Writer's Week 17!!!

Writer's Week was great and I had a blast. It was really fun listening to professional writers and students that we know read us some of their work and talk about writing. I think it was really interesting how the week switched from real writers, student writers, and student musicians. Also, I think Writer's Week brings a good week of curriculum free class.

Monday- Julie Halpern
I thought Julie Halpern was really fun to listen to, and she was a great talker. At first, she said she didn't know if she wanted to become a writer or not, but she really enjoyed reading and writing since she was 3. One thing that fascinated me was that she handwrote every novel and that her writing career started from creating zenes with a friend. Another thing that I found interesting was how she used to be in a mental hospital, but she seemed like a great person that was perfectly normal. I thought she had many funny stories and had a great message in her talk as well. One thing that I found really amusing was that one book cover she showed us with the zipper for Don't Stop Now. Her main advices were to never give up, build yourself a life, and believe in yourself.

Tuesday- Students
Tuesday was student speakers, and I thought that all of them did a great job with presenting and not getting nervous. Their writing was also great and two of the six people that presented was really funny. The first was Jonathan Schoff, and his writing was about how he was in a plane and he encountered the lady from Disney that made bird noises. His vivid language was really good, and his descriptions about the lady was hilarious. The second presenter was Unser Ahmed, and his writing grasped everyone's attention while having a good message at the same time. I thought his joke about P.E.N.A.S. was amusing while it made sense because he did a great job of creating the acronym and putting meaning behind that acronym.

Wednesday- Sierra DeMulder
Wow... Sierra DeMulder was a phenon in slam poetry. Her language was very descriptive and she was a great talker, putting great emphasis on some words and taking pauses to give us time to think about what she just said. But one thing that wasn't so great was that all her poems were about negative topics, and was kind of depressing. She was strongly opinionated in her views about topics such as murder and anorexia, and that was good, because for some of the topics, I had different views than her. It was interesting to hear different views in more depth.

Thursday- Students
Thurday was for students that was more heavily based on music, although the lyrics required good English and writing. One person that I really liked was Maggie Dever, and I thought that she had a great voice. Her lyrics were heavily based on complications of love, which wasn't the most interesting lyrics to listen to, but her songs were still really good and well played/sung. Another performer that I really liked was Hannah Lee. She performed the most, having done two songs and a talk, but in my opinion, she was that good, and she made that day of Writer's Week more fun. She had spectacular guitar playing skills and she was a good singer. Her singing voice was fascinating because it sounded totally different than her just talking. My favorite part of her performance was her OC for speech, and it was hysterical. Her voice changes and facial changes were great.

Friday- Billy Lombardo
Billy Lombardo seemed like a good writer, but didn't seem like the best talker in the world. But regardless, he was a good performer. For the majority of the time, he just read his works, while I would've prefered to hear more about his life and past. His writing had a lot to do with baseball, and it was mostly well written, but I found it a little boring. I especially liked his writing about racism, and how he gave more background information about this piece before reading it.

I learned a couple of things through Writer's Week 17, and the first is to never give up. Julie Halpern said not to be discouraged when one of your writing pieces gets turned down by a publisher, and that's exactly what she did. Now, she's a great writer with three books already published. Another thing that I learned was to believe in yourself and in your writing. Also, I learned that it takes guts to perform in front of hundreds of people, and the student speakers should all be respected for pulling it off. Finally, I learned that any piece of writing is capable of being shared and talked about, weather it be a poem, play, or even lyrics. I have really enjoyed this year's Writer's Week, and I really look forward to Writer's Week 18!!