knowledge or assumptions we bring to stories. Particularly in terms of a child-parent relationship. Who do you imagine that to be?

That was an alphabet tile, a letter magnet. This next story, “Mouth of God” deals with another kind of letter. The writing prompt for this was “God writes a letter of resignation,” and the story I wrote was selected and published as part of Friction’s Dually Noted Series. You’ll be looking for 7 across.

Read "Mouth of God"

“Mouth of God” is also the zine’s cover image, and it was one of the earlier watercolors that I made for the zine.

At the root of a lot of these stories, I hoped to explore elements of the body and power dynamics. But this next story, “Sound Secrets,” is a dystopian piece of flash from the perspective of a child. It was originally published with Quibble Literary, and you’ll be looking for 3 Across.

Read "Sound Secrets"

This next story will be my last reading of the night. This story is called “The Night She Gifted Me A Swan Feather” and is forthcoming in Watershed Review. This was my attempt at writing a fairy tale from the perspective of the fae. I wanted to generate curiosity around legacy, identities, sexuality, and ultimately what it takes to break the confines of what we’ve been conditioned to believe. You’ll be looking for 6 down and 5 across.

Read "Th Night She Gifted Me A Swan Feather"

Thank you so much for being here and allowing me to share some stories with you all.

Were you able to complete the crossword puzzle? If so, I'd love to hear from you!

Reach out here