Temenos open mic provides platform for short stories, poetry readings
A small group came together Wednesday night in Charles V. Park Library Baber Room to listen and share their short story fiction and poetry creations at Temenos second annual open mic night.
Temenos has been the graduate student writing publication at Central Michigan University since 2000. Temenos Editor-In-Chief Zachary Riddle started the event with an introduction as to what Temenos is.
The first reader of the night was Abigail Hollingsworth, former editor-in-chief of Temenos and a CMU alumna from Lexington, Michigan. She read her short story titled “The Race.”
Hollingsworth returned to CMU to read some of her creations, to support the publication she once worked for and to listen to other people's stories and poetry.
“Writing was an escape for me when I was growing up. I loved to daydream and my mom suggested writing these daydreams down” said the 27-year-old Hollingsworth, who has been writing since the sixth grade.
Some students read poetry pieces by other authors that they enjoyed, and some were short poetry they created themselves. Others read pieces of their short stories, or even the whole short story.
Riddle also read his own piece, a short story titled “The Wolf Man” which tells the tale of a man who “has hair everywhere — in all the odd places.”
Lake City graduate student Carrie Polega read her short story which told the story of a “button”. The story talks about experiences a man named Mark is having, through the “button’s” point of view. Polega said she wrote the story for her graduate fiction class.
“I put on a flannel shirt and that was it," Polega said. "That’s how I got the idea for the story.”
Polega has also been writing for a long time. Her favorite type of stories are short story fiction.
“When I was (age six or seven), my mom bought be a green notebook and I wrote stories about my brother and me," she said. "I used it sort of like a journal. I made up stories as long as I can remember.”
Temenos is currently accepting submissions for their Temenos Journal Spring 2017. The publication accepts poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, art and photography. Students are encouraged to submit their work, but they do not have to be a graduate student or even a student at CMU.
More information about the publication can be found at: temenosjournal.com.
